Freddy's Bar, Defeated by Atlantic Yards, Plans Relocation

After a December eminent domain ruling in favor of Bruce Ratner, the man behind the giant 22 acre Atlantic Yards development, the owners of well known Brooklyn dive within the footprint o' death, Freddy's Bar, prepared for a massive fight against the bulldozers. They dug their heels in, called out the media, and promised they would chain themselves to the bar before letting it get leveled for this massive entertainment complex.

Not so much anymore. A press release today insisting that this is a "victory" reports that the bar is moving to a spot on Union and 4th Ave. after April 30. It adds:

Freddy's Bar is not giving up the fight, we stand in solidarity with Prokhorov's sanctions-busting victims in Zimbabwe, and with the people of Yonkers who are paying the price for a Ratner bribery scandal. We will continuing to stand against the corruption that has dominated our lives for the last 7 years, and are looking forward to moving out from under this sword of Damocles.

Some will say this is defeat, some will call is a waste of a good chain stunt, a loss of the city's best Atlantic Yard agitators, but the people at Freddy's simply concede, "We have a lot of mouths to feed and we are not billionaires. The move is strategic." And by the way, the chains are going with them to the new bar, "forever installed on that bar as a symbol of a united community and that community’s power for affecting change." It was a valiant fight guys.

Freddy's Next Bar should be opening in two to three months.
· Brooklyn Dive Bar Preps for Standoff Against Atlantic Yards [~ENY~]