New York City is always changing, but thousands of residents of Brooklyn, including 51 community organizations asked the question: How do we, the people, want that change to occur?

Spurred into action by Frank Gehry's design for 16 modern art skyscrapers and a Basketball Arena that will cost New York City taxpayers nearly $2 billion, Brooklyn rose up.

90% of the scheme is skyscrapers which would rise to 53 stories, taller than the iconic Williamsburg Savings Bank, and cast shadows across swaths of residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

What the people decided was that we want smart collaboration that creates decentralized, diverse, exciting urbanscapes that New York and Brooklyn can point to with pride. The sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks believe that the current Atlantic Yards Plan won’t work for Brooklyn. It must be changed substantially or rejected.

BrooklynSpeaks is a community site for a community fighting for its survival because besides relying on the use of taxpayer subsidies, the project relies on extensive use of eminent domain.

The site enables Brooklynites to ask the decision-makers only to move forward with a plan that works work for Brooklyn. Grassroots advocacy is organized and media seeding is also steered through the website.