Fight for Progressive Development Heats Up

I must admit that I was impressed by the size of the crowd of yesterday's Anti-Ratner Rally given the heat.  However, the heat generated by the speakers, performers, and the feedback loop they established with the audience was far more substantial, and that  suggests it's going to be a long hot summer for developers and their enablers holding elected office. I came away from the event with the distinct impression that this is a full-fledged movement that has implications far beyond the Atlantic Yards proposal.

I was too busy shouting and taking pictures to take good notes concerning the speakers' messages. Fortunately, Rob Guskind of Gowanus Lounge and Norman Oder, the "Mad Overkiller," took copious notes and I borrowed liberally from their reporting on the subject to present the words and pictures below.

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More reporting and analysis at:

Atlantic Yards Report (in-depth and insightful as always)
Brownstoner
Englishman in New York
Develop Don't Destroy (They're biased, but so am I)
Gowanus Lounge (reporting and photos, lots of photos)
NoLandGrab
Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn
A Redbone Speaks

Council Member Charles Barron encourages the crowd to make some noise. “This is white and black and progressive and working class saying no to a billion-dollar developer.”	Rev. Clinton Miller of Brown Memorial Baptist Church challenged the crowd to "ask the right questions...Why wait until 2009 to be building housing we need right now?”
"Are you fired up?" asked Council Member and local hero Letitia James. When the crowd answered "hell yes," she urged them to “Turn up the heat on these greedy developers.”	Another local hero, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, assured the crowd that she wasn't the least bit intimidated by her developer backed challenger,  Tracy Boyland.
Legendary  Fort Greene activist Ed Carter promised that his lips never kissed anybody's ass, and that Brooklynites weren't about to kiss any developer's ass.	"Done deal? Get real." said an especially energized Dan Goldstein. Dan displayed compassion for Ratner when he said "This deal is suffering from a long-term illness and we need to put it out of its misery."

Comments

[Kinloch]

Hey Dope. Great coverage and pictures that really capture the atmosphere. Thank you.

NEW - UPDATED LINK: Doughnut has been rebranded to "Brit In Brooklyn" The new link for me is http://www.britinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/

This is due to another personal project that's using the Doughnut name.

Cheers!

[Da Nator]

Crap. Of course I was out of town for this.

Thanks for reporting. I'll be at the next one!

[Dope]

The Federation of Black Cowboys.

Hey, I saw a statue honoring them on a drive to Jamaica Bay a few months ago. I'll have to check it out.

Hats off to Ed Carter.

[Benny (showname "Benny Levy")]

Benny, 9-year resident of Kensington Stables in Brooklyn says that you don't know half of the story about "Legendary Ft. Greene activist Ed Carter." Carter is also a former president of The Federation of Black Cowboys.

Benny also says, "Neigh, to overdevelopment in Brooklyn."