Letitia James, the council member representing Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, and strident opponent of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, got to watch her chief of staff, Janella Meeks, go turncoat. Meeks, sister of Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Queens), a Yards proponent, resigned her post the Tuesday before last to take an undisclosed job with Forest City Ratner. The defection was quickly overshadowed by the arrival of celebrity reinforce-
ments to James' rally against eminent domain. On Monday, the anti-Yards organization Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn announced the formation of its
star-studded Advisory Board,
complete with such urban-planning luminaries as Jonathan Safran Foer and Rosie Perez. Mixed in with real complaints against eminent domain abuse and traffic congestion is the board's desperate sensitivity to any change in the neighborhood's skyline, recalling the populist crusades of Woody Allen and Robert Redford on the Upper West Side. Michelle Williams, actor, wife of Heath Ledger, board member and Brooklyn resident for all of a year, lays out her priorities on the DDDB Web site: “Heath and I moved to Brooklyn for light and space and air.” Were the gorgeous couple to be deprived of their space, truly, some sacred part of the heart of New York would have died forever.
