"Brooklyn Is Dying" and "Strength in Numbers," as activist/musician Scott Turner says goodbye (for now) to the borough (but not the AY fight)

Written in 2010, but not published until April 19, 2026, but backdated.

In January 2010, musician, graphic designer, and activist Scott Turner, a leader of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, explained that he was leaving town:

A job offer in Seattle coincided with an awakening that I have to get back to music. Six years of fighting the Atlantic Yards project and lots else going on here in Brooklyn put a squelcher on the guitar and the singing. Seattle’s a clean-slate chance to play lots of music and get RebelMart functioning full-throttle.

I went to his final show, held at Rocky Sullivan's in Red Hook (which later moved, and closed).

"I'm not the most appropriate guy sometimes," Scott Turner said in the midst of a rant introducing his song "Brooklyn Is Dying," a salute to and defense of Freddy's Bar & Backroom, the Atlantic Yards footprint watering hole and performance space threatened with eminent domain.

It was before a small but energetic crowd at Rocky Sullivan's, one of his home bases, on a cold night when musicians just happened to be competing with a Haiti Relief musical telethon broadcast around the world.

Strength in Numbers



Brooklyn Is Dying



(Lyrics and Brooklyn scenes, including AY rallies and now-demolished parts of the Atlantic Yards footprint, in this music video. It also includes a photo of Lee Houston, a teacher, writer, musician, Vietnam vet, and Freddy's regular who died in 2005 and whose wake was held in the bar. ("For events like Lee's wake do not occur in T.G.I.Friday's or Chuck E. Cheese," Turner wrote. The manager, Donald O'Finn, comped everyone's drinks and lost the revenue on a day that's typically busy.)

A few lyrics

A reference to Lee Houston: "We buried Lee with tears and smiles / We only got each other for a while."

"If Freddy's goes down, Brooklyn is gone." Well, maybe a certain version of Brooklyn, at a particular time and place. Ultimately, Freddy's moved.

Also see Turner's pub quiz missive after the loss in the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn-organized eminent domain case, and his final missive before leaving.