Rep. Yvette Clarke met with Barclays last week, the culmination of two weeks during which she slammed Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner for naming his proposed basketball arena after a bank that profited from the slave trade, did business with apartheid South Africa, and froze Jewish bank accounts during the Holocaust.
Neither Clarke nor Barclays would comment on the meeting, which took place on Feb. 15. But, insiders speculated that Clarke was seeking more money from Barclays, which has pledged $2.5 million to fix up neighborhood basketball courts.
Clarke — an Atlantic Yards supporter — has repeatedly blasted the deal, saying Ratner “blindsided” Brooklyn’s black community.
The meeting with Barclays is the second confab to result from Clarke’s very public condemnation of the naming-rights deal. The week before last, Clarke (D–Park Slope) took part in a historic sit-down with Ratner. She left that meeting still threatening to call for congressional hearings into Atlantic Yards should the naming-rights deal not be amended to her satisfaction.
Forest City Ratner would not comment on the latest meeting.
