Hey! You gonna be in Brooklyn this weekend?

Then head to the Walk Don't Destroy Walkathon! It's a fund-raising walk organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, the brave folks who are fighting developers who are planning to build a massive condo/shopping/sports complex just blocks from our apartment. (The sports arena would be for the New Jersey Nets, who they'd like to move to Brooklyn.) This whole idea is bollocks for our lovely, community-based neighborhood that prides itself on its character. It would bring expensive chain stores to an area that embraces the mom-and-pop venture, thereby pushing out local businesses; it would kick businesses and residents out of their shops and homes where they've been rooted for decades; it would tear up the gorgeous Atlantic train yards off Flatbush Avenue; it would jack up rents and contribute to the overcrowding of the streets and schools in an already too-expensive section of the borough; and the multi-year construction would wreak havoc on a location in downtown Brooklyn that is already congested to the gills. The developers are illegally claiming eminent domain in order to get people in the construction zone out of their homes. In a word: bad.

Need incentive? You might meet Josh! He's volunteering at the registration table. He's been told he's going to be uniformed in a "gold T-shirt."

HAWT.

JOSH: Did you tell them that it would destroy Brownstone Brooklyn and contribute to the Manhattanization of Brooklyn? Or is that overkill?
ME: No, I can do it.

So there you have it. And it's a pretty big reason. A major factor for people who love to live in Brooklyn is that we love Manhattan, we work in Manhattan, we live here because of what it has to offer. But we reside in Brooklyn also because of what it offers. It's leafy and green and quiet and you get more space and a different flavor of energy and shopping and food and history. This project would be a major, major crack in that lifestyle.

So walk for Brooklyn this weekend. And tell Josh how smokin' he looks in his fancy T-shirt.