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August 15, 2011
'Battle For Brooklyn' -- How Politicians and a Developer Trashed a Neighborhood for an Arena
Ron Kaye L.A.
by Ron Kaye
A fabulously rich developer with powerful political connections promises to build a sports venue that will create tens thousands of jobs and spark an economic revival of an entire downtown.
It may sound like what Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz and his man in L.A. Tim Leiweke are promising their NFL stadium and a rebuilt Convention Center by bringing millions of people from far and wide to downtown Los Angeles and filling the city treasury with cash as hotels, restaurants and bars are built on every corner.
But it's not. It's what has happened to downtown Brooklyn over the last eight years as a healthy neighborhood was bulldozed, property seized by the city under eminent domain, and promises made to the community be developer Bruce Ratner were broken.
The story of the community's struggle, the personal efforts of the last holdout, Daniel Goldstein, and the resistance of thousands of New Yorkers to having their rights trampled and their interests ignored is told in a powerful new documentary film "Battle for Brooklyn" by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley which will open Friday in L.A. at Laemmle's Music Hall 3, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.
...It's all too familiar a story to so many of us in LA. It may help to know we are not alone in feeling betrayed by the people elected to serve us and to see in the "Battle for Brooklyn" how so many fought so hard for so long.
Posted by eric at August 15, 2011 5:48 PM