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May 10, 2008
Tale of two rallies
The Brooklyn Paper
Ben Muessig
“Just because we don’t want the arena to happen doesn’t mean we don’t want development,” said Lillian Hope of Prospect Heights. “We’re not saying they shouldn’t have jobs. We just don’t want them working to build Ratner’s vision.”Others said that union members should have joined the anti-Ratner rally, given that the developer originally promised 15,000 union construction jobs, but has since admitted that Atlantic Yards will employ 1,500 construction workers per year over its proposed 10-year buildout.
“Protest Ratner, he’s the one not building and he’s the one who proposed a project that couldn’t happen or get financing,” said Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.
Though Goldstein sought common ground, the standoff between camps was tense — especially when a group of protestors from the pro-Yards rally looped around the “Time Out” demonstration, surrounding the opponents of the project. Police officers, with plastic handcuffs dangling from their belts, formed a human wall that halted the energetic, though nonviolent, procession.
Posted by amy at May 10, 2008 12:34 PM