Nets Arena Opponents Seeking Aid
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A group that opposes Bruce Ratner’s attempt to build a Nets arena in Brooklyn is raising money for its cause by asking local restaurants to donate 5% of a week’s profits. As of yesterday, the start date for Develop Don’t Destroy’s weeklong fund-raiser, 25 Brooklyn restaurants had signed up.
The group will use the donations to cover legal fees, including the cost of hiring well-known lawyer Norman Siegel in an effort to fight Mr. Ratner’s $2 billion plan to develop a sports arena and housing, office, and retail space in Downtown Brooklyn.
The group aims to raise $10,000 to $20,000 from the fund-raiser, Develop Don’t Destroy’s spokesman, Daniel Goldstein, said. A spokeswoman for Forest City Ratner, of which Mr. Ratner is president, did not return calls.
While supporters of the development plan say it will create more business for small businesses, opponents say it will cause congestion and is too large for the mainly residential neighborhood.
“I am very doubtful the stadium will increase our business. My personal thought is that people will come to the stadium, buy their hot dogs and pizza, and leave,” the manager of Maggie Brown, Dan DeMarti, said. Maggie Brown, which is in nearby Clinton Hill, is offering 5% of this week’s take to Develop Don’t Destroy.
“This neighborhood is gentrifying in a very sustainable way, with people who live here investing and building it,” Francine Stephens, co-owner with her husband of the Prospect Heights restaurant Franny’s, said. “The Nets arena is something external they want to plop down and call growth, and that is not sustainable.”
“I have worked here for four years and lived here for the past year, and so many people come here to get away from the congestion and chaos of the city and the arena will ruin that,” George Constantinou, the manager of Night of the Cookers, a Fort Greene jazz club, said.
Other restaurant owners, afraid of alienating customers by taking a political stand, are offering only tepid support for the fund-raiser.
Julius Tajiddin, who manages Butta’ Cup Lounge, is asking customers if they support Develop Don’t Destroy’s efforts before donating 5% of their tab to the fund-raiser. “We don’t want customers who like the idea to be upset at us for doing something with their money they don’t believe in,” he said.
