Brooklyn Dive Bar Preps for Standoff Against Atlantic Yards

In a sad but entertaining press release titled "Freddy’s Chain Gang to Install the Chains of Justice," the owner of well known Brooklyn dive bar Freddy's Bar & Backroom, reports that he is installing chains on the bar in preparation for a potential monster protest against Bruce Ratner. You see, Freddy's lies within the 22-acre footprint of the stalled Atlantic Yards project. According to the state's eminent domain laws and a recent ruling by a New York judge, Yards' developer Bruce Ratner has the right to take over (and pay market value for) the bar and any other homes and businesses within his 22 acres. And, well, he probably will.

Says the release:

An overwhelming number of Freddy's Bar patrons plan on chaining themselves to the bar if Scrooge Ratner and Grinch Paterson's Atlantic Yards Project attempts to shutdown and demolish Freddy's Bar and Backroom. This Sunday, we are installing chains onto the Bar itself for just such a purpose.

Though the Court of Appeals decided not to hear an appeal on its recent ruling for Ratner, a recent surprise court smackdown of the state's use of eminent domain to seize land for Columbia University's expansion is motivating the troops to start the fight anew. Regardless, chains and civil disobedience are always a good back up plan.
· Atlantic Yards Opponents Lose Challenge Over Eminent Domain [Curbed]
· Freddy's Bar & Backroom [Official Site]
[photo credit]

Freddy's Bar & Backroom

485 Dean St., Brooklyn, NY