An attempt by real estate mogul Bruce Ratner to curry favor among local artists for his plan to build a basketball arena, skyscrapers and apartment high-rises in Prospect Heights backfired this week when an arts group not only turned down the offer of free publicity in his bimonthly Brooklyn Standard but then went on the Internet to slam both the Atlantic Yards developer and his publication.

“The Brooklyn Standard is [Forest City Ratner’s] promotional tool, posing as a community newspaper,” said Mark Elijah Rosenberg, artistic director of Rooftop Films, a Park Slope-based organization that screens independent movies throughout the summer at outdoor sites around Brooklyn.

“The purpose of the publication is to promote the Atlantic Yards project by creating the impression that the community — including arts groups like Rooftop Films — are in support of the project,” Rosenberg told The Brooklyn Papers

Which, he said, they are not.

Rosenberg added, “Not appearing in the publication was not enough — no one would know that we chose not to appear.”

Instead, they publicized it, and The Brooklyn Papers found the group’s July 28 letter to “the editors and readers of The Brooklyn Standard” posted on the Web log, NoLandGrab.org.

“Rooftop Films believes that our neighborhood, our organization, and other organizations like ours will suffer if the Atlantic Yards project is built — as the neighborhood and small businesses have suffered in the wake of Forest City Ratner Companies’ other development projects, such as the Atlantic Mall, Atlantic Terminal and Metrotech,” reads a portion of the letter, signed by Rosenberg and his fellow Rooftop Films directors, Dan Nuxoll and Sarah Palmer.

“The Brooklyn Standard clearly states that it is published by FCRC to share information about the Atlantic Yards project,” the letter continues. “But the paper does not offer balanced and diverse opinions about the project.

“Rooftop Films is fundamentally at odds with FCRC and the Atlantic Yards project, and we do not wish to appear in a publication designed for the sole purpose of promoting that project.”

Rosenberg told The Brooklyn Papers, “We hope that like-minded people and organizations will see that it is possible to turn down free publicity, and that it is possible for individuals and small arts organizations to stand up to gigantic nefarious conglomerates.”

Forest City Ratner officials declined to discuss what the feature would have entailed, or whether Rosenberg’s letter would run in the next issue as a letter to the editor. The Brooklyn Standard is produced for Ratner by Manhattan Media, which publishes four Manhattan community weeklies.

Bruce Ratner is listed as the Standard’s publisher.

The first issue of the free publication, which forthrightly notes on its front page underneath its title that it is “A Publication of Forest City Ratner Companies,” was published in late June.

“The interaction was very simple,” said Rosenberg, describing how the Standard’s editor, Edward-Isaac Dovere, who works out of Manhattan Media’s West 38th Street offices, called them.

“They said they were interested in doing an article, and they wanted to use some information from our Web site and do an interview,” Rosenberg said.

“We discussed it internally” before issuing and publicizing the letter, he said.

After receiving Rooftop’s reply, the Ratner paper’s editor sent one last e-mail, Rosenberg said.

“Thank you for your time,” read Dovere’s brief response.

Dovere did not return calls for comment by press time.

In addition to publicizing their anti-Ratner letter, Rosenberg said Rooftop Films will continue to reach out to other Brooklyn organizations to try and discourage them from appearing in The Brooklyn Standard.

“[Forest City Ratner] continues the fake appearance of support by gathering organizations and running articles about community organizations so that it appears that they cover the neighborhood, and care about the neighborhood, when what they really care about is building their project,” said Rosenberg.

Forest City Ratner spokesman Barry Baum, who is also one of two men listed as editors in chief of the Standard, said the publication is a way of providing information about the Atlantic Yards proposal.

He would not say whether the Rooftop Films response would be printed in the next edition.

The second edition is due out later this month.

©2005 The Brooklyn Paper