Civics and Urban Life

THOUSANDS GATHER FOR RALLY AT GRAND ARMY PLAZA

4 Comments

Crowd
DDDB said there were 4000, the New York Times called it "over 2000." Hard to say exactly how many people were there but they were THERE for the largest public demonstration so far by opponents of the Atlantic Yards project.

Norman Oder on his blog, Atlantic Yards Report, writes, The Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) rally yesterday at Grand Army Plaza was no watershed moment, neither a massive show of resistance nor an easily-dismissable handful of diehards, as Forest City Ratner’s Jim Stuckey describes the opposition."

Still, the demonstration made a strong impression and shows that there is a large and loud opposition willing to come out on a sweltering hot day to protest Ratner’s controversial development designed by Frank Gehry, which will include a sports arena and numerous high rise condo buildings.

Dan Zanes sang, Rosie Perez spoke, and there were politicians a-plenty
but perhaps most memorable was Steve Buscemi, who wrote a poem, which included the line: I’ve played a lot of crazies but this is INSANE.

4 thoughts on “THOUSANDS GATHER FOR RALLY AT GRAND ARMY PLAZA”

  1. DDDB was never planning on 10,000 people that is ridiculous…they may be fighters but they are not delusional…10,000 was some made up number – you would have to solicit at least 1 million people to get 10,000.
    Please there was no disappoint at all that day!!

  2. Jim: Is your last name Stuckey, by any chance? DDDb had projected 2,000. The larger-than-estimated turnout was a MAJOR boost to the movement and confirms the sense of growing momentum I’ve noticed in the past several months. But thanks for the opportunity to underscore.
    A gentle suggestion: consult your spell checker before posting.

  3. The estimate of 10,000 was a bizarre creation of a generally decent reporter. It’s kinda impossible to predict how many people will come, but DDDb events steadily grow in size, if you’ve been following carefully.
    And if you were at the event, you probably would have been impressed with the range of speakers, and the high energy despite the heat. DDDb does not have to bribe people to come to its events, unlike Ratner. I did speak with someone at length who went to both the Ratner housing event and the DDDb rally. He was disappointed at Ratner event, but was impressed with the grass-roots nature of the DDDb event. He also said that DDDb was much more informative.
    And he was sporting a DDDb button.

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