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Demolition on the arena block: photos, video, and the CBA in action

Prospect Heights resident Raul Rothblatt has posted both photos (set) and videos (below) of demolition at the Atlantic Yards arena site, as some rather sturdy and venerable buildings are being dismantled.

The coverage includes the building housing Freddy's Bar & Backroom (right) and the building housing the condo that was home to Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

Some pointed exchanges

Also linked to some of these photos, see a rather pointed and nasty back-and-forth on NetsDaily between Goldstein and some commenters, mostly anonymous, regarding his $3 million settlement for leaving the condo he'd already lost to eminent domain.

The CBA in action

And note the role played by A. Russo Wrecking, a firm owned by a white female resident of Nassau County that nevertheless fulfills the official aspirations of the Community Benefits Agreement, as I explained last week, but hardly represents the groups--however unrepresentative themselves--that signed the CBA.


The CBA, as I noted way back in October 2005, is supposed "to encourage systemic changes in the traditional ways of doing business on large urban development projects," but has also been supporting long-established firms, like Russo, founded in 1952, and whose officers serve as representatives of the New York City Demolition Contractors Association on the Board of Governors of the Building Trades Employers’ Association.

The videos




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