Formerly vocal and distruptive Atlantic Yards supporters, P.P.E.E. (and REBUILD), to rally July 27 protesting lack of jobs at AY site and other construction sites
Atlantic Yards Report

The Atlantic Yards saga is now moving toward a version of blowback.

Saying "We need jobs, not broken promises," a group that loudly and sometimes disruptively rallied in support for Atlantic Yards is changing its tune, organizing a public protest on July 27 outside the in-progress Barclays Center site and nearby Downtown Brooklyn-area construction sites.

The rally, aimed to start at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues at 9:30 a.m., is sponsored by P.P.E.E. (People for Political and Economic Empowerment), which helps train and place hard-to-employ people, some of them ex-convicts, in construction work.

[The location may shift to the corner of Atlantic and 6th Avenue.]

P.P.E.E. is essentially interchangeable with REBUILD, an organization launched in 2004 by the late Darnell Canada, a pro-project activist who had just left BUILD (Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development), a signatory of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement. BUILD also works on job training, though for a broader range of jobs beyond construction.

"Don't tell me one thing one day, and then when the day comes, when the work is coming, you tell me something else," Martin Allen (right), Canada's friend and president of P.P.E.E., told me, during a recent interview at P.P.E.E. headquarters in Bushwick, on a stretch of Broadway where storefront churches vie with retail outlets.

(P.P.E.E. and REBUILD, once located on Gold Street near Downtown Brooklyn, saw that space demolished for the luxury Avalon Fort Greene, and had to seek inexpensive quarters farther away from the Fort Greene housing projects that are part of their base.)

Charge: lack of loyalty

"We was there when you called us, to go in front of the press, and speak our minds about jobs and contracts, about why Atlantic Yards was a good project for Brooklyn," added Allen, a barrel-chested man who speaks in gruff, streetwise tones. "So don't turn your back now after you feel like you got your foot in the door, and leave us standing on the other side of the doorway."

"Darnell was with me every step of the way on that," added Allen, who not only grew up with Canada but served time in prison with him.

(Canada died in late May, at 52. I'll write separately about him shortly. Allen did not seek out this interview; I contacted him to learn more about Canada.)

In fact, according to Allen, Canada told Forest City CEO Bruce Ratner within the past year or so that a protest would occur, "because it's not being done right here." While REBUILD is essentially on the shelf, given Canada's passing, Allen said he and others aimed to revive it.

As noted in the protest notice, below, the marchers aim to visit several other sites.

( PPEE Protest July 27 2011)
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