Atlantic Yards Game Plan
"If you tally up [Bill Batson's] and Hakeem's votes, 88 percent of the vote went to two candidates who opposed the use of eminent domain, according to their stated positions," said Daniel Goldstein, the opposition's main spokesman.
Goldstein says he personally hasn't said anything bad about Jeffries, but fellow-travelling blogs certainly have. Unless you want to interpret Jeffries' last-minute flip-flop as a long-awaited conversion, which is how Goldstein prefers to see it.
The so-called "Liar Flier" from AtlanticYardsVote.blogspot.com
"His mailer looks like something that we might have sent out: a 'no' symbol over eminent domain, a 'no' symbol over Miss Brooklyn, a 'no' symbol over smoke-filled backrooms. We feel like we pushed him to that position."
It's true. Jeffries' last flier does bear homage to the same pastiche-and-caricature graphic style that populates opposition art, including these murals by Schellie and Patti Hagan:
From NoLandGrab.com
"I don't mean we were out there trying to bring him around to our position," Goldstein said. "I think he honestly feels that way. His position moved from before he campaigned to the last week, so we're going to work with him. It looks like there is a lot of common ground."
Goldstein admitted that Jeffries' win does not send as resounding a message that the community opposes Atlantic Yards as a Bill Batson victory would have, but he contended that the New York Times-endorsed corporate lawyer "heard the voice of his constituents" with that last minute flyer. Goldstein attributes Batson's defeat to Jeffries' higher profile and huge budget.
"We don't have quite the opponent in office we would have liked to," Goldstein conceded. "But it's better having Hakeem Jeffries as our assemblyman than our current assemblyman."
The current assemblyman, Roger Green, an ardent supporter of Atlantic Yards, lost his race for higher office. Dare we ask what he plans to do next?
-Matthew Schuerman
This is almost too pathetic for words. Goldstein spent the past three months trying to do everything in his power to get Batson to win. the guy loses by 40 points, including getting swept in and around Goldstein's neighborhood, and now somehow it's a win for Goldstein? What a joke.
ah. and we thought our anonymous comment was a joke. look at Hakeem's flyer. no joke. why'd he move that way? figure it out.
Jeffries specifically spelled out his concerns over AY in a flyer - he came out against eminent domain abuse, against overdevelopment, against the lack of community input. From both a pragmatic and moral perspective, he saw it as a concern.
Too bad it was only two days before the primaries, but Norman Oder dispelled the lie -oops! misperception that Ratner doesn't contribute to politicians. like everything he says, its a half-truth - Ratners family, friends and probably, his barber have all greased the wheels considerably in Brooklyn. The extent is only now being revealed.
Matthew is actually buying in to crappy spinning of goldstein's and its unfortunate because he's supposed to be a journalist. What change did hakeem make? Back in late spring hakeem placed a full page ad in the downtown star - an open letter to the community as he called it - and that ad said exactly everything that hakeem said in the mailer. At that time, in late spring, oder and all of the dddb crew - goldstein included - said that hakeem's position was "fence-sitting" and that hakeem's position wasn't good enough. Oh how the tide has changed.
Dddb did ABSOLUTElY NOTHING to change hakeem's position. It is the same as it was in late spring.
The lawyer that dddb loved to attack as "slick" was smart enough to put out that ad very early at the beginning of his campaign and the mailing at the very end to have documentation that his position DID NOT WAIVER. Smart on his part, very smart. No wonder he graduated magna cum laude from nyu law...
Goldstein and company can now try to spin all they want - they even have matthew schuerman beliving their ka-ka - but they have nothing to offer hakeem and have given no reason for hakeem to offer them a seat at his table.
My guess is hakeem works with those who supported his candidacy all along, including rev clinton miller and senator-elect eric adams who oppose the project in its surrent form but stood with hakeem at his announcement.
A suggestion to goldstein: if for some reason dddb does get hakeem to a meeting or something, might want to hide those "I love ratner" stickers that you guys were using to defame hakeem's posters all over the district and in front of rev miller's church...yeah, rev miller witnessed that in front of brown memorial this past sunday after church. Tsk tsk.
I usually don't post comments, but black pride is right on with his assessment. I remember seeing that ad, and dddb attacked jeffries on it. Goldstein's notion that 88% voted against eminent domain is laughable. Has it not sunk in to his head that jeffries' victory was not a mandate on atlantic yards? Goldstein never said anything negative about jeffries personally? I distinctly remember that when jeffries announced, goldstein put out a statement about his friendship with lupe todd who works for forest city ratner companies as a spokesperson. Jeffries then spent the next two weeks defending a long-standing friendship with her and it was goldstein who was screaming foul - publicly. I don't exactly remember what goldstein said, but I do remember that it wasn't very nice and dddb was calling her all kinds of names (check your threads here at the observer because you guys ran with the story). Maybe goldstein should apologize to her; that might help get his calls returned. But then again, she probably wouldn't take his calls either.
What everybody should learn from the last election is you can't run on a single issue. People living in the AY area probably only see one issue, but the rest of the district clearly has other concerns as well. Jeffries addressed those in his speeches IN ADDITION to speaking out about his concerns with AY.
very simple hypethtical...what if batson had the same funding as jeffries? and the support of the media (who supports ratner)?
It's a circular arguement because big money and big media have clouded the AY issue - and accepted ratner's spin, it's not an issue with many voters. IF voters knew the truth about AY - the lack of transparencey, the amount of money ratner gets, the empty claims about affordable housing it would be a different story.
Forest City CANNOT suceed if the public knows the truth and that's why they are so desparate to hide it.
Goldstein turns out to be a paper tiger; a press release nothing who cannot deliver voters. So maybe if you dumb bloggers and reporters with a bias (yeah you know who) start finding other stories to write about.
Malcolm: Reasonable criticism of Ratner's tactics, but this was the wrong race. (Now the Montgomery-Boyland race is another story...) Ratner and other RE developers gave no money to candidates in the 57th AD.
And as far as Goldstein's spin, I agree that it's distasteful to re-write history -- especially if it's going to be in lieu of offering a personal apology to an electoral victor whom Goldstein and his cronies heckled and slimed for months.
For the record, Black Pride is right: Jeffries position stayed the same, and Goldstein changed. After months of picking at Jeffries' every position, he now sees "common ground."
Someone smarter than Goldstein would have seen the common ground -last- year, and embraced Jeffries when it mattered. Now the election results have done just the opposite of what Goldstein claims and weakedn him considerably: i.e.. it has exposed DDDB as the largely-white, property-owning MINORITY (24.7% before absentee ballots are counted) of the district that it really is.
"Dddb did ABSOLUTElY NOTHING to change hakeem's position. It is the same as it was in late spring."
Good. let's hope jeffries keeps his word and opposes the use of eminent domain. It will be his first test of integrity.
(very simple hypethtical...what if batson had the same funding as jeffries? and the support of the media (who supports ratner)?)
this is funny...so funny...
Dddb boasts this celebrity advisory board. do you mean to tell me that they couldn't get steve buscemi to cut a check? what about heath ledger and michelle williams? i checked batson's filing, no check from them...
and as this blog highlights, hakeem didn't have the support of the media - the opposition did. everyone likes an underdog, including blogs like this one that would ramble on and on about the community's ire toward atlantic yards. not so as hakeem's victory has shown.
the only opposition to development, union work and affordable housing in brooklyn is danny goldstein and his gaggle of 5 (maybe 10). if danny were to step out of his cocoon, he would see that the rest of us living on planet earth are interested in finding that "common ground" that 57 AD Realist talks about.
As a newcomer, Jeffries will have virtually no power. It takes time to build clout and be appointed to committees that translate into real-life change. By the time Jeffries accomplishes that, the AY will be well underway. If he had been elected three or four year ago, then his views on the use of eminent domain might be relevant, but at this juncture it's much too late.
Is being against "eminent domain abuse" the same as being against eminent domain. Is fair market value abusive? Is holding out for $3 million for a property you paid $200,000 for some sort of abuse of the process?
As someone who lives in Hakeem Jeffries' district and who is coming to this issue somewhat late, I can tell you that over months volunteers for the Jeffries campaign knocked on my door, flyers were handed to me on the way to the polls, I received flyers in the mail, and posters were everywhere in the street. Batson - never heard of him. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn - nothing. Is this is the result of money and powerful backers or just running a better campaign with a more appealing candidate? I didn't even know Jeffries supported the Atlantic Yards project (which I think is too big). So, I would say that, to me, DDDB thoroughly failed to reach out and educate voters in my district as to why they should have supported their candidate rather than the new, young, and popular one. This would make sense as DDDB focuses on Prospect Heights near where the project will me built. I am not sure of the size or the shape of the district Jeffries just won but here in Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy I have never encountered any outreach from DDDB.