Last week in a Wall Street Journal article about Forest City Ratner's failure to start construction on any housing two years after the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking, Assemblyman Jim Brennan was quoted saying, "They should do the affordable housing up front, now. The only legitimate selling point for the entire project was the affordable housing."
Assemblyman Brennan is correct. As the September 28th opening of Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov's arena fast approaches without any of the promised affordable housing and only a miniscule percentage of the promised jobs, there is a church organized demonstration near the arena site June 10th and a June 19th planning/brainstorming meeting to kick off organizing for a demonstration at the arena opening.
> June 10th: Clergy Led Demonstration for Justice at Atlantic Yards
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Sunday, June 10th at 3pm, at the Corner of Atlantic and South Portland...
Please come out this Sunday and join the Committee for Arena Justice*, community members, religious leaders and local elected officials to demand stronger oversight and the housing and jobs promised by Ratner. (click image to enlarge)
*Committee for Arena Justice is a coalition of Central Brooklyn Clergy including Rev. Clinton M. Miller, Rev. Mark Taylor, Rev. Conrad Tilard, Rev. Lemuel Mobley, Rev. Washington Lundy, Rev. Dr. Cleotha Robertson, Rev. Dr. Clive Neal, Rev. Michael Sniffen, Rev. Ivan Washington, Rev. John Merz, Rev. Linda Bell, Rev. Shaun J. Lee, Rev. Daran H. Mitchell, Rev. Reginald L. Bacchus, Rev. Willie Wade Jr. and others.
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> June 19th 7pm: Kickoff Meeting to Plan Demonstration at Barclays Arena Opening
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On Tuesday, June 19th Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, BrooklynSpeaks, the Brown (Memorial Baptist Church) Community Development Corporation and Occupy groups invite you to a kickoff meeting to organize a protest demonstration at the Barclays Center opening.
Atlantic Yards promised jobs, housing and hoops. All we're getting is hoops, parking lots, a demolition zone, a traffic/parking fiasco, rats, and the Borough's biggest bar. An arena alone nets nothing for Brooklyn.
Amidst all the hoopla around the arena opening in September and various big act bookings, we must not allow the public, the press and elected officials to forget how Bruce Ratner and Mikhail Prokhorov's billion dollar arena came to be and all the bait-n-switching that has gone on enabling Ratner to procure 22 acres in the heart of Brooklyn for an illegitimate project.
On June 19th
join us and participate in planning for the September 28th demonstration at the arena opening.
Spread the word, we want your ideas and your active participation.
Details:
Tuesday, June 19 at 7pm
at Brown Memorial Baptist Church
484 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn
[Map]
(Please note that we will send a reminder about this meeting before June 19th)
