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As crucial election arrives, a key role for Barclays Center (and some self-serving pride)

It's Election Day, and those who haven't voted early or by absentee must go to their regular polling places, not early voting venues like the Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden.

As Gotham Gazette explains, there's a huge amount at stake for New York City, given that a Democratic victory would likely deliver crucial federal aid to shore up the transportation system and support many people living on the edge.

Barclays as center

As seen in tweets below, the Barclays Center featured a cameo by actor Paul Rudd, and some encouragement by Borough President Eric Adams. (So it would be hard, wouldn't it, for any Brooklyn Borough President to keep a distance from the arena?)

Across the nation and the city, some retail establishments have been boarding up their facades, in case of election-related vandalism or looting, after some hard experience in the wake of protests starting at the end of May. 

There was no vandalism/looting in Prospect Heights, as far as I know, but on Flatbush Avenue, Kith, as shown in the photo above, and Warby Parker, as shown at left, are taking no chances. 

(Around the end of May, there was somevandalism at the Whole Foods up Flatbush Avenue in Fort Greene/Downtown Brooklyn, and looting at a liquor store on Livingston Street.) 

The Brooklyn Eagle just reported that various stores in Downtown Brooklyn, including Macy's, have been boarded up.

Another victory lap for Barclays

A PBS interview (in tweet below) and a New York Post article yesterday show new Barclays Center CEO John Abbamondi taking pride in the arena's response:
“I’m proud of this organization and the role we’ve been able to play in this community all summer and into the fall,” Abbamondi told The Post. “Every sports franchise aspires to be more than a business, more than a source of entertainment, but be interwoven into the lives of the folks in the community. We saw that happen spontaneously.”
Well, also somewhat accidentally, as I wrote, with the arena posting a Martin Luther King Jr. quote  belatedly, after a week of discordant advertising in the oculus, and a protester saying the arena was "totally appropriated." Also note that Abbamondi started work in late July, well after the protests.

That said, as noted by NetsDaily, unlike some other sports franchise owners Tsai and his wife are clearly not supporting the incumbent Republicans.
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