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Freddy's Bar Sharpens Guillotine to Protest Atlantic Yards
By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 28, 2009
Modified Dec 28, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Dec 28, 2009
Modified Dec 28, 2009
Share
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Freddy's Bar & Backroom in Prospect Heights is one of many businesses and residences facing the wrecking ball to make room for developer Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Last week staffers and tipplers handcuffed themselves to the bar to protest the establishment's increasingly likely demise, and this weekend they kicked it up a notch by building a nine-foot-tall guillotine made from PBR cans and executing an effigy representing "eminent domain theft." (One yank on a Blue Point beer tap brought the blade down.)
According to Atlantic Yards Report, bar manager Donald O'Finn read from a scroll, "declaring a revolt against eminent domain law and criticizing the role of ACORN, the British bank Barclays, which bought the arena naming rights that the state gave away, and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, slated to become majority owner of the Nets." Before executing the prisoner, O'Finn told the assembled crowd of bloodthirsty and beer-thirsty mourners, "It's just like a foreclosure, except they're foreclosing on a neighborhood, and we're not even behind on the mortgage." Check out the video below:
Tagged
Atlantic Yads
freddy's bar backroom
guillotine
protest
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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