Offensive Atlantic Yards Hoax Site Makes the Rounds

An email about an Atlantic Yards Hoax site, called atlanticyardspark.com, made the rounds yesterday, causing a small stir among those that clicked over to the website. (The distribution list seemed to have excluded a number of blogs and online news sites, however.) While ostensibly a satire about the controversial development the site was full of racist and ethnic stereotypes. Here is some of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle description:

A hoax e-mail purporting to be from Forest City Ratner was making the rounds of the city’s media Monday morning, announcing a new “online park system to serve the young adults of the neighborhoods of Gowanus, Crown Heights and Park Slope.”

The e-mail, which appears to satirize the “conversion of 6 acres of park space” in the Atlantic Yards footprint to “needed office space,” also referenced a Web site, www.atlanticyardspark.com...The bogus “online park system” consists of three mock video games, which are described in what can only be called racist terms. For example, one game, “CrackDown,” allows player “to avoid the local drug dealers, their clients and prostitutes while walking to the neighborhood bodega.” Another, “Our Welfare,” teaches young girls “how to deal with their pregnancies and negotiate the welfare and child services system in New York they will be involved in.”

The site vanished by Monday afternoon, apparently, but No Land Grab, which has been creating an absolutely invaluable public record of everything Atlantic Yards and eminent domain-related that's published online and in print, offered a screencap of some of the offensive content, which can be seen here.