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May 23, 2010
Up
Honky's Movie Year
This movie reviewer finds a parallel with the Atlantic Yards development as he compares the the difficulties faced by the hero in the animated film "Up", Carl Fredricksen, with those of Daniel Goldstein.
When I saw Carl's house being surrounded by construction work, and a conglomerate trying to buy his land (or force him out, whichever...) I thought of a recent situation here in New York City. A group of investors led by Bruce Ratner (Booo...) bought up property around a piece of land known as the Atlantic Yards, with the intent of building a giant mall, condo units, and a new home for the Nets basketball team. They bought out (and forced out) a lot of people from their homes, but there was one lone holdout. Then the recession hit, and the entire construction project sort of got put on hold. Meanwhile this poor guy was living in a virtual ghost town in downtown Brooklyn, which couldn't have been safe. Finally he did get a large payout in order to move - so I'm wondering why Carl couldn't have taken the construction company's best offer, or forced them to pay for his home to be moved somewhere else.
NoLandGrab: In "Up" the hero attaches a multitude of balloons to his home and flies off to South America. An Atlantic Yards fantasy might include attaching balloons to Bruce Ratner, Governor Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the entire ESDC. They fly off and Prospect Heights is left intact.
Posted by steve at May 23, 2010 8:52 AM