Freddy's Finds Amnesty in Park Slope
As has been widely reported in the last 24 hours, Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, which has served as a makeshift headquarters for the opposition during the fight against Atlantic Yards, is moving to Park Slope. Rather go down in flames, the bar owners have accepted a small payment from Forest City Ratner to move to…
As has been widely reported in the last 24 hours, Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, which has served as a makeshift headquarters for the opposition during the fight against Atlantic Yards, is moving to Park Slope. Rather go down in flames, the bar owners have accepted a small payment from Forest City Ratner to move to a new location at 4th Avenue and Union Street on April 30th. “The move is about the employees, and the business, said Donald O’Finn in a press release. “We’re little guys. We can’t run our business into the ground as Ratner has and still survive. We have a lot of mouths to feed and we are not billionaires.” GMAP
Freddy’s Plans to Close on Dean Street [AY Report]
Last Call for Brooklyn’s Freddy’s Bar [NY Daily News]
Freddy’s Bar to Close on April 30 [Courier]
Freddy’s Bar an Atlantic Yards Holdout No Longer [NYO]
Freddy’s Bar to Move [Brooklyn Eagle]
Freddy’s Bar, Defeated by AY, Finds New Location [Eater]
Freddy’s Bar Closes for Atlantic Yards, Will Reopen Nearby [Gothamist]
Freddy’s Gets Eviction Notice from Bruce [Brownstoner]
Freddy’s Bar: Heads Roll in Survival Fight [Brownstoner]
Photo by Tracy Collins
I assure you all that the fight against AY is far from over!
D-O-N-E-D-E-A-L!!!
I think Freddy’s taking Ratner’s money is a final flip of the bird to him. Good for him- and I hope he does well in his new location. He helped make it tough on Ratner- he didn’t roll over for him, like so many others did. A toast to Freddy’s.
“if switching locations put them out of business they don’t deserve to be in business.”
Hundreds of thousands of small business owners would roll over in their graves if they could read these words.
“Freddy’s was a watering hole for cops from all precincts not just the 78th. My sister used to meet her fellow officers there after a tour and she worked at the 71st pct back in the 80’s.”
Another reason to avoid the place, although it wasn’t a “cop bar” when I lived down the street in the late 1990s.
just to reiterate:
sell outs.
who says they couldn’t have moved locations without Ratner’s money? Other establishments do it all the time. They’re selling stuff that’s marked up 200% with undoubtedly a sweetheart rent deal. if switching locations put them out of business they don’t deserve to be in business.
when you stand for something – money isn’t an issue.
Freddy’s was a watering hole for cops from all precincts not just the 78th. My sister used to meet her fellow officers there after a tour and she worked at the 71st pct back in the 80’s. These are tough times and after all the posturing bottom line is he has to pay the bills. I am sure Ratner made him an offer he couldnt refuse and whether we like it or not, the stadium and housing will be built.
Grand Army –
I dont stand for anything?
So lets see if I get your logic…B/C I support AY I am have no principles????
FYI it was asinine & arrogant positions like yours that doomed all the AY critics to a position of total irrelevance
People are allowed to change their minds. I don’t think Ratner is staying up late reveling in how he bested local artist Donald O’Finn in a dick-swinging contest.
Hey, I sure hope I don’t meet any of you guys at the Pearly Gates. Give Freddy’s an effin’ break! Is it not enough for you that they are losing their current location (a brilliant space); losing many of their long-time customers and roots in the neighborhood; possibly losing a very reasonable rent (that’s what I’ve heard) and certainly a very secure lease; and incurring substantial relocation costs. Donald has to be castigated for trying to save the jobs of his staff and his own livelihood? Imagine, the hubris. Shame on him!
FSRG: Don’t worry, you’ll never be a sell-out because you don’t stand for anything to begin with — besides the right to defend billionaires while carping and criticizing the little guys.
Brooklyn 72: AY is the “only thing… that will make it more attractive and safer”? What are you talking about?? This area wasn’t unsafe and was in the midst of a huge revival in the early 2000s, including the conversion of almost all the industrial buildings in the footprint to high-end residential. Ratner came along, interrupted an on-going process of free market adaptive re-use, demolished perfectly viable buildings, had his ESDC stooges declare “blight”, and is now subjecting the community to construction without no end date, including a city-block sized surface parking lot perfectly designed to attract vandalism, prostitution, and theft. This is truly the solution for the neighborhood you want?