Brooklyn businesses, align with Bruce Ratner at your own peril. Newsday’s Amy Zimmer explains.
(Season 3 of “Arrested Developement”. probably coming to a DVD player near you, soon)
Freddy™s Bar & Backroom ” a dive joint in the footprint of where Bruce Ratner wants to build a $3.5 billion basketball arena and residential high-rises ” has become the epicenter for opponents of the project.
That™s why bartender Bleu-Jasmine Liverpool faces a quandary: Brooklyn Lager, the bar™s top seller, is produced by the Brooklyn Brewery, whose owner Steven Hindy is pro-arena and hosted a party last week for Ratner officials and Borough President Marty Markowitz that included New Jersey Nets dancers.
œI guess we ought not to sell it, but it™s what people order, said the Fort Greene native who lives three blocks from the proposed Atlantic Yards site. œThe regulars drink Bud draft, but everyone else drinks Brooklyn Lager.
œBy patronizing businesses that support the Ratner project, people are supporting things like eminent domain, the destruction of a neighborhood and massive public subsidies, said Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for Ratner-foe Development Don™t Destroy Brooklyn. œThey are supporting something that will literally shut down businesses, like Freddy™s.
Scott Turner, a Brooklynite who founded Fans for Fair Play ” a group of anti-arena sports fans ” called for a boycott of Brooklyn Brewery beers.
œWhen you ask people why they drink Brooklyn, some will say it™s for the taste, but a lot of people say because it™s from Brooklyn, said Turner, who used to stock his fridge with Brooklyn Lager.
“When you ask people why they drink Brooklyn, some will say it’s for the taste, but a lot of people say because it’s from Brooklyn”… even though it clearly states on the bottle that it’s brewed in Utica.
And even though it clearly tastes like fart.
Whilst on the related subject of farts, I’m a bit confounded why a lot of downtown NYC club and bar land (including East Village Radio) is in cahoots promotionally with Rock Star Energy Drink, since its creator, chief initial investor and father to the like-minded owner is Micheal “Savage” Weiner. Weiner is the fomer hippy, herbalogist, currently closet case, crazy old couth who is given a national radio forum everyday to spout his hatred of gays (despite having written lustful postcards to Ginsberg), pornography (despite using Ron Jeremy to promote Rock Star), and most anything else that the sort Rock Star promotes to would like. You would think avoiding working with a company like that would be easier than voting for these barowners etc.