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September 19, 2012
Jay-Z's place: He opens Barclays Center
Newsday
by Glenn Gamboa
The tourists asking for directions in a part of Brooklyn that hasn't seen tourists in years are looking for the same thing. They want to see "Jay-Z's Place."
That's not factually correct, of course.
In fact, it's total bulls**t. Tourists don't ask for directions to "Jay-Z's Place," and they've been flocking to Brownstone Brooklyn for years.
The massive new arena at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues isn't actually called that, and the rapper from nearby Bed-Stuy isn't really responsible for building it, though he did help out occasionally. Nevertheless, when the Barclays Center, the home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, opens Sept. 28, it will be Jay-Z doing the honors, with the first of eight sold-out concerts.
Though Jay-Z owns only about one-fifteenth of one percent of the Nets franchise, he has been the public face of the project to move the New Jersey team to its new home. ("He is it," Brooklyn Nets minority owner and Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner told The New York Times last month. "He is us. He is how people are going to see that place.")
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Atlantic Yards Report, Markowitz on arena: "It will bring us respect that's overdue"
Borough President Marty Markowitz, in a Newsday article headlined Jay-Z's place: He opens Barclays Center:
For a lifelong Brooklyn resident like Markowitz, the arrival of the borough's first major league sports team since the Brooklyn Dodgers is cause for lengthy celebration. "It will bring us respect that's overdue," he says. "It puts Brooklyn on the national map and gives us a sense of pride. It will bring people together in that way that music and religion and family and sports can -- really bring us together in a common goal to cheer for the team."
Really, hasn't it been a while since Brooklyn was the butt of jokes? Hasn't he heard of tres Brooklyn?
Posted by eric at September 19, 2012 12:02 PM