The Brooklyn Papers has an interesting revelation that one of the people leading the pro-Ratner counter rally to Community opposition to Ratner's Atlantic Yards is an admitted pimp:

One of Bruce Ratner’s boosters at the pro–Atlantic Yards rally on Saturday is a former strip club manager who used to arrange for dancers to have sex with NBA stars.

The Atlantic Yards supporter, Thomas “Ziggy” Sicignano, who now runs Brooklyn U.S.A., a youth basketball program in Park Slope, said that Ratner’s foundation gave his organization $10,000 in 2005.

That donation came four years after his stunning courtroom admission that he prostituted strippers to attract NBA stars to the Gold Club in Atlanta.

This comes as no surprise. After all, the counter-rally wasn't a community based rally, but were getting paid to be there. And many people suddenly become Ratner supporters after getting paid money by him. Sicignano had his price. Vito Lopez had his price. Ratner's whole scheme is about buying favors, so he and a pimp would get along just fine.

DDDB sent me a link to some pictures from Saturday's "Put Up or Shut Up Ratner" Rally (as I call it). Once again, I am struck at the politicians that have come together to oppose Ratner.

The iconic picture for me is Chris Owens and David Yassky, on the same stage to demand accountability in all aspects of the Atlantic Yards project:

How times have changed since 2006. And Ratner brought them together.

This picture gives a good impression of the turnout:

Though I think this might be facing only one way from the stage and so show about half the crowd. A was the far end of the crowd in this picture, so I couldn't see to the other end. This seems to give an impression of the crowd facing the other way:

Not a bad turnout for a dreary Saturday.

Today was the rally calling for Bruce Ratner to put up or shut up. Brooklyn is getting tired of Ratner making promises then breaking those promises even as he demands more taxpayer money. The rally was well attended, though we came slightly late and were way at the back, so didn't really see the whole crowd.

Chris Owens, President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and Brooklyn Progressive Activist, led the rally. Three groups organized the rally: Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, and Brooklyn Speaks. MANY local politicians attended, including some who had previously been pretty solidly behind Ratner. Ratner has worn out his welcome even among his supporters.

Here are some excerpts from the press release from the three organizing groups:

Councilman Bill DeBlasio has seemed to have never met a developer dollar he didn't like. Rumor has it he has admitted as much. But it is certain that he by and large sides quite proudly with any developer who pays lip service, no matter how far fetched, to affordable housing.

Tuesday, April 1, 7pm. Screening of Isabel Hill's Atlantic Yards documentary "Brooklyn Matters". Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School
357 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn
(btwn. Greene & Lafayette Aves.). Co-sponsors: Society for Clinton Hill, The Fort Greene Association, and DDDB

This documentary has been very highly acclaimed. For example:

“It wasn’t until viewing Isabel Hill’s film that I realized the true scope of what is at stake for the future of Brooklyn in proceeding with the development of the Atlantic Yards in its present form.”
-Carmi Bee, FAIA, RKT&B Architects & Planners

“Brooklyn Matters is a remarkable film that slowly, quietly, calmly reveals the extreme ugliness at the heart of one of the most ill-conceived mega-development schemes in New York history.”
-Francis Morrone, Architectural Historian

"Isabel Hill’s revealing documentary about the proposed Atlantic Yards project takes an honest look at the complex role that race, class, power, and money play in the redevelopment of our communities and calls for a more open discussion about equitable urban development."

Well, it is now on record in court records. Ratner has lied to us about the so-called "benefits" of his Atlantic Yards project. In fact, it sure sounds to me like Ratner's lawyer has admitted that he lied under oath:

From the Brooklyn Papers:

Forest City Ratner now admits that its claim of a tax revenue windfall — a justification for the government’s support of the $4 billion project — was actually concocted by Ratner’s paid consultant, and was not based on an analysis by state officials as the developer repeatedly claimed.

“The $4.4 billion figure is in the report of a consultant who had been retained by [Forest City Ratner Companies] and does not appear in the state’s [Final Environmental Review Statement,]” said Ratner attorney Jeffrey Braun in a legal document that surfaced this week.

Braun himself previously stated in court that the $4.4 billion number came from the state.

Seems Councilmembers Letitia James and David Yassky are teaming up to oppose the massive tax giveaways to developer Bruce Ratner. Here's the press release:

[Councilmembers] Yassky and James to Proposed Atlantic Yards Amendment to MSG Tax Resolution

Today at the Finance Committee hearing, the committee will review and vote on Proposed Resolution 90, which asks the State of New York to end the twenty-year-old property tax exemption for Madison Square Garden. If the Council thinks subsidizing MSG is a bad deal fort the City and State, they should take another look at the tax breaks and subsidies being offered to the proposed Atlantic Yards Development: they are even worse.

Brooklynites concerned about Bruce Ratner's overdevlopment plan for Brooklyn might want to pay attention to a lawsuit MIT has filed against Ratner's architect, Frank Gehry.

Frank Gehry is a controversial figure, though I have always kind of liked his architecture. He has been criticized for wasting space and designing buildings that are too large and inconvenient for the people who use them. But to me his architecture always had a touch of the same playfulness I always have liked in the archtecture of Antoni Gaudi. Of course Gaudi was ridiculed early in his career, too.

I have written extensively about the lies and corruption surrounding Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. From Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn's Clown and whiny wannabe mayor of NYC, to Bloomberg and Pataki promising more and more land (at taxpayer expense) to Ratner in backroom deals, Ratner is surrounded by corruption.

UPDATE at bottom.

Last year, the central triumvirate trying to funnel taxpayer money into Bruce Ratner's pockets were, of course, Pataki, Bloomberg and, perhaps Lepidus to their Pompeius and Caesar, Markowitz.

Below them were a whole slew of supporters (like Yvette Clarke) and what I considered enablers, people who were helping along the process despite apparant concerns. Hakeem Jeffries and David Yassky were among what I considered the enablers.

Well, it's a year later and things have changed. On Ratner's side, of course, Pataki has faded away, but Vito Lopez, never one to shirk from corruption, has jumped in with such sleazy deals for Ratner that it is starting to drive away others.

David Yassky's concerns, voiced last year yet hollow sounding next to his apparant acceptance of the corrupt deal, have escalated until Yassky has become a major critic of the project.