Civilians Actor Greg McFadden
Photo: Adrian Kinloch

“My mother was a Dodger’s fan.  She went to Dodger’s games.  She taught me to love the Mets because they were INSTEAD of the Dodgers. The key thing to understanding, is it isn’t really a sports story.  The reason the Dodgers still loom so large is that their name was not the New York Dodgers.  Their name was the Brooklyn Dodgers.  And that is to say what the Dodger’s are a simplified emblem of is something that people are mourning even though many of them don’t know they’re mourning it – which is that Brooklyn used to be it’s own city.  So the real scar , the one the Dodgers leaving became the outward comprehensible more recent emblem of . . .  And that is what is so much at the heart of so much of this complexity in Brooklyn identity is this doubleness of shame and pride that we were our own city with our own vital urban centers.  At the same time we were a second city because Manhattan, New York was always greater than Brooklyn.  But Brooklyn was Brooklyn.  And then we elected or someone elected on our behalf that we should subsume this beautiful magnificent identity into this other one.  And so there’s always still this doubleness of “We’re proud to be New Yorkers.  We’re angry to be New Yorkers.  We’re really Brooklynites.”  And it’s this conflicted stolen identity that I think meant…it’s so often the case that people relate more to symbol than to an actuality.  This team is just 25 guys who went to LA and became another team.  This happens all the time.  But the BROOKLYN Dodgers spoke to Brooklyn as a city unto itself.  And if they had been named differently or played in another part of the city, it wouldn’t have meant anything at all.” – Met’s Fan and Fourth Generation Brooklynite

Civilians Actor Joaquin Torres, preparing for rehearsal
Photo: Michael Premo

“the Unity Plan would have been much better…it had affordable housing like 80 percent [sic] affordable. ..  It had lower, lower . . . buildings.  No skyscrapers.  It had some open space, and the plan was presented  . . . we had a fit because of “what kind of process is this?”  There’s no oversight of this project . . . they didn’t have to go through the ULURP process, which is the Unified Land Use Review Process by the City Council where you go to the Planning Board and from the Planning Board to the Borough Board then to the Planning Commission then to the City Council [for] a final decision.  Because it was state property, the rail yards, they didn’t have to go through ULURP.  But yet, they got money out of the City Council budget because the Mayor is supportive of it, the borough president, Marty Markowitz is supportive of it.” – Public Servant

Civilians Actor Billy Eugene Jones
Photo: Adrian Kinloch

“Here’s the TRICK…you say to poor people that you need affordable housing.  POOR PEOPLE DO NOT NEED AFFORDABLE HOUSING. Affordable housing is something that makes being poor more comfortable.  So if your income level is here (left hand low) and the housing market is here (right hand higher than left)…rather than increase your income and bring you up to where you can afford a house…we’re going to leave you where you are and we’re going to build some new lesser quality houses down here (brings one hand down to other), where you are, so that you can stay poor…and being poor is now a little bit more comfortable.  POOR PEOPLE NEED TO BE LIFTED OUT OF POVERTY.  The idea is to do away with poverty not make poverty more comfortable.” – An Elder from Around the Way

“I really felt it was a blatant misuse of eminent domain [proposed Atlantic Yards development].  I was hoping that the best thing would be to tear down Atlantic Center and put the arena there.  . . . .there were 2 other better sites . . . including Atlantic Center, which is just a horrendous situation.  Up until a few years ago, everything that went in there went out of business.  It is basically subsidized by the state, they have a variety of state offices there…That’s how Ratner gets his income base.  It’s not…Have you been there?  It’s not a pleasant place to shop.  I think I’ve only been there once.  It really hurt Fulton St., the mall.  Which used to have a Macy’s, a Martins, etc. . . . Here, [proposed Atlantic Yards footprint] Ratner owned a couple of parcels but he didn’t own everything.  He needed eminent domain and the powers of the state…And I’m a great believer in eminent domain for a public purpose.  It’s a dangerous route to take; a public purpose is NOT what gets a greater economic benefit in a place, that replaces a low-income or manufacturing or low tax-generating facility site, with a higher use.  Or a low-income family with a middle-income family, then it becomes very difficult.  Because you’re making an economic judgment and using an economic measure to guide policy. . . That’s economic apartheid.  And that’s what we’re beginning to see.   Even though it isn’t around racial segregation of people, it’s around the economic segregation of uses.  It becomes very dangerous.” – A Student of Jane Jacobs

Photo by Michael Premo

“Ratner was trying to help all these people.  He doesn’t just take your property, he offers fair market value.  If you’re gonna say no cuz you wanna be in the way of progress . . . it’s gotta be this country, based on majority rules, right?  So, if the majority of people want something, you can’t have the few naysayers say no, cause then you know what?  You’d never make progress the rest of our lives. And you have some beautiful buildings that are gonna be built there . . . think about that one . . . the mayor approved it, the city council approved it, everybody approved of it, right? So everybody can’t  be wrong and these few people are right.  I had two ladies, one was a teacher, one was a stockbroker they were a couple  and the both of ‘em were both yellin at me, yelling and screaming, saying how could you be for this project don’t you realize if he builds a sixty story building the trees aren’t going to get sunshine. you actually believe that? How in your right mind you gonna believe that? You can’t block the sun . . . I can’t remember how many million miles and it still somehow reaches the flowers underwater. How you gonna block the sun with a building?  Manhattan never woulda been built with that theory. Am i right or wrong?” – Proud Brooklynite

“I don’t see the average family in Brooklyn, particularly a low-income family, being able to function in those buildings effectively [proposed Atlantic Yards Towers]…When we worked in Bed-Stuy, on BS Restoration Corps. . . there was this woman who leaned out her window and said, “give us affordable housing. But make sure I can yell at my kids on the street.” You just can’t do that in a 40-story building. If you don’t have a nanny, the kids have to play on their own.  They have to have some sort of relationship to the community. And it’s different, for any family. But it’s a lot easier if you have support and funds.  If you’re a low-income family, it’s impossible. That kind of high-rise building is not designed for families.” – Urban Planner

“You know, I was brought up to think that the world actually is a somewhat rational place!  Well it is rational, you know, this is a guy who went to law school with Pataki who was the governor at the time, he dangles, you know the elephants in front of Marty Markowitz, he dangles part ownership of a football team in front of Jay-Z, he offers free events, you know, so that poor families can bring their kids to a basketball clinic, that then gets used to create a PR video, you know?  You know!  He gives half a million dollars a year to New York City political campaigns, he dangles you know, 10,000 construction jobs in front of the union – Oh, excuse me, that turns out, no, 15,000 construction jobs in front of the union he dangles, which turns out to mean 1500 construction jobs a year for 10 years, and oh by the way, if you go down to the where they’re creating the Rail Yards down on Atlantic Avenue and count how many people are working down there?  What is it.  15?  20?  You know.  But all this is predictable!  All this is predictable. It’s a trip.”  – Rational Brooklynite

“They raided me 13 times because they don’t want me in the neighborhood and it was basically simple.  It was a simple as that.  They trying to get me out because i refuse to go.  Most of my food is cheap 90% of my customers are minority  and they don’t like that.  They say they don’t want all these African-Americans back into the neighborhood. . . i said you know what, you need to stop harassing me. . . every time they raid me, the day before i receive a call from some real estate investor in the city that wants to buy my building.  when i tell them no, you guys raid me, so what the fuck you expect from me.  they tried to shut me down, my restaurant was clean, not mice, not rats, no garbage, no unhealthy, unsanitary, so when they come here they give you some tickets for some bullshit. you know what the funniest freaking ticket i got from the fire department just to give me a ticket. it was a grease spot.  you see how clean this back is up over here, over the filters, i have a company here the sticker right here, and they come clean this thing every month, right.  you see that there was a little grease over there on the filter, right there, you see right there.  i got a ticket for that. they couldn’t find anything. they give me a ticket for every little thing and i got hand washing everywhere towels, soaps, everything. you know. they couldn’t catch me.  they brought the building department they give me stupid tickets on my door.  ooo this is off a little bit.   so i went through a lot.” – Community Business owner (Busines is not one pictured)

“Oh, I know what disappeared! Concerts in the park! Concerts in Fort Greene Park. They got rid of those because I guess the people who live here now didn’t want the kinds of people who’d come to the concerts parking on their streets or hanging out in front of their houses. Didn’t want the noise. So those are gone. And now they got doggie fountains…where your dog could get a drink of water. Used to be your kids couldn’t get water outta those fountains, now they lowered them so the dogs can drink.” – Fort Greene resident