Brooklyn Matters | |
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Release date |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Brooklyn Matters is a 2007 documentary film, produced and directed by Isabel Hill and edited by Marian Sears Hunter.
The film describes the fight against the Atlantic Yards development project in Brooklyn, New York. Atlantic Yards is Bruce Ratner's Forest City Development and the Empire State Development Corporation's plan to build a New York Nets basketball arena and 17 office and apartment buildings along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. The film includes interviews with Paul Goldberger, Bob Law, then-Councilwoman Letitia James and Julia Vitullo-Martin and shows the community input meeting for the project's environmental impact statement. [1]
Chuck Clifton, director of photography,[ citation needed ] and Michelle Clifton, sound recordist, were also involved in the making of the movie.
A screening of the film in February 2007 at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene attracted verbal and physical aggression from people apparently in support of the development. [2]
Brooklyn is a borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelve original counties established under British rule in 1683 in the then Province of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population stood at 2,736,074, making it the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City, the most populous county in the State of New York, and the ninth most populous county in the United States. In 2022, the population density of Brooklyn was recorded at 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km2), making it the second most densely populated county nationwide, behind only Manhattan. Had Brooklyn remained an independent city, it would today be the fourth most populous American city after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the west, Atlantic Avenue and Prospect Heights to the south, and Vanderbilt Avenue and Clinton Hill to the east. The Fort Greene Historic District is listed on the New York State Registry and on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a New York City designated historic district.
Fort Greene Park is a city-owned and -operated park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The 30.2-acre (12.2 ha) park was originally named after the fort formerly located there, Fort Putnam, itself was named for Rufus Putnam, George Washington's chief of engineers in the Revolutionary War.
Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south, and the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway or the East River on the west. Adjacent neighborhoods are Dumbo to the north, Downtown Brooklyn to the east, and Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill to the south.
Prospect Heights is a neighborhood in the northwest of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The traditional boundaries are Flatbush Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Eastern Parkway – beginning at Grand Army Plaza – to the south, and Washington Avenue to the east. In the northern section of Prospect Heights are the Vanderbilt Rail Yards, built over as part of the Pacific Park project. The Barclays Center, home to the NBA's Brooklyn Nets basketball team, is located in the northwestern corner of the neighborhood in Pacific Park at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues.
Atlantic Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. It stretches from the Brooklyn waterfront on the East River all the way to Jamaica, Queens. Atlantic Avenue runs parallel to Fulton Street for much of its course through Brooklyn, where it serves as a border between the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights and Fort Greene and between Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, and between Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. This stretch of avenue is known for having a high rate of pedestrian fatalities and has been described as "the killing fields of the city."
Barclays Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association. The arena also hosts concerts, conventions and other sporting and entertainment events.
Bruce Ratner is an American real estate developer, philanthropist, and former minority owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets.
Martin Markowitz is an American politician who served as the borough president of Brooklyn, New York City. He was first elected in 2001 after serving 23 years as a New York State Senator. His third and final term ended in December 2013.
Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center are two shopping malls located on Atlantic Avenue surrounded by Hanson Place, Fort Greene Place and Flatbush Avenue in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York City, near Downtown Brooklyn. Atlantic Terminal is located across the street from the Atlantic Center Mall, connected via a small enclosed bridge from Target, and both are under the same management of Madison International Realty. On December 22, 2017, Atlantic Terminal and Atlantic Center was acquired by Madison International Realty from Forest City Realty Trust. The real estate private equity firm had previously acquired a 49% stake in the Forest City portfolio in 2011 and purchased the remaining 51% in 2017 to make Madison International Realty one of the largest retail landlords in New York. Atlantic Terminal is also an office building and part of the ticket office of the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Terminal. Parts of Atlantic Center Mall were also renovated to complement the new mall. The malls are both located directly across Atlantic Avenue from Barclays Center arena, in the neighborhood of Pacific Park, which is being developed by Forest City Ratner.
Pacific Park is a mixed-use commercial and residential development project by Forest City Ratner in Brooklyn, New York City. It will consist of 17 high-rise buildings near Brooklyn's Prospect Heights, adjacent to Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, and Fort Greene neighborhoods. The project overlaps part of the Atlantic Terminal Urban Renewal Area, but also extends toward the adjacent brownstone neighborhoods. Of the 22-acre (8.9 ha) project, 8.4 acres (3.4 ha) is located over a Long Island Rail Road train yard. A major component of the project is the Barclays Center sports arena, which opened on September 21, 2012. Formerly named Atlantic Yards, the project was renamed by the developer in August 2014 as part of a rebranding.
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc., formerly Forest City Enterprises, was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The company was organized in Maryland with its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. As of December 31, 2017, the company owned 29 office buildings, 29 shopping centers, and 78 apartment complexes. On December 7, 2018, the company was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management.
Myrtle Avenue is a 8.1-mile-long (13.0 km) street that runs from Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, in New York City, United States. Myrtle is a main thoroughfare through the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Ridgewood, and Glendale.
The Ward Baking Company Building was an industrial facility in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, New York. It was constructed in 1911 by George S. Ward as a baking plant for the Ward Bread Company, which later became the Continental Baking Company.
Dolly Williams is the co-founder and CFO of A. Williams Construction, a Brooklyn, NY, general contracting company. She has been a member of the New York City Planning Commission from July 2002.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a shipyard and industrial complex in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York, U.S. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlears Hook in Manhattan. It is bounded by Navy Street to the west, Flushing Avenue to the south, Kent Avenue to the east, and the East River on the north. The site, which covers 225.15 acres (91.11 ha), is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Times Plaza is the historical name for the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Fourth Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The area came to be called Times Plaza for the nearby offices of the Brooklyn Daily Times. The United States Postal Service office located at 539 Atlantic Avenue is still called the Times Plaza Station.
James Phillip Stuckey is a New York City real estate developer. He is responsible for the creation of many New York public and private large-scale projects, and was responsible for the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder of Forest City Ratner Companies' Atlantic Yards Development Group.
Laurie A. Cumbo is an American politician and Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. A Democrat, she served in the New York City Council for the 35th district from 2014 to 2021, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Prospect Heights, portions of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Vinegar Hill. She is the founder and first executive director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts.
Play:ground NYC is a non-profit adventure playground that has operated on Governors Island in New York City since 2016 and advocates for access to space for free play.