January 27, 2007 / Brooklyn news / Not Just Nets / Atlantic Yards

Vox Pop: Ratner’s bank job

The Brooklyn Paper

The question: Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner has sold the naming rights to his new arena for the Brooklyn Nets to a British bank with historic ties to slavery, the Holocaust and apartheid. How do you feel about that? — photos and reporting by Michael Giardina

“It’s not righteous, if he’s going to tear up a community and not put back into it. If [Barclays Bank] was involved in the slave trade, it’s not right. Give it back to the community.” Gary Smith, Flatbush
“If it’s coming fromthat type of money ... then forget it.” Fred Foster, East New York
“I don’t like it. It seems like they’re just stealing from the community. I don’t think they should do it because, they are already taking peoples’ money from taxes. The funding is not right.” Kevin Foster
“I’m for the stadium just as long as it creates jobs and they’re paying the right wages. But I don’t condone the idea of making a dollar off somebody’s hardships. I wouldn’t vote for Barclays. Why couldn’t Ratner pick one of our banks? The arena is in our country.” Billy Joe Walker, Far Rockaway

←Atlantic Yards: Atlantic Yards documentary: A review

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