A flickr set from our friends at The Occasional Fag. I recommend viewing it on flickr for the captions.

Develop Don't Destroy is encouraging people to show up at the Brooklyn Museum on Thursday, April 3rd, 6:30-8:30pm to protest the museum's choice of honoree for its annual fund raiser: developer Bruce Ratner. He is the developer of the infamous Atlantic Yards project, which has resulted in the use of eminent domain on behalf of a private entity to displace a huge number of people and tear down historic structures such as the Ward Bread Bakery building. Note that the New York Times is now reporting that, despite the billions of subsidies promised so far, the project might be scaled back due to the shrinking bond and credit markets. That won't bring back any buildings or help the people and businesses that have already been forced to move.

If you're interested in some very detailed information on the project and Mr. Ratner, I have pasted below a copy of an open letter from attorney Michael D. D. White that I received via Chuck Yuen and Meredith Allen. This is my favorite paragraph:

Ratner should not be confused with an erstwhile robber baron who did ill a long time ago and is now dispensing funds after the fact to atone and get into heaven. Ratner is doing his damage to the community now and this "honor" from the Museum is a mechanism to further damage the community.

[Note: the comments have been closed on this post due to spammers loving it for some reason.]