As many will know, longtime music venue Freddy's Bar & Backroom in Brooklyn faces extinction as a result of the controversial Atlantic Yards project.
There has been considerable opposition to the proposed redevelopment, which seems unlikely to deliver the benefits once stated by the developer and NYC's political top brass - and Freddy's regulars have threatened to chain themselves to the bar when eviction day comes.
It seems, though, that through the use of eminent domain legislation, the bar's fate is now sealed. But that didn't stop local singer/songwriter and activist Papa Dish from writing Keep Your Hands Off Freddy's Bar ...
For more on eminent domain and the Atlantic Yards project, read on after the jump.
There has been considerable opposition to the proposed redevelopment, which seems unlikely to deliver the benefits once stated by the developer and NYC's political top brass - and Freddy's regulars have threatened to chain themselves to the bar when eviction day comes.
It seems, though, that through the use of eminent domain legislation, the bar's fate is now sealed. But that didn't stop local singer/songwriter and activist Papa Dish from writing Keep Your Hands Off Freddy's Bar ...
For more on eminent domain and the Atlantic Yards project, read on after the jump.
From Steve de Sève
Freddy's
In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court did an awful thing. They ruled against Suzette Kelo of New London, CT, and thereby changed the rules for eminent domain seizure of property in all 50 states. Up until that case the law of the land was that government needed to show that there was a need for the "public use" of a person's property in order to forcibly take it from its owner. Kelo opened the door to the taking of property for "public benefit," a vague term that means that if the public can be seen to benefit from somebody else taking possession of your property, the government could take it from you and give it to anyone they liked. Public "benefit" can mean as little as the new owner will, at least in theory, pay more property tax than you will, and therefore benefit the public (coffers) more than you do.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the dissenting view. She correctly predicted that this will lead to politically connected insiders having a tremendous advantage in influencing the mechanisms of government to take whatever these favored people want. 43 states have changed their laws to plug the hole Kelo created that allows for favorites of the state to use the state to grab land. New York State is not one of them. New York currently has the worst eminent domain laws in the country.
Atlantic Yards is a project named by billionaire Bruce Ratner. Ratner was a New York City public official for 8 years, and made his connections trading favors while in that post. He later joined the family business, Forest City Ratner, a large real-estate developing firm, and became a billionaire.
In the Atlantic Yards landgrab, Ratner purchased a number of properties and let them go to seed. Then he and his friends in the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), a state agency that has enormous power, set out to take the "blighted area," a corner of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, to give to Ratner to build a stadium and 16 skyscrapers -- in a 4 story neighborhood. In theory, Ratner's project would pay more property taxes, and this, combined with other "benefits" including "blight reduction," the stadium, and the empty promise of "affordable" housing, is what the ESDC has used to take title to 22 acres of prime real-estate to give to Ratner for a pittance. To add insult to injury, Ratner will pay no or little taxes on the property for 30 years. AND he will receive additional subsidies for his project.
Evictions have not yet happened. If they succeed then it will mean a change in the very definition of property ownership throughout New York State. It will mean that nobody wholly owns their own property anymore, since the state will then have ultimate determination of its use, and who will own it. This would make New York State effectively a forced co-owner of all property within its borders. People paying their mortgages and property taxes will have lost true ownership of their homes and businesses, since they could be seized at any time for a favorite of the state.
Freddy's Bar (Esquire's best bar in the U.S.A., 2006 and recipient of numerous other awards) is at the center of the battle to protect the right of property ownership in New York State. There are 19.5 million people in the footprint of the project. That's the population of New York State that stands to lose their rights of home and other property ownership. A battle is "brewing" at the bar. It intends to stand against the eviction when it comes, for the purpose of defeating the worst eminent domain law in the country. And the people at Freddy's are inviting all who care about the rights of citizens to own property to stand with them during the eviction stand-off.
Other societies that have allowed the state to pick favorites and redistribute property along those lines, most notably the Soviet Union, followed the weakening of property rights, with the loss of other rights. It is not a road we want to start walking down. This is about corruption and favoritism, at the highest levels of our government vs. the rights of citizens to own their property and to determine its best use. New York State must plug the hole the Kelo decision punched in one of our most basic rights. And Freddy's Bar is where we make our stand.
Chains have been put on the bar, patrons are buying handcuffs and food for the standoff, and we are raising money for buses to bring people in to prevent the taking of Freddy's and to thereby prevent the end of the right to truly own property for the nearly 20 million citizens of New York State.
The view of Freddy's Bar shows that it is surrounded by a soon to be encrouching evil consruction cancer. Maybe if they stand well against this they will win. Remember ... the Posse comes to the rescue at the last minutes of a fight if you are resolute.
I am an old New Yorker who knows the area and it is a bad scene now that will go on for years (if the cancer wins)until the new developement is done.
In a great city anywhere in the world it is the spiritual energy of its oldest places that holds the charm of the city.
In my New York place of Washington County no one is allowed to take down a barn until it falls down by itself. People come around here to see these and photograph them. The true farmers know how to work this by keeping their barns standing somehow. Why don't they just build a new barn ? There are no words to describe a virtue in doing this. George Forss
Posted by: George Forss | April 09, 2010 at 06:01 AM