Ratzo Crosses the East River

Matt Welch | September 20, 2005

In my New York Times/Kelo column I mentioned a sleazebag New York real estate developer named Bruce Ratner, who was able to leverage eminent domain to evict property owners who were in the way of the Times' fancy new headquarters.

Well, turns out Ratner is behind a $3.5 billion new project in Brooklyn, called the Atlantic Yards development, that would, among other things, use taxpayer money to build a basketball arena, and displace up to 74 households via eminent domain. For more information, and some anti-Ratner anger, visit noLandGrab.org, TimesRatnerReport, DevelopDontDestroy.org, and DDD's special New York Times page.

Comments

|9.20.05 @ 4:04PM|#

Announcement of Gathering in the DC Area
This is a thread-jack. If you do not cooperate we will unleash the wrath of Allah on your server!....oh, wait, never mind.

Anyway, in light of how successful the other gatherings have been, Mr. Nice Guy and I are looking to have a gathering in the DC area, any weekend from Oct. 28 through mid-December.

Here's how it works:
-If you're interested, contact me. The address is real if you remove the part about spam.
-Let me know which weekends you can meet in the DC area. If you aren't sure of your schedule but want to be on the mailing list for the event, just send me an email and I'll keep you in the loop.
-Most popular weekend wins.
-I'm fairly new to the area, so if you have a suggested venue, preferably near a Metro stop, let me know that too.

I'm thinking an evening, preferably a Saturday, but whatever time works for the most people is what we'll do. Mr. Nice Guy and I will try to organize a trip to the shooting range (in Maryland, not DC, obviously) in the afternoon before the event for those who are interested. Both of us live near Metro stations and can probably take in somebody who wants to crash.

Also, Smacky is coming to DC for a wedding Oct. 14-16. I'm busy that weekend, her schedule with the wedding is kind of busy, and I figure that the shorter notice might not work for those wanting to come from out of town, but if somebody is interested in putting something together, you might want to get in touch with her and see who else is interested.

|9.20.05 @ 5:00PM|#

If you do not cooperate we will unleash the wrath of Allah on your server!

Go for it! I'm willing to bet Chang will whoop Allah's ass any day of the week :)

|9.20.05 @ 5:07PM|#

Just trying to start a flame war:

Isn't Bruce Ratner the brother of Ellen Ratner (the liberal columnist).

Flame away!! ;^ )

|9.20.05 @ 8:51PM|#

Ratner also "owns" the NJ Nets NBA team, thus the need for a new basketball arena

|9.21.05 @ 10:17AM|#

Dude, where ya' been on this one?

ratnerville|9.23.05 @ 6:46PM|#

Bruce is also brother of Michael Ratner world famous Constitutional and International Human Rights Lawyer and President of the Center for Constitutional Rights
(http://www.ccr-ny.org)

But guess what? Michael Ratner is an investor in his Brother Bruce's Brooklyn Boondoggle and Land Grab. And guess what? that land grab includes the abuse of eminent domain, and thus the abuse of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

Its unfortunate that Mr. Constitutional Michael Ratner thinks blood is thicker than the Constitution.

NoLandGrabber|9.23.05 @ 10:17PM|#

But WAIT, there's MORE...

The eminent domain addicted Bruce Ratner was just thwarted in Bloomfield, NJ from conspiring with the township to seize private property serving small business owners for a mixed-use development anchored by a Stop & Shop (details at njeminentdomain.com).