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December 3, 2010
'In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards' review: Urban planning made fun!
NY Daily News
by Joe Dziemianowicz
Leave it to the ace docutheater company the Civilians to turn a convoluted and contentious saga of urban planning into something concise, juicy and entertaining.
And with playful tunes, to boot.
"In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards" finds the troupe in fine form showcasing characters embroiled in the controversial plan to develop a 22-acre chunk of downtown Brooklyn for a sports arena and high-rise housing.
It's actually near downtown Brooklyn, but why quibble?
Characters include people on various sides -- builders pushing for the project, activists pushing back, locals getting pushed out of apartments.
...That "In the Footprint" is running at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn, just two blocks from the Yards, adds to its potency.
Ingenious touches add to its humor.
Brooklyn Brough President Marty Markowitz, a major player in the scheme, is portrayed as a talking basketball, while developer Bruce Ratner is hilariously brought to life as a blathering bulldozer.
Skewed? Sure.
But in a show about land development run amok you have to expect some digs.
Related coverage...
Brooklyn The Borough, Michael Friedman’s Footprint in Fort Greene
Brooklyn The Borough interviews In the Footprint composer and lyricist Michael Friedman.
Brooklyn The Borough: How was the process? How did the point of view of the show evolve? Did you try to stay neutral?
Michael Friedman: I don’t think there is such a thing as being neutral, when you do something you start having a point of view on it and to a certain extent just presenting what everyone says is not the same. We try to show the arguments as we begin to see them. I think there are certain places where we agree more with certain people we’re hearing, or that, I guess as a journalist just in your editing choices and the choices of who gets most and the choices of what do you say for them. You’re making decisions about what point of view you’re showing and what points of view you’re not showing and so nothing can ever be neutral, only reality is the full story, you know as every single person sees it.
BTB: How willing were the people of the community to talk?
MF: People are pretty willing to give, especially in a story like this where they want to have their point of view told. We were not able to get an interview with Bruce Ratner or with Bloomberg; really with almost anyone from Forest City Ratner. We did get an interview with Marty Markowitz; we did get Leticia James. So a lot of political figures did talk to us. The ones who you’d expect wouldn’t want to – which would be Ratner and Bloomberg – we were not surprised that that happened. Oh, and Frank Gehry. So for those people we were able to use their public statements and at least present what they had put forward as their point of view on this project so that’s as much as we could do.
The Civilians Blog, Additional Speakers for IN THE FOOTPRINT Talk-Back Series!
Our talk-back series has been going great! New York City Council Members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin provided some great insights into the role of the city council in the project moving forward, and Brad gave us some fascinating history about Brooklyn's development patterns and community involvement. Tonight, we've got Tom Angotti, Urban Planning Professor from Hunter College, to give us more insight into how these development decisions that literally shape our cities are made.
Also! Next Monday, December 6 we are lucky to have
Deb Howard, Pratt Area Community Council
Jo Anne Simon, District Leader, 52nd Assembly District
Gib Veconi, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development CouncilThey will talk about the future of the Atlantic Yards development, since it's not over yet!
Posted by eric at December 3, 2010 9:53 AM