Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

If the Brooklyn Public Library raised $1.3 million from its 2022 gala, celebrating its 125th anniversary, how much should it have raised from its 2023 gala, honoring Jay-Z? After all, the international superstar is the subject of the "tribute exhibit" The Book of Hov, produced by his company Roc Nation and occupying 40,000 square feet of prominent library space from July through December, with Jay-Z's lyrics plastered over the library's facade. Surely it would be a few multiples of the previous total, right? Nope. According to the New York Times, which reported on the gala, the sum was $1.5 million. That's just $200,000 more than the previous year. Expenses diminish total It's likely a significant chunk of revenue was diminished by having to throw a very fun party, with gala chairs the library CEO Linda Johnson and her husband, original Atlantic Yards (and Barclays Center) developer Bruce Ratner, as well as Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, who currently owned the Brook...

Yesterday, I mentioned  that the chairs for the big Jay-Z gala at the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library Oct. 3 include library CEO Linda Johnson and her husband, the developer Bruce Ratner (who built the Barclays Center), as well as Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, who currently own the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty, and the arena operating company. Photos: Norman Oder But let's not skip over the other co-chair Desiree Perez, CEO of Jay-Z's company Roc Nation , who--as a reader pointed out--has an interesting backstory, involving a drug conviction (for some serious weight), a bold gambit to wear a wire, and, much later, a pardon by President Donald Trump which prompted speculation. After all, if Perez could get the Brooklyn Public Library to install essentially a Jay-Z Hall of Fame in its public spaces, put a Lexus on its lawn, and cover its facade with visually striking but mostly forgettable Jay-Z lyrics--after all, most are hardly hits--she's got to be an operator an...

Photos: Norman Oder Well, now.  The Brooklyn Public Library, likely executing a plan long contemplated, has extended The Book of HOV, the Roc Nation-produced "tribute" to company founder Jay-Z, to Dec. 4, which just happens to be Jay's birthday.  And Monday, the Central Library will again--as with a summer shindig previewing the exhibit, per Hell Gate -- close early, for the library annual gala, likely to reap more in donations than previous efforts. After all, they're honoring Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and his mother Gloria Carter, and the significant list of supporters--including corporate names like Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Google--suggests some deep pockets. Then again, the library has already compromised itself by hosting, with no editorial control, an exhibit that mythologizes Jay-Z, and two weeks ago even allowed a Lexus used in a famed video--another Jay-Z "artifact"--to be mounted on its lawn, complete with its own security guard. The library...

If you check Twitter  and other social media, most commenters think the new Book of Hov Jay-Z tribute exhibit at Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library is fantastic, including memorabilia like tour photos, a replica of his studio, and interviews about all of his albums. That's not surprising--he's a huge star, and worthy of a major exhibition. It's fascinating and well-executed sponcon, or sponsored content. (I'm just going by the coverage and online exhibit; I haven't been to the library yet.) But should that exhibition dominate--and in some ways displace--a public library? Should that exhibition be more than a tribute produced and paid for by his company? (I  pointed out  that there might be contradictions in a presentation that seems to ignore--or at least gloss over--Jay-Z's early career as a drug dealer, or his alliance with developers.) Those questions were aired not in the major New York Times article that appeared online Thursday, July 14,  How a ...

Well, the New Yorker is known for its fact-checking, so I assume they've confirmed something that had not, as far as I know, been previously announced: Bruce Ratner has married for the third time, to his companion Linda Johnson, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library.  (As reported in early 2019, they bought a condo together in Brooklyn Bridge Park.) From A Less Dingy, Less Raccoon-Infested Brooklyn Public Library , published in the June 7 issue and online 5/31/21, concerning a revamp of the Central Branch: The ceremony began. “Every time I stand up here, I start by saying how excited and delighted I am, and I mean it every single time,” Johnson said, from a lectern. “But I have never felt it or meant it more deeply.” Johnson’s husband, the real-estate developer Bruce Ratner, fumbled to applaud, juggling a coffee cup in his left hand. Johnson, reading from a wind-rustled page, rhapsodized about a “poured-terrazzo floor that makes you completely forget the linoleum that p...

From Brooklyn Public Library Well, here's one way to put it: Bruce Ratner, who did so much business and made so much money in Brooklyn, finally moved to the borough--or, at least, bought an apartment. Another way" Brooklyn has a new power couple: "developer and philanthropist"  Ratner and Brooklyn Public Library CEO Linda Johnson, living in a very tony address, the Pierhouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park. More on that below. Also, maybe: The Brooklyn Public Library, whose CEO aims to raise money, now might have access to another stratum of potential donors. The library & the arena All that makes it... interesting that the library's next fundraiser, Ball for Brooklyn , will be held May 22 at the Barclays Center. That's a reference to both the soiree and the fact that basketball's played there, plus, perhaps, an unconscious riff on the film title  Battle for Brooklyn . The honorees are: Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith, founders of Ample H...

They're calling it a "participatory art project," but it's really more about neighborhood history, with panels starting tomorrow night and a walking tour on October 17. (See more details below.) Recently launched is Intersection/Prospect Heights , which "uses photographs and oral histories to start a dialogue on the social, psychological, and physical impacts of rapid change in this Brooklyn neighborhood." Translation: it draws on the early 2000s photographs and oral histories of Prospect Heights ( article ,  psychology dissertation ) by Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, founder of the urbanist studio  Buscada , to stimulate new conversations. At public events, on the website, and in cards inserted in neighborhood guides, residents are encouraged to share their stories about what in Prospect Heights is important to them. The research only obliquely touches on Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park; the dissertation infrequently mentions the project, and the six printed...

Update: Here's lengthy coverage in Library Journal of this issue . Remember the Pacific branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, next to the Atlantic Yards site and destined to close as part of the library's plan to reap revenues from its real estate to bolster the system? I'll have a longer report elsewhere reasonably soon on that complicated controversy, but below, photos from yesterday's rally at City Hall. (Here's brief  Times coverage .) In the rally, Citizens Defending Libraries , the group that organized around the planned closings of the Pacific and Brooklyn Heights branches (the library's take ), joined with activists in Manhattan (and beyond) opposing the separate New York Public Library's plan to move books from storage under its flagship research library to accommodate new public service spaces for the functions of the to-be-sold SIBL and Mid-Manhattan branches. There are several activists involved also seen in the Atlantic Yards fight,...