Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

This is a kind of "Atlantic Yards down the memory hole" moment. The New Yorker 4/27/20 published a "Postcard from Before,"  A Pre-Pandemic Night Out with Stephen Malkmus , which follows the "Pavement front man and longtime sports fan [as he] hits up a Nets game and a Brooklyn dive bar—remember those?" Sure, Sharlene's, which opened in 2009 , qualifies as a dive bar, in Punch's description "a relatively new place with the effortless feel of an old-school staple," though old-timers surely remember the the venerable Mooney's. But this passage in the New Yorker took me aback: Barclays Center contains a windowless cinder-block room with the words “love” and “joy” posted on the wall. It is known as the Meditation Room. Though the door is often locked, it is intended as a place for hysterical fans to pause and gather themselves. Well, here's the Meditation Room, according to the Barclays Center guide : Located on the Main Conc...

Well, the Barclays Center Meditation Room may inspire some quizzical responses and snark from sports fans--and others who see it as a little used concession to a key Atlantic Yards supporter. But the Downtown Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance (DBNA), founded by that supporter, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry and funded by developer Forest City Ratner, is doing its part to try highlight the value of the room, offering Moments of Peace: The Meditation Room Video Challenge . It has invited its Community Partners--the groups that get free tickets to arena events distributed by the DBNA--to go to the Meditation Room, choose one of the words on the walls--LOVE, PEACE, FORGIVE, BELIEVE, REJOICE, FAITH--and make a three-to-four minute video explaining how that word plays a role in their life, as noted in the rules at right. Five winning videos will be chosen each month, and the makers will get two tickets to an arena event. As noted in the document at bottom: The goals of the video challen...