On the Barclays Center plaza, temporary hype for Advil's Relief In Action; past impacts get forgotten

Craig Barritt/Getty Images North America

There was some action on the Barclays Center plaza last Thursday, 4/4/13. From a press release that day headlined Advil® Launches Advil® Relief in Action Campaign Celebrating Active Volunteers Who Don't Let Pain Hold Them Back:

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (NYS: PFE) , makers of Advil®, is kicking off its Advil® Relief in Action campaign today that honors volunteers who don't let pain get in the way of providing relief to others in need. Advil® Relief in Action celebrates the efforts of these tireless everyday heroes, as well as supports and contributes to the efforts of Habitat for Humanity and Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP), whose volunteers exemplify Relief in Action and work to improve the lives of others every day.
...As part of the launch, Advil® is teaming up with comedian Aziz Ansari who will perform a private comedy show [at the Barclays Center] for 200 people, 100 Superstorm Sandy volunteers and their guests, who dedicated their time and energy to help their neighbors rebuild and get back on their feet.
...The Advil® Relief in Action program will also be brought to life on the Daily News Plaza at Barclays Center through a mural, by Brooklyn artist Jose Roldan Rendon from Brush Décor Studio, recognizing and supporting the commitment of volunteers dedicated to relieving the pain of others.

At left, the back of the mural, which lasted less than a few hours on the plaza.

The ironies

Of course for some neighbors, there has long been a need for Relief in Action.

As I reported 7/25/12, the neighbors near the Atlantic Yards project, who had filed complaints and reports about a never-ending stream of construction-related violations--late-night noise causing sleepless nights, dust clouds, illegal parking, jolting vibrations, use of residential streets for truck routes--saw their  perspective validated by a report.

That report, prepared for Atlantic Yards Watch by a veteran environmental consulting firm, concludes that the Forest City Ratner and its contractors, bent on getting a huge project finished by a tight deadline, have regularly failed to comply with mitigation protocols officially agreed to, and that other mitigations were implemented late, poorly, or unevenly.

Also, as I wrote 5/4/12, Atlantic Yards Watch posted an open letter to Mayor Mike Bloomberg from a Carlton Avenue resident, which said, in part:

Last night at 11:00 pm our entire apartment shook with a force equal to or greater than that of the earthquake that hit this area last summer. This morning tractors were buzzing around at 4:00 a.m. This has become the status quo and I’ve had enough. I’m not opposed to development, but I am most definitely opposed to disrupting the sleep and well being of a community.
I now go to bed at night dreading the inevitable wake ups. My wife and I take sleeping pills in an effort to sleep through the disruptions. We create white noise in the bedrooms to drown out the noise. My blood pressure has gone up in this time and my daughter wakes up crying.

Not much Relief in Action.

Also, consider a comment from last July regarding third-shift work at the arena, from a poster who preemptively took the name "Not.A.NIMBY":

Loud hammering, sawing, welding, yelling, and all sorts of incredibly loud noise. Did not even start until 10.30 PM, so this isn't them working late to finish something, this is them deciding to start working very late at night. In a time of year when residents (and this is a heavily residential neighborhood) have their windows open, they should not be performing heavy and loud construction at almost midnight. They're still going strong at 11.30 PM, with no end in sight.