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August 12, 2011
'Battle for Brooklyn' deftly documents one man's fight to save his home
Providence Journal
by Michael Janusonis
American movies are built around happy endings. No matter how tough the struggle, in the end the good guy always wins and justice prevails.
Unfortunately, real life doesn’t always work that way. It’s a shock to the system.
That’s the underlying theme of the documentary “Battle for Brooklyn,” in which a man discovers less than six months after moving into his new condo in the middle of Brooklyn that a developer plans to tear down his block for a mega construction project. That project, called the Atlantic Yards, will put 15 high-rise apartment buildings and plazas on the space. Daniel Goldstein learns his apartment is slated to be center court for a new basketball arena that will house the New Jersey Nets, a stumbling team owned by developer Bruce Ratner. Ratner seems to have the full backing of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the state, which Ratner has petitioned to take the buildings by eminent domain.
It’s a modern-day Daniel versus Goliath story as Goldstein organizes community opposition to stop the multi-million-dollar project and save his home.
...Is he a foolish Don Quixote character tilting at windmills? His neighbors in his building sell out for big bucks and move. But Goldstein declares that he wants to “fight this to the end, whatever that end is.”.
Or is he a folk hero, standing up for his rights against all odds?
Posted by eric at August 12, 2011 10:01 AM