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May 2, 2011
Q & A with Battle For Brooklyn co-director Michael Galinsky
Can Culture
by Arik Ligeti
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CC: Do you feel that journalists were really missing this story? Were they covering it objectively?
MG: There were some journalists who were covering it objectively, and at the very end you see this guy named Norman Oder and he was an editor at Library Journal and he took it on to report, and he was incredible when he reported, and he pretty much became the source for the rest of the media. But the media, the way it’s structured, nobody had time for it. There’s no Brooklyn newspaper on the level of The Times or the Daily News. There’s a local, the Brooklyn paper, and eventually they were bought out by a Murdoch paper, and they were leading the charge but now they don’t really cover it very well. They did a terrible job covering it, which is what drew us to it in the first place. I mean there were some good reporters, but in general they would go on to do something else.
CC: Why do you think journalists were missing the story?
MG: It takes a lot of time to pay attention, and when you have a publicist for a developer and they’re paying that publicist a million dollars a year, the publicist has a lot of money to work with. I’m not saying to buy favours but if you’re a journalist who’s gotten really busy, you’re going to quote the developer because they sent it to you, and maybe a couple of other people on the phone. But if someone gives you the story it’s just easier to print what they say. And because they’re powerful [journalists] are giving deference.
Related coverage...
Can Culture, Battle For Brooklyn
The story of Battle for Brooklyn follows the six-year struggle of a community group trying to fight off a corporate development project. The situation sounds strangely familiar to what’s happening in Ottawa and the city’s Lansdowne Live project, but instead of developing on a park, Brooklyn’s battle grounds span three blocks in the middle of a borough.
Directed by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, the documentary begins in 2003, as the American development company Forest City Ratner unveils their Atlantic Yards project. Helmed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry, the project looks to bring the National Basketball Association’s New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn, an idea backed by rapper, part-owner and former Brooklynite Jay-Z.
...In the end, we only see what happens to Goldstein, not where displaced residents and businesses end up. However the perspective Galinsky and Hawley present does show the importance of transparency by calling attention to the media coverage. The lack of information and understanding leaves the residents of New York City, and the development company with disappointing results. Viewers are also left wondering if things would have been different if all the information was put out in the open.
Perhaps Ottawa can learn from Brooklyn’s mistakes when it comes to development. If they do, hopefully it will save the city time, money, and from disappointment.
Photo of Daniel Goldstein, Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley by Andrew Nguyen
Posted by eric at May 2, 2011 9:39 PM