How the traditional media loves Brooklyn – let me count the ways. First there was Time Out, then the Village Voice, now New York Magazine. All cover stories. All the time.
A well -reported and personal cover story by Chris Smith, a resident of Brownstone Brooklyn and a political reporter for New York, called "Ratzilla Attacks Brooklyn" gives Norman Norman Oder his due. See here:
The opposition’s greatest resource hasn’t been Goldstein or the Hollywood stars but one unknown man working late at night in his Park Slope apartment. Norman Oder, 45, has a full-time day job as an editor for Library Journal, but for most of the past year, he has spent at least 25 hours a week dissecting the details of the Atlantic Yards plans and posting his analysis at atlanticyardsreport.com.
Oder is a skeptic in the tradition of I.F. Stone, proving HOW MUCH CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH A URL AND AN OBSESSION.
2-9-09:
This is an old site I’m sending this from so hopefully this will go through.
Norm and I have one big thing in common: We both detest Forest City Enterprises (Ratner)
In the last six months my organization has done all it could to spread the word against FCE including contacting most of their institutional shareholders. We believe we’re the reason their stock plunged so precipitously between September and November of 2008.
However, our work is far from complete. That new stimulus package, which is about to pass could save the day for FCE, much to our chagrin.
I think as many people as possible need to write directly to their Congressmen at the following site:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=12569011&type=ML
Here is the letter I sent to them earlier today. It discusses my personal experience with FCE and also lists other sources to describe the egregious behavior of this hated company.
“2/9/2009
Please Mr. President, don’t give a dime of this stimulus package to a company called Forest City Enterprises also known as Forest City Ratner. They’re going to be lobbying very hard to try to get some Pork out of this passing package in order to commence a huge project in Brooklyn called the Atlantic Yards. They also want to build a new stadium for the Nets NBA team which they own.
A: They’re a private company.
B: In my humble opinion they’re the meanest people on the planet!! Your office in Chicago assisted me last October, when I couldn’t get the City of Chicago out to my apartment to inspect their numerous code violations. I’ve have/had mold in my apartment, severe water damage, holes in my carpeting, leaks all over the place, a loose toilet which injured me and a sink coming out of the wall.
C: A few of these problems were fixed by court order, but as a long time resident of their property called the Pavilion (34 years) I spent money out of my own pocket to fix the mold and water damage, assuming I would be reimbursed. Guess what?
They used their tremendous political clout to not only stiff me out of the money but also evict me….pending appeal.
C: I’m not alone in my hatred for this company. Please check out “Brooklyn No Land Grab,” “Forest City Enterprises Slumlords,” and “Complaints against Forest City Enterprises” on Google. Also please check out “neulandlord.com.” They are the WORST RATED LANDLORDS IN THE COUNTRY! They were also sued for asbestos in California back in ’99 and they have recently taken many government subsidies and put the money in their pocket without doing the projects.
PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THESE CROOKS A DIME!!!!”
________________________________
I can be reached at “RJFCHICAGO@comcast.net
Sincerely
Ronald Fleishman
CEO
Citizens United Against Corporate Corruption