Following several raucous meetings concerning the Atlantic Yards project, opponents have put out the call for protection.
One knowledgeable source said that Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), the main organization fighting the project, has spoken to at least two prominent ministers recently in the African- and Caribbean-American community to see if they could get some of their people out to future meetings who oppose the project.
The call comes out after a large and vocal contingent of African-Americans and construction union members, desperately in need of jobs, have shouted down the opponents, who are largely white. at two recent meetings concerning the $4 billion arena and housing project at the Atlantic/Flatbush avenue intersections.
Among the accusations being hurled against the opponents are that they are fairly new to the neighborhood, and in some cases gentrified the neighborhood in housing that was once factories with jobs.
Additionally, the hecklers note that opponents, who number a few dozen at most at the meetings, continually ask the same questions to stall the project while people in the nearby public housing developments are crying out for the jobs and small business opportunities the project may bring.
DDDB spokespersons Daniel Goldstein and Candace Carponter both acknowledged they have recently asked some local people in the community for more support, but both maintained it is something the organization has always been doing.
“We informed people to come out and speak out against the project,” said Goldstein.
“We tried to organize people from all over Brooklyn, but mainly in the immediate area. We tried to get all types of people to come out. We sent electronic newsletters, and posted fliers,” he added.
While DDDB has in the past been accused, even by other opponents of the project, of not being inclusionary of others in the neighborhood, Rev. Dennis Dillon, pastor of the Brooklyn Christian Center, is chair of the DDDB board.
Dillon, along with Rev. Clinton Miller from Brown Memorial Baptist Church, both said they have recently communicated with Goldstein and/or Carponter about the situation.
Dillon remains adamantly opposed to the project, while Miller said he still has concerns about the project, but has distanced himself from it somewhat after seeing DDDB “doing certain kinds of things” that did not appear to be inclusive to the neighborhood.
Miller did recently ask for 50 people from his congregation to attend last week’s Empire State Development Corporation public hearing on the project.
“I said it doesn’t matter whether you are for or against it. What matters most is the process,” said Miller.
“My involvement with the hearing is in the spirit of resolution. With people shouting at each other, you can’t even talk about doable solutions where everyone can walk away kind of proud,” he added.
–with Junico Simino
