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Brutally weird Schumer flashback: "But you know what really enervates me about this? 10,000 jobs."

Perhaps the most brutally weird moment in the trailer (below) for the documentary-in-progress Battle of Brooklyn comes at about 2:48.

"This is a great project," declares Sen. Chuck Schumer, at the 2004 State of the Borough address, which, as the Brooklyn Paper reported, focused on Atlantic Yards. "But you know what really enervates me about this? 10,000 jobs."

The filmmakers follow that with an implied rebuttal from City Council Member Charles Barron, who points to the "jobs" mantra as a cover for eminent domain.


Battle of Brooklyn Trailer by rumurtv

Footnotes needed

But the Schumer segment deserves its own footnotes. Let's put aside the fact that the Harvard-educated lawmaker doesn't know the difference between enervate and energize.

More importantly, the figure of 10,000 jobs was bogus from the start. There was no market for that many office jobs. Forest City Ratner overstated the number of jobs that could fit in the four towers planned around the arena. And it neglected to explain that most of the jobs would not be new but transferred from Manhattan.

Now only one office tower is planned. But even Bruce Ratner told Crain's last month: “Can you tell me when we are going to need a new office tower?”

Comments

  1. You know what really enervates me?

    Atlantic Yards and Chuck Schumer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:04 PM

    Brutally weird is exactly correct, and Eric McClure speaks for everyone who fought the project. The depressing thing going in (OK, just one of many) was that not only did we know in advance that there would never be 10,000 jobs, we knew that there would never be an accountability moment. Too bad we live in a media and political climate where you can lie through your teeth on Monday (as Ratner and his political hacks did), and count on almost everyone having forgotten what you said by Wednesday.

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