« ATLANTIC YARDS RATNERVILLE CONSTRUCTION UPDATE |
Main
| NBA COMMISSIONER: LEAGUE DOESN'T NEED LEBRON IN NEW YORK »
June 2, 2009
Time to stop bullying at Atlantic Yards
NY Daily News I-Team Blog
by Michael O'Keeffe
The Daily News's O'Keeffe apparently didn't get the internal memo that everything Atlantic Yards is wonderful and all that's preventing it from being even more wonderful are rabid development foes. Speaking of rabid...
Why do the people who turn out at public meetings to support Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project insist on acting like thugs?
The boorish behavior was on full display at Friday's State Senate hearing on the proposal to build luxury condos and an arena for the New Jersey Nets in Brooklyn. According to Norman Oder’s Atlantic Yards Report, once again the bullies acted like they were going to school on a Saturday: absolutely no class.
The supporters, primarily construction union members, acted like Johnny Friendly's crew from "On the Waterfront." Union members handed out whistles to disrupt the meeting, and they hooted and hollered in support of every statement made by AY proponents, no matter how inane. They also heckled project critics, no matter how gentle the question or criticism.
State Senator Bill Perkins, who was running the hearing, never asked for security to step in and enforce a minimal level of decorum, but even he became frustrated by the end: "Everything you disagree with does not have to be sounded out," he told the proposal's supporters.
Blogger Michael D.D. White of Noticing New York called the supporters thuggish behavior "manufactured chaos."
...These attempts at intimidation are par for the course at AY public meetings. There's no question these bullying tactics are supported and perhaps coordinated by Forest City Ratner and the company's allies.
NoLandGrab: It's humorous, though not surprising, that Atlantic Yards supporters (we're talkin' 'bout you, Daily News) use words like "rabid," "obstructionist," "frivolous" and "propaganda" to describe project critics and their constitutionally protected efforts to oppose Bruce Ratner's boondoggle, while ignoring what O'Keeffe very accurately describes as the "boorish behavior" of their compadres.
The shouting, whistle-blowing (near a baby's ears, no less), heckling and all-around disruptiveness at Friday's hearing betray the lack of actual, measurable, verifiable project benefits — the forces orchestrating the outbursts know that when substance is lacking, creating a circus sideshow may well divert attention from the truth.
Posted by eric at June 2, 2009 9:01 PM