Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

Sure, it's no big deal, but it's another example of what I call "Atlantic Yards down the memory hole," when fuzzy observations turn into mistaken assumptions. In an essay in last Sunday's New York Times Sunday Review, headlined online as  The City of Lost Love  and in print as "The City That Belonged to Us," novelist and contributing writer  Kaitlyn Greenidge reflected: If you live in New York long enough, and date and make friends here, you have your own secret map of the city and the places that make you nostalgic... Freddy’s hasn’t been on the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue for years but every time I pass the place where it used to sit, I think of the night a few writer friends and I got into a tiff with some poets from N.Y.U., left a bar in the West Village to buy $60 worth of Gray’s Papaya for friends who stayed at the bar, returned to find the place closed; stood for a moment on the corner wondering how we’d get nine people and 25 hot d...

I can't say I didn't predict it , the New York Times feature today headlined Opponents of Atlantic Yards Are Exhausted by a Long, Losing Battle . The Times, I wrote last month, would report that opponents were diminished and disempowered. Which they are--duh. Some have left the neighborhood or left town. Then again, so too have many paid exponents of Atlantic Yards, including Forest City Ratner's two point men ( both of whom left under ethical clouds), several state executives, union executives , as well as a criminal lobbyist and a criminal legislator. (Where was the headline "Atlantic Yards Proponents Shamed, Indicted, Convicted"?) Then again, the (nearly all) unpaid activists--groups organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and BrooklynSpeaks--also won a big lawsuit, requiring Empire State Development, the state agency overseeing and shepherding Atlantic Yards, to conduct a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), to study the communi...

Author and urbanist Roberta Brandes Gratz wrote a 10/5/12 column on Citiwire, The Great Brooklyn Bait-and-Switch : With at least $305 million in public subsidies already (yet no Tea Party complaints have been heard here), Ratner promises to break ground in December and meet a legal deadline on the first residential tower, with additional public subsidies which might provide 181 affordable units. Note, however, that 171 affordable units were bulldozed to make way for the project. Public funding here, in the form of tax-exempt bonds, means less of that limited funding will be available elsewhere in the city, where it could buy more units. No Ratner money will go into fulfilling what is a fraction of that original commitment for 2,250 units. But the real point in all of this – if you can look past the broken promises, excessive use of public funds and a process in which this huge development was never approved by an elected government body – is that it uses a failed and destructive appro...

Crain's reports, in Low-key Brooklyn neighborhood makes some noise: South Slope area suddenly hot spot for bars, restaurants. , that the reincarnation of Freddy's is going well: Patrons were crestfallen last year when Freddy's, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, poured its final shots. While the boisterous tavern—a hangout for artists, cops and others since Prohibition—was razed to make way for Atlantic Yards, one of its owners had an epiphany. “We could reinvent ourselves,” said Donald O'Finn. “We could start again.” In February, Freddy's was reincarnated near the corner of 17th Street and Fifth Avenue. The area, south of the Prospect Expressway and between Fourth Avenue and Green-Wood Cemetery, has had a surge in bars and restaurants in recent months. ...After looking in Park Slope and Gowanus for a new location, Mr. O'Finn knew that the 15-year lease for 2,300 square feet in South Slope was a bargain. He would not disclose the exact price but said that “it woul...

Vicente Rodriguez Ortega's documentary Freddy's debuted last year ( review ), and it will be shown tomorrow , April 27, at indieScreen , 85 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, as part of the Brooklyn Film Festival. The blurb: Freddy's Bar & Backroom was a thriving cultural hub situated in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Open since prohibition, the bar featured a unique and colorful history. It was destroyed in 2010 to make way for the Atlantic Yards development project. This charming documentary had its World Premiere at the 2010 Brooklyn Film Festival, and captures the diverse set of characters in Freddy's community - the bartenders, the regulars, the artists and the musicians. Freddy's recently reopened in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but this film provides a window into an era of Brooklyn's history that has been permanently demolished. Tickets .

Yesterday, the New York Times briefly mentioned Forest City Ratner's effort to raise $249 million from immigrant investors, as if no questions or controversy were connected. I've scanned the print article, to contrast the amount of coverage with the significant space the Sports section has devoted to covering Nets promotions of dubious value. (Click on all graphics to enlarge and clarify.) Yes, Metro is different from Sports, but people read the Times as a whole. (And, I should add, today's Times has a Metro section feature on the move of Freddy's from Prospect Heights, displaced from the arena block, to an address that's either the South South Slope, Greenwood Heights, or northern Sunset Park: The Transmigration of a Brooklyn Saloon . It's not uninteresting, but it's also soft news, not hard news that requires some analysis.) The two paragraphs the Times devoted to EB-5 are also dwarfed by a Sports section photo of Nets dancers and a puff piece about a pro...

Here's Park Slope blogger Dan Myers has an interesting interview with Mike Maher, who bought O'Connor's Bar , on Fifth Avenue between Bergen and Dean, three years ago, and is expanding it with a beer garden, a backyard, and a kitchen. And while it is not becoming an arena bar, as apparently some suitors sought, it can't not be influenced by the building just a few blocks north: "When I was a candidate to purchase this bar from the O'Connor family, I was the only one who promised to keep the name, and the brand," said Maher. "Everybody else wanted to change the name. People connected to the Atlantic Yards offered them more money, but they sold it to me because I promised to keep it O'Connor's, and to not build condos on the roof. I think the O'Connor family would be happy with what we're doing here. They never considered the bar a 'dive,' and if you take a look around, we've always kept it spotless in here." Mahe...

NLG has a roundup, here and here , regarding the reopening of Freddy's Bar and Backroom and Metromix has photos . (The old Freddy's website needs a n update link to the new one .) Upon its demise in Prospect Heights, displaced for the arena block, Joshua M. Bernstein wrote , "Freddy’s will endure in spirit, but the patina that the patrons created will be lost in the rubble." Well, the coverage--and my own brief visit--suggests that the owners and managers have done a pretty good job re-creating the patina, with a new Backroom (though with a small corridor) and new televisions (flat screen this time) to show Donald O'Finn's video art. It's just in a different neighborhood--maybe the South Slope is the equivalent of Prospect Heights a decade or two ago. And there's a different orbit around it. For one thing, the history of a cop bar is erased when the local precinct is no longer virtually across the street. Also, the history of Atlantic Yards resist...

According to reports from Eater and OTBKB (which got the press release I didn't get yet), the operators of Freddy's Bar & Backroom , displaced after some 15 years from the northwest corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue due to eminent domain (which led to a settlement), aim to reopen 1.6 miles away. The location: the old Ellis space at 627 5th Avenue near 17th Street, just below the Prospect Expressway in an area some call the South South Slope and others call Greenwood Heights. According to the press release, Frank Yost, who held the Freddy's lease, is not part of the new bar, which will be run by former manager Donald O'Finn and former bartenders Matt Kuhn (the press release had "Khun," but I think that's a typo) and Matt Kimmett. What next? The bar still needs approval from the community board, State Liquor Authority, and the Department of Buildings. "We will still feature our popular videos, art exhibitions, live music and a few surpri...

Photographer Tracy Collins has been keeping track of Forest City Ratner's demolition of some sturdy buildings for the arena block. August 11 483 Dean demolition from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 12 483 Dean demolition continues from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 13 Freddy's demolition time lapse - August 13, 2010 from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 16 Freddy's demolition time lapse - August 16, 2010 from tracy collins on Vimeo . August 17 The End of Freddy's - August 17, 2010 from tracy collins on Vimeo .

On Friday, demolition workers continued to dismantle the building at the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue that once housed Freddy's Bar & Backroom. Here's a slide show from Raul Rothblatt. Below are cropped versions of two photos in the sequence. One floor from the main building was demolished, and the Backroom next door is history.

It was a little like a wake, the first showing Wednesday of the compelling new documentary ( Freddy's ) on the now-closed Freddy's Bar & Backroom, a chance for some of the regulars and staff to remember a unique Brooklyn place, a product of a particular time and place, Prospect Heights preceding and riding a wave of gentrification. And like some wakes, it was a mix of remembrance and release and raucousness, with some knowing, hearty laughs punctuating certain scenes, responses that likely wouldn't be elicited from a mostly civilian audience. "Freddy's was a hub of wonderful people, musicians and lovely weirdos," director Vicente Rodriguez Ortega observes (as cited in Found in Brooklyn). "I only man aged to scratch the surface what it was, what it is, what it will be because in many ways it's timeless." As one regular says, "It's a precious cultural meeting place--and there's alcohol." Freddy's, an aut...

In the new documentary on the now-closed Freddy's Bar & Backroom--I'll have a review tomorrow before its second showing Friday at 6 pm--manager Donald O'Finn explains how the bar operators tried but failed to buy the building in which they had a lease.   "[Developer] Bruce Ratner owns the buildings that Freddy's is in," O'Finn says. "We had tried to buy it... the price kept going up and up and up. And then it was purchased suddenly by some real estate speculators who then sold it to Ratner."   Really? Yup.  While Forest City Ratner will gain an enormous increase in the land's value thanks to a state override of city zoning, the biggest beneficiary until that sale was not a longtime landowner but an ownership group that flipped the property.  That group made a deal in October 2003, two months before Atlantic Yards was officially announced on 12/10/03. (Word of the project had emerged publicly in July 2003, and surely others knew befor...

Less than six weeks after Freddy's Bar & Backroom closed in the wake of eminent domain for Atlantic Yards, an intimate documentary (titled Freddy's ) about the noted Prospect Heights watering hole will debut this week at the Brooklyn International Film Festival . The film will be screened (tickets) on Wednesday June 9 at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema (7 pm) and on Friday June 11 at indieScreen in Williamsburg (6pm). The director is Vicente Rodriguez Ortega . Having seen the film, I highly recommend it--it hits deeper than the whimsical trailer below, with lots of (engaging) talking heads, music, and some intriguing filmic composition. And I learned a bunch. I have some questions and quibbles, of course, but I'll save them until after the first screening, where manager Donald O'Finn and other Freddy's staffers will be present for the Q&A. The trailer The official synopsis: Freddy's Bar & Backroom was a thriving cultural hub situated in Prospect Hei...

Photographer Tracy Collins, who's steadily chronicled the Atlantic Yards site (and more), has just posted photos of 481 Dean Street (the first two) and its nearby neighbor Freddy's Bar & Backroom, empty and awaiting demolition after a fence is installed . Click on photos to enlarge. The painted graffiti on Freddy's isn't as easy to remove as the "We are not blighted" sign . But a security guard keeps watch.

When the operators of Freddy's Bar & Backroom vacated this premises this past week after closing , they left a few messages in the front window. I took the first photo; Tracy Collins took the second one . Both photos were taken Thursday. When I walked by yesterday, the posters were gone. (They were distributed by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn for the 8/23/06 hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.)

Well, I visited the last last night for Freddy's Bar & Backroom from about 8:30 to 10:30 pm. Photographer Tracy Collins arrived later and captured the scene at the bar, the Backroom, and the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue, slated to change significantly. Here's his set ; several examples are below. The top chants of the night, I'm told: "Fuck the Nets. We Want the Funk" "We all Live at Sixth Avenue and Dean" (to the tune of "Yellow Submarine") "We all Live at Sixth Avenue and Dean" (from redhookrockys) (Other videos are here , here , here , and here . Here's a roundup of more coverage in blogs.) In the Backroom The list of musical acts: "What are they going to do -- evict us?" Scott Turner of The Spunk Lads Roger Paz of The Spunk Lads. The banner on the wall--otherwise stripped of art--says "Don't Tread on Brooklyn." Anna Copa Cabanna Outside Freddy's Attorneys Matt Brinckerhoff and Cand...