Rep. Yvette Clarke will call for congressional hearings on the Atlantic Yards development unless developer Bruce Ratner and Barclays amend their $400-million naming-rights agreement to her satisfaction, she told The Brooklyn Paper this week.
“One way of bringing transparency to a mega-project of this magnitude, is to bring hearings that put all of the elements on the table,” threatened Clarke (D-Park Slope).
Black leaders, including Clarke, took part in a historic sit-down with Ratner last week after she expressed outrage that the impending Nets arena would be named for Barclays, a bank that profited from the slave trade, froze the accounts of Holocaust victims, and operated for decades in apartheid South Africa.
Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Fort Greene) and Rev. Clinton Milller, of Fort Greene’s Brown Memorial Baptist Church, were also at the meeting.
Clarke is a strong supporter of the Atlantic Yards project, while Jeffries has some qualms. Miller is an opponent of the project. But all three black leaders, and others, are united in their opposition to the Barclays naming deal.
Jeffries, who had earlier called for a “termination” of the naming-rights deal, was more circumspect following the sitdown, saying only that it was “a productive meeting on the issue of the naming-rights agreement. The next step will be to have a conversation with Barclays to determine whether we can reach some kind of resolution.”
Clarke was similarly hesitant to discuss details in the midst of the high-powered negotiations.
“I don’t know whether [Ratner] was sympathetic or not,” said Clarke. “They listened and they heard. There were a lot of different perspectives, and each was respected.”
Clarke stopped short of calling for the termination of the agreement.
“I’m not quite there, but I did want [them] to know that we’re not the type of constituency you can take for granted,” said Clarke. “I will not stand for the community being blindsided.”
While the Barclays naming-rights deal may remain on the table — and leaders may try to wrangle more money from Barclays — at least one issue is no longer up for discussion.
“At this point, I don’t think there should be debate about whether Barclays was involved with the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” said the Rev. Miller. “Unless Barclays, as a historic financial institution, reconciles itself with its history, there will be ongoing barriers that will hinder them to do the type of business they want to do in Brooklyn and in America.”
Clarke said the next step would be a meeting with Barclays orchestrated by Forest City Ratner.
The developer would not comment on the ongoing negotiations. Barclays has denied any link to the slave trade.
