Freddy's Bar & Backroom
, the beloved Prospect Heights dive that became an unofficial headquarters for the anti-Atlantic Yards protests, is slated for the wrecking ball. Previously, staffers and customers have handcuffed themselves to the bar to protest the state's use of eminent domain to seize the property, but they aren't planning any such direct action demonstration to block the demolition. Instead, the owner is relocating to Park Slope. From a press release sent out by Freddy's:
Freddy's Bar is not closing, it's moving. We are presently in negotiations with a landlord who is not a billionaire at 4th Ave and Union Street... We hope to open this new space as soon as possible, 2 or 3 months hopefully... 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.
Forest City Ratner will leave Brooklyn a thousand years before Freddy's Bar does. . . they have missed mortgage payments on their Metrotech Center, and the Yonkers and Zimbabwe sanctions busting scandals are criminal acts. The question is will they run out of money first, or face prosecution first. I am sure that both will happen.
The statement goes on to declare that Freddy's is "an idea, not an address." April 30th will be the last day of business for Freddy's current location, and there will be a "Victory Party" that night "to celebrate what the little guy has been able to do in fighting a billionaire and the corrupt government agency that he controls."
