I’m a bad friend. My BFF, t-shirt designer Deb, made these statement tees and I never gave her a plug. Oh, but everyone else did! Nah, I’m not in the dog house, but I’m the last kid in town to feature these Brooklyn activist shirts on my blog.

Remember the whole Atlantic Yards fiasco? Eminent domain? Promises of low income housing and jobs that never materialized? Protests from the community? Yeah well, what’s done is done. What’s done can’t be undone.

But that doesn’t mean Deb…or anyone else…has to stop bitching about it.

The story is that Barclays Bank bought the subway station name rights and now the Atlantic/Pacific stop is called “Barclays Center”. First of all, as much as New Yorkers accept change, we are creatures of habit. Anyone calling The Triboro “RFK Bridge”? How about the Queensboro “Ed Koch Bridge”? Hell’s Kitchen?

You get my point. But to add insult to injury, the name “Barclays Center” wasn’t something that was earned. It was bought (kind of like our current elections). Popped on a project that many people are unhappy about.

Looking at the half full glass, one can always say that it could have been worse. Could have been called “Forest City Ratner Station”.

Get yer t-shirts here.

Related Deb interviews at DNA and Prospect Heights Patch.