Weintrob: It’s not just the Nets, and it’s not just eminent domain. Whether Bruce Ratner has his way with us, in transforming Brooklyn from its status as a perpetually evolving multi-textured urban quilt into a sterile Manhattanized version of cul-de-sac suburbia, will depend more on our collective vision than on our individual pocketbooks. Comment.

Weintrob: That the Nets are coming is beside the point. And that is the real story, a story masterfully buried by developer Bruce Ratner and his media shills. (When the New York Times is your real estate partner, it’s amazing the story its pages will tell — more than three pages featuring nine upbeat, luciously illustrated stories in Thursday’s edition.) Comment.

Weintrob: DUBUQUE, IOWA — The deli man in Des Moines said that when he was in Brooklyn a few years ago for a family wedding, he pulled into a gas station, got out of his minivan, put the hose in his tank and … nothing. Comment.

Weintrob: The “developers” and their tagalongs have their mantra down pat: Give them carte blanche to take whatever land they want, build whatever they want whenever they want, take whatever government subsidies they want, then rest assured — there will be jobs and prosperity for all. Comment.