« As his finishes his film Brooklyn Boheme, filmmaker and writer Nelson George will leave Fort Greene; one spur is the opening of the arena | Main | On Lopate, critic Witold Rybczynski said Atlantic Yards shows "how the developers, in a sense, are taking the lead in being planners" »
May 29, 2011
Court fight: Story of the battle over a basketball arena opens Brooklyn Film Festival
Daily News
By Joe Neumaier
It would be hard to find a better movie to open this year's Brooklyn Film Festival than "Battle for Brooklyn."
The rousing, engrossing documentary will screen at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema on Friday. It chronicles the conflict that began in December 2003 when real estate developer Bruce Ratner announced plans to build Atlantic Yards, a shopping and arena complex where the relocated New Jersey Nets will play, smack in the middle of Prospect Heights.
The troubled project — scheduled to open in 2012 — split city residents. Presented as simply a renovation of unused rail yards, it would eventually displace almost 1,000 residents and businesses, some of whom had been there a half century or longer.
Related coverage... Nets Daily, Battle Over, But Not Divided Opinion
Posted by steve at May 29, 2011 9:48 PM