Revisiting a Classic Seasonal Tale: Ratnerville

(The "wonderfully lively" animation of the above, adapted from our original Noticing New York post, comes via the creative courtesy of No Land Grab. )

This is the season for revisiting and retelling classic tales about the eternal verities. A number of the most classic seasonal tales create their magic by investigating alternative realities, contrasting realities where greed goes unchecked versus the better, more marvelously rich world we could harmoniously all share if people's better nature prevails. In that vein, we think our Noticing New York post from last Christmas Eve stands the test of time rather well.

With one year passed it is clearer than ever what paucity of promise fulfillment comes with Ratnerville’s monopolistic takeover of Brooklyn: We are getting no jobs, no housing, no design, nothing but decades of imperious monopoly and acres of desolate parking lots. If the past year has done anything beyond making all this a lot clearer it has been to show us as well that as Ratner evicts Brooklynites from Brownstone Brooklyn he is using his monopoly as a springboard for even more greed and deception. We reference his deceptive sale of green cards to gullible Chinese millionaires. (See: Monday, December 20, 2010, Anatomy of a Shady Deal: an FAQ and restrospective on the effort to recruit EB-5 investors in China for the Brooklyn Arena and Infrastructure Project and Wednesday, October 6, 2010, Translation: Bruce Ratner Wants To Swindle 498 Chinese Millionaires?)

Here is the Noticing New York post we ran one year ago today: Thursday, December 24, 2009, A Christmas Eve Story of Alternative Realities: The Fight Not To Go To Pottersville (Or Ratnerville).

Happy holidays.