We noticed two YouTube videos, taken from an apartment with a view of Dean Street, documenting some late night construction activity at the Atlantic Yards site in downtown Brooklyn. How late? Well, one video takes place at 11:42PM (video) while the other is in the 4AM hour (above!). For reference, according to 311, construction hours are generally 7AM to 6PM on weekdays (there may be emergency work in the middle of the night, but......

Recently obtained court documents suggest that developer Bruce Ratner is starting to sweat the future of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, which would bring the New Jersey Nets to downtown Brooklyn, along with 16 skyscrapers with residential and commercial space. Lawyers for Ratner’s firm were in court last Friday to try and accelerate the appeal process in a lawsuit brought by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, who argues that the project was rushed to approval......

Brooklyn writers are banding together to be the latest voice against Bruce Ratner's vision for Atlantic Yards. A number of local wordsmiths have contributed to Brooklyn Was Mine, an anthology consisting of short essays and stories put together by two Vogue editor to benefit Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (a non-profit that fights development while uniting the community). From the press release:"Brooklyn has given birth to some of America's greatest literary voices," note the anthology's co-editors,......

Yesterday, people critical of developer Bruce Ratner's massive, billion dollar Atlantic Yards project held the Third Annual Walk Don't Destroy Walkathon. And leading opponent Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn held a press conference asking a new question that goes beyond eminent domain and the size and scale of the plan. Now the question is whether the Atlantic Yards will be safe from a terror risk. Earlier this week, Newark Police Director - and former NYPD......

This week's NY Times Weddings & Celebrations announcements include: Forty-five weddings announcements, one civil union announcements, and the Vows column Twenty-five photographs of couples The youngest bride is 24, the oldest bride is 64 The youngest groom is 25, the oldest groom is 70 One couple had corresponded via an online dating website but never set up a date...only to meet randomly at a party and not realize their online connection until two months later.......

When we first saw the Daily News headline, "Brooklyn arena project gets safety net," we thought that the Empire State Development Corporation had literally bought a huge, super-reinforced netting to put around buildings being demolished for the Atlantic Yards project, in hopes of preventing other huge chunks of buildings falling onto sidewalks. But it turns out the ESDC is just appointing an ombudsman ("to speak to government agencies and the public about the $4.2 billion......

Yesterday morning, a 200-foot long chunk of a rooftop parapet on a Brooklyn building collapsed onto the street. While this would be news no matter what or where it happened, the building is the Ward Bread Bakery, which happens to be one of many buildings that are being demolished for the massive Atlantic Yards project in downtown Brooklyn. The Department of Buildings is inspecting neighboring buildings and 350 people, including those living in a......

As planned since a judge okay'd Forest City Ratner's demolition of buildings in downtown Brooklyn, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn held a protest this morning. FCR says that they own all the buildings and therefore should be allowed to tear them down, but DDDB says one concern is that the land will remain vacant if the project doesn't happen. DDDB's Ron Shiffman told NY1, "I find it very ironic that the day after Earth Day......

The organizers at Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn are planning a protest for this upcoming Monday in reaction to a judge's ruling that allows Forest City Ratner to proceed with its demolition plans, refusing a group of 26 co-plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order. The protest will begin at 8 a.m. in front of 191 Flatbush Ave. between 5th Ave. and Dean St. The state lawsuit maintains that an environmental impact study of the......

SCIENCE: It's Secret Science Club night again at Union Hall. This week Gerry Moore tells us of The Secret Botanical Life of NYC. From the press release: "Is this city nothing but steel and pavement? Nein! We’re gushing with biodiversity. Put a nosegay in your buttonhole, and prepare for FLOWER POWER!" Also: the aromatic cocktails of the night will be "the walloping Planter’s Punch and the deadly Black Dahlia”...smells like a pretty drunk science club!......

Developer Bruce Ratner has been letting the media know that construction will begin on the Atlantic Yards project. The controversial development will bring an arena for the Nets as well as commercial and residential space in the millions of square feet, as well as displace residents in its 22 acre footprint. Metro reports that for the first phase of prep work, a "temporary rail yard" will be set up on the eastern side so......

It's official: Barclays Bank has bought naming rights to the Brooklyn Nets' future arena in the Atlantic Yards project. Naturally, there's a website: Barclays Center - Planned Home of the Nets. Cute how it says "Planned," right? And this map showing how all routes lead to the "Barclays Center" is pretty funny. We noticed a few things on the site. Three Nets players were highlighted: Vince Carter, Nenad Krstic, and jersey-popping Richard Jefferson. There's......

The hard-hitting polemical film, Brooklyn Matters, lucidly articulates and amplifies the movement to stop Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards plan. Directed and produced by Isabel Hill, the film portrays the AY project as an outrageous scam to be perpetrated upon hoodwinked Brooklynites. Numerous interviews with critical residents, planners, critics, and elected officials portray a scenario in which a cynical developer and corrupt State agencies have hired gullible community allies and a star architect to conceal......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: "severed limb" at PS240 in Brooklyn, a DOA/shooting on East 85th Street in Manhattan, and a "car vs. house" in Staten Island. A 4-6 month old Hereford calf escaped from a slaughterhouse-bound truck in Bay Ridge Tuesday-- he was eventually caught by the police. His future is a little unclear-- the slaughterhouse had until 1pm to get him, but if they failed to do that, he goes to a......

It’s another defining week for the Atlantic Yards. On Wednesday, the 8 million square-foot project faces one of its last hurdles: approval by the Public Authorities Control Board, the state oversight body that monitors Albany’s fiscal commitments to projects like the Yards. PACB votes have derailed large-scale projects before, most notably last year when Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno, the Senate majority leader, killed the West Side Stadium plan. Of course, it’s no......

+ The New York Times calls yesterday's Atlantic Yards community forum "polite" and estimates attendance at a few dozen people. Most speakers supported the project, no doubt a result of civic overload (given the district's active Congressional primary race) and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's boycott of the meeting. One Fort Greene native who lives in Park Slope attacked opponents who "live in brownstones," or many of her neighbors. + Norman Oder's Atlantic Yards Report calls......

If you're a registered Democrat or Republican, get your primary shoes out. Here's a list of candidates (PDF), but the shortlist of primaries is: - Governor: For the Democrats, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer vs. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi - Attorney General: For the Democrats, Andrew Cuomo vs. Mark Green - Senate: For the Democrats, Senator Hillary Clinton vs. Jonathan Tasini; for the Repubilcans, John Spencer vs. Kathlen T. McFarland - Congress, 11th District in......

The NY Times is reporting that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner will cut the size of the project by 6-8%. How? By reducing the amount of market-rate housing. And also from the Times: "[Ratner's company] Forest City is also considering reducing the height of the project’s tallest tower, which is known as Miss Brooklyn, to get it under the height of the borough’s tallest building, the nearby Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, according to real estate......

Get ready to rumble: Tonight is the first of two public meetings to discuss the Atlantic Yards project - but this is the only public hearing, where comments will be recorded into the record (a public forum will be held on September 12 - Primary Day - and it's unclear whether testimony with be recorded). While the Empire State Development Corporation seems to support this project no matter what, it's important for residents to speak......

Yesterday, protesters gathered at a rally against the $3.5 billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. Organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, the rally had entertainment along with words from politicians and famous anti-Atlantic Yards types, including Park Slope resident Steve Busecmi, according to the NY Times, who "read a poem...which included the line" “I’ve played a lot of crazies, but this seems insane.” Rosie Perez said, the project was "an insult to the poor"......

People are wondering why City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is so quiet about the Atlantic Yards project. The Observer points out that Quinn was instrumental in leading City Hall opposition to the West Side Stadium, with the suggestion being that Quinn is thinking about running for Mayor and will need to keep certain people happy. Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's Daniel Goldstein tells the Observer, "It would not be a principled position for her to support......

- Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn lines up an exceptional boardof Brooklyn stars and intellects for its efforts to fight the Atlantic Yards; does this mean Bruce Ratner will make Jay-Z line up his friends? Imagine Beyonce vs. Rosie Perez! - More proof the Moussaoui life sentence was good: Now he claims he lied about his Al Qaeda connection - It looks like there will only be one greenmarket on the Upper East Side as......

...and words escape us. Okay, fine: It's really, really goofy, which is probably about right for a sports team ditty (remember Let's Go Mets?) Nets part-owner Jay-Z chose the song from over 700 submissions, which makes us wish the other songs had been made public. It's by Michael Barnes, a 22 year old from Manhattan, and this is what Jay-Z/his press statement said, "In 'Going Hard' M Bars completely captured the intensity of Nets Basketball......

The dissension over Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards development is at a furious boil. Politicians, neighbors and builders are locked in a death struggle, complete with heckling, catcalls and overheated titanium, over the fate of a possible "nine million square feet" of new buildings - "the equivalent of four Empire State Buildings" - could do to the community. For many people, the idea that there would be this huge influx of jobs and economic opportunities......

It's so nice to see what a little pressure can do: Bruce Ratner and his Forest City Ratner group have increased their bid to $100 million for the Atlantic railyards. Ratner wants to put not only a Brooklyn Nets Frank Gehry-designed arena there but thousands of condos and countless square feet for offices (the Times loved the design). This higher bid comes because of the lone rival bid from Extell, whose development plan lacks......

Develop Don't Destory Brooklyn will be protesting outside of the New York Times' offices at 1PM today to protest coverage of developer Bruce Ratner. DDDB's claim is that because the Times' coverage of Ratner's plans for downtown Brooklyn has been "misleading" and "inaccurate" because Ratner's company is building the Times' new skyscraper. DDDB wants consistent coverage about the Atlantic Yards project from the Times, and you can read the report here. Hmm, wonder if the......

Endearing themselves to no one except the Mayor, Jay-Z, Marty Markowitz, and Bruce Ratner, the MTA board voted to negotiate with Ratner's group exclusively on the Brooklyn rail yards. Ratner's bid had $50 million in cash, while rival bid from Extell was worth $150 million in cash; the MTA valuation of the land was more like $214.5 million. The MTA is probably reacting to the fact that Ratner is offering to redevelop a lot of......

The bids for the Brooklyn railyards have been made public: Bruce Ratner's bid for the land to build a Nets arena and skycraper is $50 million in cash - though it's worth $369 million when other parts of the development would be factored in - while the Extell bid for lower buildings is $150 million in straight up cash. While it seems like the MTA could really use the cash from Extell, Ratner would spend......

Reader Dave emailed us about a new free newspaper he received at the subway station, amid the amNew York and Metro freebies. Called the Brooklyn Standard, Dave described its contents:The front page has a large-type headline proclaiming "BROOKLYN BOOMING" with a picture of the proposed Atlantic railyard development. Then there's an article about Marv Albert, who has joined the Nets as a sportscaster. It looks like a regular paper with a masthead and a......

This week's food events have a heavy Brooklyn emphasis -- get out there and represent, yo. Thursday, October 14 -- A Taste for Democracy This one's tonight, folks! The Taste of Democracy is organized by Citizen Action of New York’s Volunteer2004.org campaign. At the event, volunteers will be able to sign up for phone banks calling voters in the battleground states from New York City and for traveling by bus or car to door-knock in......