The Dodgers didn’t make Brooklyn, Brooklyn made the Dodgers. The characteristics that defined the borough’s beloved baseball team came not from the players alone but from their interaction with Brooklynites — the spirit, the grit, the work ethic and sense of humor (not to mention accent) unique to this borough.

When the beloved ’Bums left we lost a baseball team, not our identity. The team, however, lost its soul.

Brooklyn’s identity is, and has always been, tied into its many and vastly different neighborhoods, ethnicities and cultures. What further sets us apart from the overwhelming crush that is Manhattan, is our low-rise nature. Our blocks are not cluttered or enclosed by towering apartment and office towers, because that’s the way we wanted it and our zoning has enforced that notion. Our bridge is an icon; theirs is merely blue. Manhattan is at its loveliest when viewed from Brooklyn; Brooklyn looks best up close.

But now a convergence of plans have been thrust upon this borough that, when taken in sum, will turn Brooklyn into a half-baked version of Manhattan, or “the city,” as many of us grew up calling the island across the East River.

One explantion given for rushing the massive Downtown Brooklyn Plan through the city’s public review process is that the mayor and governor want to compete with New Jersey for corporate back-office space. The city can’t build competitively priced office space in Manhattan, but in Brooklyn it apparently comes cheap. They build us up only to knock us down. Developers get rich; we get a sports team and unwanted skyscrapers.

We’re getting a basketball team we never asked for to replace a baseball team most of us don’t remember — and that’s supposed to restore an identity we already have. And we’re being asked to bear on our great shoulders the city and state’s inability to provide affordable office space in Manhattan.

Will someone please tell us what Brooklynites get out of these deals?


Neil Sloane is editor of The Brooklyn Papers. He can be reached via e-mail at newsroom@brooklynpapers.com.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group