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January 15, 2012
'Battle for Brooklyn' Debuts At Artisphere
Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn Patch
Here is a glowing review for the Atlantic Yards fight documentary "Battle for "Brooklyn" as it plays just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C.
Ratner and his company Forest City's $2.5 billion Atlantic Yards project is set to bring the New Jersey Nets to the borrough of Brooklyn, along with several massive residential towers and a mess of mixed-use buildings.
To accomplish this, Ratner wages an impeccable but ethically questionable PR campaign and -- thanks to political favoritism and an array of dubious tactics -- is able to comdemn an entire neighborhood, execute a hefty landgrab by way of eminent domain, and receive a sweetheart deal from the Mass Transit Authority as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer kickbacks and subsidies.
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Michael Galinsky, who directed the documentary with Suki Hawley, adds further perspective.
But "Battle for Brooklyn" is not only about eminent domain abuse and crony capitalism but also the failure of mainstream media. Throughout the film, it's clear that Forest City/Ratner press releases routinely win out to any fair journalistic depiction of the struggle.
"It's as much about media as it is about anything else," Galinsky said. "Many New Yorkers who've seen the film told us they felt like they slept through this whole ordeal." That's because very few outlets were willing to tell this story in real time.
Posted by steve at January 15, 2012 7:15 PM