A Block Party Without a Block: A Community Survives Long After Its Homes Are Razed | MetroFocus | THIRTEEN

I just watched the "Battle For Brooklyn," the 2011 documentary about the fight with Cleveland developer Ratner over his plan for a "multi-use" section of Brooklyn, NY that involves using lies, subterfuge, front groups and ignorant, scared officials to pull off this heist. It end up costing the city over 40 million dollars to date and making Ratner over 725 million dollars while the the sports arena is the only part of the fancy development done a decade later.
Eminent domain is a scary concept that most middle-class people have not had to live through it (recently or ever) and so believe it will not happen to them. It very well might. This is exactly like the MidCity fight for Lafitte or the VA/retail corridor that has destroyed the middle of the city. Or just like the fight for the South Central Farm in Los Angeles that is now an empty lot and so on.
The short that ends the film shows another "urban renewal" project that was done in the 1950s to the West 99th Upper West Side neighborhood that was so tight-knit that they still hold a annual reunion. Click below to see that and see Battle For Brooklyn when you can.
A Block Party Without a Block: A Community Survives Long After Its Homes Are Razed | MetroFocus | THIRTEEN