In response to vast devastation to Brooklyn caused by Hurricane Sandy, particularly in coastal communities like Red Hook, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Sea Gate, and Sheepshead Bay, the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the office of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, in partnership with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, have established the Brooklyn Recovery Fund, a local charitable fund that will provide relief to Brooklyn communities and organizations impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
Brooklyn Community Foundation, Forest City Ratner Companies, the Brooklyn Nets, and Barclays Center have each pledged $100,000, for a total of $400,000 to create the Fund.
Brooklyn Community Foundation will administer the fund, which will respond to the immediate and long term impacts of this natural disaster and serve as a flexible source of grant funding to local nonprofit organizations as the rebuilding efforts in Brooklyn progress over the coming weeks and months.
Brooklynites are encouraged to give to the Fund at www.BrooklynRecoveryFund.org.100% of every donation to the Fund will be used to support storm recovery efforts in Brooklyn.
Now, the fund is surely needed, and all contributions are valuable. It's also admirable that there will be no money skimmed off the top for administration.
Then again, Forest City, the Nets, and the arena don't deserve an automatic halo. They were willing to go ahead with the basketball game last night--a bonehead move of community disrespect, surely tethered to the plan for national TV exposure --until Mayor Mike Bloomberg belatedly intervened.
(Yes, I've already contributed. And I know my contribution is a greater percentage of my net worth than Mikhail Prokhorov's $100,000.)
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