A Slam Dunk for Park Slope Cops: The Arena is Ours

pic by Deepti Sahrawat

I promised myself I wouldn't use a cheesy basketball metaphor for this post, but clearly I failed from the get-go. Anyway, there appears to be a thin silver lining around that giant shit-brown cloud called the Barclay Center that's hovering over us. 

According to the New York Post, the Barclay Center will most likely be under the police jurisdiction of Precinct 78. For those of you who don't care about precinct numbers, that means the fuzz of Park Slope will have the Barclay Center on their beat. Even though the arena is technically within the boundaries of Fort Greene's 88th precinct, the coverage was awarded to Park Slope because of the close proximity of it's precinct house (a mere block away). In comparison, Fort Greene's station house is over a mile away. The bottom line: mo' money for the cops in our precinct, mainly by way of overtime hours.

Of course Fort Greene is PISSED. An unnamed activist told the Post:

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The Barclays Center's New Trailer Is just as bad as you'd expect

File this under "things we totally missed." Last month, the folks behind the Barclays Center released a little trailer for their new stadium, in which they basically try and convince us of its relevance. As they say in the video, "Over the past decade, a new economical, professional, and artistic identity has helped shape Brooklyn. The transformation of it's residential and business areas has helped shape this great borough for an even greater future. It has helped shape Brooklyn for... the Barclays Center."

Christ almighty..

Take a look for yourself:

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Expanding Slope Historic District Will Save Us All. Unless, of Course, It Doesn't.

Photo via www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com

The Brooklyn Paper is reporting that plans are afoot to expand the Park Slope Historic District. Real estate brokers have been trying to expand the number of landmarked buildings for years, presumably so that they can command even more exorbitant rents. This time, however, there's something else driving the effort. Councilmen Levin and Landon are backing the expansion so that buildings that contribute to the historic character of the North Slope can't be torn down to build new businesses adjacent to the Atlantic Yards Stadium.  

Um... Too late, guys. The historic character of the neighborhood is already fucked. One only has to look as far as 33rd Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan to see what happens to a neighborhood when you build a basketball arena next to a big rail trainsport hub. The future of Yummy Taco on Flatbush is safe from now until the end of time. But will this effort protect the North Slope from future down-scale development?  

In order to prepare for the worst, let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that the historic district is not expanded. A basketball arena doesn't just host basketball, you know? Let's take a look at some of the other businesses that might crop up in the North Slope because of the Atlantic Yards project, if this historic district expansion doesn't move forward.

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For Sale: A Century’s Worth of Sweat and Sneakers

Photo via Here's Park Slope

Mom-and-pop store Triangle Sports has sat at 182 Flatbush Avenue since 1916. For nearly 100 years it has bravely survived amid the growing monstrosity of its now-neighborhood, much like the last chip in the otherwise empty plastic party bowl. The party is over for many family-owned businesses in the area, as attested to by Henry Rosa, who worked in the store as a teenager and is one of the partners in the almost century-old venture. “It’s getting harder and harder for a small, independent retailer to survive,” he said last week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

The rise of Atlantic Yards and the controversial Barclays sports arena has changed the smaller-scaled Brooklyn landscape forever. Growing numbers of big-box chain stores and eateries are following the big money and pushing out local businesses that can’t compete. 

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Will The Barclay Center Become The Magic Kingdom?

image via dclnews.com

Here's a list of careers that were launched by the Disney company: 

• Britney Spears
• Ryan Gosling
• Justin Timberlake
• Christina Aguilera 
• Jessica Simpson
• Keri Russell
• Some other guy from *NSYNC
• The Barclay Center

Yes, you read that right: The Barclay Center.

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