Barclays Center Site For 2016 Democrat Convention?

New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio suggests that the Democrats hold their 2016 convention at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.  How appropriate!  DeBlasio supported the eminent domain and corporate welfare scheme which built the Barclays Center and associated real estate development to the benefit of progressive real estate developer Bruce Ratner and his Forest City Ratner firm.  This was done with the connivance of New York State's Empire State Development Corporation. 


The eminent domain scheme also know as Atlantic Yards or Brooklyn Nets Arena received the enthusiastic cheers and non-critical reporting of the New York Times.  The establishment newspaper was itself the beneficiary of eminent domain and corporate welfare courtesy of the Empire State Development Corporation.  Their real estate development partner was yes, Bruce Ratner and Forest City Ratner.  I dubbed this particular scheme "Time$cam."


It is also appropriate that the Democrat Party stands for legalized theft, but then again so does the Republican Party. 


If the Democratic convention is held at the Barclays Center who would like to demonstrate against eminent domain abuse and corporate welfare with me?


Richard Cooper

Bill DeBlasio Picks Eminent Domain Abuser To Lead Transition Team

New York City's mayor-elect Bill DeBlasio has picked two "progressive" New Yorkers, Carl Weisbrod and Jennifer Jones-Austin, to serve as co-heads of his transition team.  The New York Times profiled them with a quarter of a page each. 

While Kate Taylor's profile of Weisbrod never mentions eminent domain, that is what she mentions in her piece http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/nyregion/weisbrod-brings-long-resume-to-advise-the-mayor-elect.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0.

Weisbrod served in both the Koch and Dinkins administrations.  Taylor writes "In 1978, when appointed by Mr. Koch to run the Midtown Enforcement Project, Mr. Weisbrod recognized that it would take not just law enforcement but also economic redevelopment to clean up the area. In 1987, he was given the opportunity to lead that effort, as president of the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project, a subsidiary of the State Urban Development Corporation. In that role, and later as president of the Economic Development Corporation, he brought most of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues under public ownership and reached an agreement with the Walt Disney Company to take over the New Amsterdam Theater."

After leaving city government, Weibrod became president of the Alliance for Downtown New York.

What Taylor misses, intentionally or not, is that Weisbrod brought Forty Deuce, 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues under public ownership by means of eminent domain.

The NY Times was a cheerleader of that effort.  Later, the New York Times obtained the Empire State Development Corporation's aid to seize property by eminent domain to hand over to the New York Times for their new headquarters.  As State Chair of the Libertarian Party of New York www.ny.lp.org at the time, I led opposition to what I called Time$cam with a protest outside the old Times building. 

We should not expect Bill DeBlasio, who supported Atlantic Yards, nor his lieutenants to oppose corporate welfare or eminent domain abuse.  If we want to end eminent domain abuse and corporate welfare in New York, we need to elect Libertarians and to run a gubernatorial candidate who will obtain 50,000 votes on the Libertarian line. 

--By Richard Cooper

Barclays Bank Boycott To Protest Eminent Domain Abuse

http://www.ny.lp.org/news/2007barclays.htm
Libertarian Party of NY -- Press Release -- Barclays Bank Boycott To Protest Eminent Domain Abuse

Barclays Bank Boycott To Protest Eminent Domain AbuseLIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NEW YORK http://www.ny.lp.org/ 516-767-4688 Contact: Richard Cooper, State Chair nylibertarian@hotmail.com Gary Popkin, Brooklyn-Queens Chair www.Hardfire.net


BARCLAYS BANK BOYCOTT TO PROTEST EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE

Brooklyn, NY 3/19/07 New York Libertarian Party leaders Richard Cooper and Gary Popkin call for a nationwide boycott of Barclays Bank due to its participation in the eminent domain abuse scheme of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards. Barclays, a British bank with branches in America, agreed to pay the developer Forest City Ratner over $305 million for naming rights to the Nets basketball team’s arena over a thirty-year period. Libertarian State Chair Cooper notes that millions of Americans were outraged by 2005's Kelo decision of the Supreme Court upholding eminent domain transfers to private developers. The Libertarians offer an opportunity to demonstrate opposition in a material way.

Brooklyn-Queens Libertarian Party Chair Popkin dubs “…the Barclays participation in eminent domain is an outrage as a private enterprise disrespecting property rights.” Popkin notes that controversy was stirred in Brooklyn because of the sordid past of the British bank in the slave trade. He declares that “The actions of the bankers of centuries past do not taint the arena. It is participation in the eminent domain scheme that taints whoever participates in it.”

Cooper continues, “To Libertarians, corporate sports welfare and eminent domain abuse are legalized theft, stealing from taxpayers and landowners. Barclays chose to become an accomplice of Bruce Ratner. They should both bear the outrage of indignant Americans who favor freedom and justice.”

The Libertarian Party of New York has fought eminent domain that would have dispossessed St. Luke’s Pentecostal Church on Long Island and a neighborhood in New Rochelle to make way for an Ikea Swedish furniture store, besides the NY Times headquarters scheme that Cooper dubbed “Time$cam.” Cooper and Rev. Fred Jenkins of St. Luke’s will speak on the church’s victimization and how the Libertarian Party helped them at the state convention to be held Saturday, April 28th at the Radisson MacArthur in Holtsville, Long Island. –30-