Brooklyn Speaks, of which Tri-State is a member, is co-hosting a rally to stop the demolition of the proposed Altantic Yards project. From the brooklynspeaks.org website:

“As originally proposed, the Atlantic Yards project would overwhelm surrounding neighborhoods, further clog already overburdened streets, create outdated superblocks that deaden street life, overtax public transit, streets, water and sewer infrastructure and create eight acres of “temporary” parking lots that could blight Brooklyn for decades.

But now it’s even worse.

Recently, developer Forest City Ratner acknowledged to the New York Times that it doesn’t even have the resources to construct the signature first phase of the project that would surround the arena.

Now the arena will not be nestled in dramatically designed residential and office buildings. Instead, it will be surrounded by vacant space or more temporary parking, creating a dead zone where vitality was once promised. It’s so bad that New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff (a previous supporter of the project) called it a betrayal of the public trust and a creator of new blight. He even called upon architect Frank Gehry to walk away from Atlantic Yards entirely.

It’s time to call a time out on Atlantic Yards before more demolitions, displacements, and disruptions scar our neighborhood, and more tax dollars go into a hole that doesn’t seem to have a bottom.

Join the sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks.net, the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Assembly Members Hakeem Jeffries and Joan Millman, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, NYC Council Members Letitia James, David Yassky and Bill de Blasio and others at a rally next Saturday, May 3rd at 2 PM at on Pacific Street near Carlton Avenue to demand Governor Paterson call “Time Out” on Atlantic Yards.”