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December 25, 2009
A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville)
Noticing New York
What if Dan Goldstein had never been born? Michael D.D. White explores the parallels between "Pottersville" and Prospect Heights, including this personal (first-person-plural) moment of truth:
The depressing effects of the Ratner monopoly are real. They resulted in giving us our own George Bailey moment of choice. When we left government and eagerly thought of continuing our involvement with the building of the city we went to a developer friend we very much admire who we have known long enough for them to have attended our first wedding in the early 70s. (As a wedding present they gave us a small beautifully carved decanter.) We were at that time advised that our very best hope for the kind of job we sought was to approach Ratner. We were compelled to be honest in that moment and explain that was one thing we couldn’t do and that it would be a betrayal of our Brooklyn neighbors. On the other hand, we would have happily considered going to work for the competing developers whose options are being foreclosed by Ratner’s eminent domain abuse.
Posted by lumi at December 25, 2009 9:22 AM