May 13, 2006: Vol. 29, No. 19

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn unveiled a star-studded advisory board this week featuring some impressive names (unless you’re Andrea Peyser of the New York Post, that is). Several members of the board shared their reasons for opposing Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project with The Brooklyn Papers.

Michelle Williams, actress, Boerum Hill
“His vision will increase traffic, pollution and asthma. If Mr. Ratner lived here, he would understand what we love about it and why we want to preserve our open skies.”

Peter Galassi, chief curator, Department of Photography, MOMA, Fort Greene
“The problem with this development is that it’s radically out of scale. It’s like four Empire State Buildings in the center of Brooklyn.”

Jonathan Lethem, writer, “The Fortress of Solitude,” Boerum Hill
“The simplest thing got my attention: a link to the drawings of what the towers will look like. In that outlandish [Atlantic Yards] brochure, the towers are so desperately hidden. To sell towers with a brochure that hides them is almost a confession. To oppose Atlantic Yards not to fight housing, jobs, or even an arena; it is to fight the particular array of inappropriate proposals and ask that we begin again with a set of goals identified by a coalition.”

Susette Kelo, eminent domain opponent, Connecticut
“It’s disheartening that these cities and states are allowed to take properties from homeowners for no better reason than to give it to someone else.”

Frances Marrone, architecture critic, Brooklyn Heights
“Brooklyn has the most spectacular intact contiguous stretch of 19th-century architecture anywhere in the United States. It’s a national treasure and we shouldn’t play fast and loose with that. It’s like building gigantic towers on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Frank Gehry is a California architect. His work is suited to Southern California, not Brooklyn.”

Steve Buscemi, actor, Park Slope
“[The city] talks about changing the skyline — the face — of Brooklyn, as if Brooklyn needs it. It is already a cultural beacon. I don’t think it’s in our interest to make this borough another city that resembles Manhattan.”

Marian Fontana, 9-11 widow, Park Slope
“I think it will change the character of the neighborhood. As a firefighter’s wife, my concern is also that they recently closed a lot of firehouses in the area and there will not enough companies to cover the population that will be there. They haven’t carefully considered the safety issues of having a transit hub underneath those buildings. It could be a prime terror target, and they haven’t even considered that.”

— Compiled by Ariella Cohen and Louise Crawford

 

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