Forest City Ratner announced a new plan to fill approximately 2,000 jobs at the Barclays Center using the city’s , with priority hiring going to residents of the communities surrounding the arena, as well as local New York City Housing Authority residents.
According to a statement, the developer wants to fill full- and part-time positions with locals from Community Boards 2, 3, 6 and 8, graduates of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development’s training program, and New York City Housing Authority residents of Ingersoll, Whitman, Farragut, Atlantic Terminal, Wyckoff Gardens, Warren Street, Lafayette Gardens and Gowanus Houses.
Job fairs will be held in June, July and August, for positions including food service, security and ticketing.
Starting next week, Forest City along with operation managers AEG and Levy Restaurants, who are in charge of food services, will meet with local community boards and elected officials to discuss hiring plans.
“We will work closely with FCRC, BUILD and the Housing Authority to ensure that local residents know about these jobs and benefit from this project,” Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh said, in a statement. “The arena will provide a great diversity of employment, which means greater opportunity for a wide range of people.”
Local politicians, such as Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, D-Fort Greene, state Sen. Eric Adams and Assemblyman Karim Camara, both D-Crown Heights, for thus far not making good on their promises to provide jobs for local residents at the arena.
"Less than 100 people from this community have received any meaningful employment," Jeffries said at a press conference in January, referring to the promise of well-paying, unionized construction jobs.
In December, BUILD came under fire when it was revealed that an apprenticeship program .
Atlantic Yards Report says that according to state documentation, the “full time equivalent” of these promised 2,000 jobs is more likely to be a number closer to 1,120.
Councilwoman Letitia James, D-Fort Greene, while praising the promised 2,000 jobs, said in a statement that she expected Forest City Ratner to do more for low-income and unemployed residents of neighborhoods surrounding the project.
"While I am pleased that 2,000 jobs will be created at Barclays Arena, most of these positions will be part time and will do little to address the rising poverty in the borough of Brooklyn," James said.
