This greeting is late because I screwed up and didn't put it up yesterday. But hope you'll still stop in at Rocky Sullivan's in Red Hook for the pub quiz tonight. As always Miss Wit, t-shirt queen is sponsoring this post. Greetings, Pub Quiz Walk Five Hundred Milers…

Okay, any mention of a walkathon is gonna elicit a Proclaimers reference.  Or Nancy Sinatra.  Some things are automatic, like crying at the end of Old Yeller or that gag reflex whenever another Mike for Mayor ad comes on the t.v.

It won't be 500 miles, but two-and-a-quarter miles.  It's the fifth annual Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Walkathon, colloquially named Walk Don't Destroy 5.

I'm walking in it this year.  You know the drill — Ratner, lousy development project, sixteen skyscrapers, a basketball arena, a Russian oligarch
team owner, billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, no appreciable numbers
of affordable housing or newly-created jobs, overwhelming traffic,
exploitation of Brooklyn Dodger mythology, environmental and
health concerns, blighted wasteland created by Ratner and not time,
lack of democratic process, eminent domain abuse.

Wow..that's the shortest I've ever summed it up.

Stopping
Ratner's boondoggle and replacing it with a project that makes sense
for the surrounding communities.  This is a crucial time — the project
will either proceed after New Year's 2010 or it'll be a goner.

Whether you've followed this from afar or heard me talk about it up close, you know what's at stake.  DDDB's legal bill are hefty.  Along with dozens of other community groups, DDDB has been fighting the Atlantic Yards for six years.  Six years. 

The Walkathon is what DDDB does to keep going.  Walkathons…bake
sales…benefit concerts…the passing of many hats…small checks from
concerned citizens.  DDDB has never had the hundreds of millions of
private and government money available to Forest City Ratner for their endless p.r. assault.   The money raised at this year's Walkathon goes to DDDB's legal fight.

These are tough times.  Too many people and groups have their hands
out.  This is mine, on behalf of DDDB.  If you can help out, either by
sponsoring my walk or heading to DDDB's website and signing up to walk yourself, that would be grand.  You can get more info on the issues there as well.

That's the spiel.  I don't make it lightly.

Also, there's this:  a week from Friday, on October 16th, the legendary 1970s London punk rockers
The Spunk Lads will be playing Freddy's Bar & Backroom.  They're
all living in Brooklyn now, and support DDDB's fight against the
Atlantic Yards.  According to the Lads' lead singer Nick Knickers, "wot if they'd
tried this in Camden?  I'd bloody well fall over effin' basketball fans
and condo buggers and end up with me 'ead in bandages.  Bloody
'orrible, that!"

Sez it all.

The Spunk Lads will be headlining DDDB's Pre-Walkathon Party.  Also on the
bill are the John Sharples Band, comedian Pat O'Shea, Judy Gorman,
Steve Espinola and Neil deMause.  Starts at 8 in the evening.

You never know when it'll be the last chance to see the world's most
exciting band, still at it over thirty years after they single-handedly
— well, eight hands between them — birthed the London punk scene. 
Little is remembered of their early days, but much is enjoyed when they
play shows today — rare as that is.  'Loos are wrecked as well.  Call in the American Standard people…it'll be a busy night in Brooklyn.

Don't miss it.  You've been warned.

Back to our regularly-scheduled Quizmail screed next week.