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July 9, 2012
Spike Lee: "I’m not going to get into the politics of the Barclays Center; the thing is, it’s up, it’s a reality" (but "I just hope people take mass transit")
Atlantic Yards Report
From Will Leitch's interview in New York Magazine's Vulture with a famous Brooklyn-born Knicks fan, Spike Lee Talks Obama, the End of Mookie's Brooklyn, and the Hollywood Color Line:
Q. Your offices are three blocks from the Barclays Center. Do you think the Nets will change Brooklyn?
A. I am happy for Brooklyn, but I’m not leaving my beloved orange and blue. And I just cannot wait. One of the biggest nights in New York City sports history is going to be the first Knicks-Nets game in Brooklyn. That is going to be huge. That is going to be war.Q. What do you think of the stadium?
A. I do not know the specifics about how people got moved out and all that stuff. I’m not going to get into the politics of the Barclays Center; the thing is, it’s up, it’s a reality, and that’s just that. It’s here; you have to deal with it. Negative and positive; I can deal with it. Jay-Z is going to christen it in September with his concert: you’ve got Barbra Streisand coming. The Nets will be playing there in the next NBA season, and Brooklyn has their first major-league team since the Dodgers fled after the 1957 season, the year I was born.I'm not going to get into the politics of the Barclays Center is an understandable and not uncommon hedge, but given that Spike Lee had gotten into the politics of so many things it's a bit of a dodge.
Exactly. In the interview, Spike gets into education politics, city politics, Presidential politics, race politics, gay-marriage politics — but he doesn't want to talk about land-grab politics. Cop out.
Warnings about traffic
Lee continued with a warning:
But I do know this: I just hope people take mass transit. I hope they take it when they are coming from Long Island, because you know you have the Manhattan Bridge and you have the Brooklyn Bridge. The Manhattan Bridge comes [begins drawing on a napkin] … If you come up the bridge right on Flatbush Avenue, you come off the Brooklyn Bridge, you make a left on Tillary, and you are on Flatbush Avenue. Flatbush and Atlantic is the Barclays Center. I predict traffic is going to be so jammed that you are going to be on Canal Street in Manhattan trying to get over the Manhattan Bridge. It is going to be crazy. People have to use public transportation.
Well, yes, but people have been saying that for years.
Related content...
Vulture [New York Magazine], Spike Lee Talks Obama, the End of Mookie’s Brooklyn, and the Hollywood Color Line
Will Leitch's interview with Spike Lee is well worth reading. It's a real shame that the otherwise outspoken and thoughtful Lee took a pass on the Atlantic Yards fight.
Posted by eric at July 9, 2012 11:02 AM