New York Daily News columnist Harry Siegel wrote on October 9. “That’s because [likely Mayor Bill] de Blasio and [likely Public Advocate]Letitia James are both Democrats, and also Working Families Party stalwarts.” Similarly, on October 16, New York Post contributor Stephen Eide suggested that such synchronicity made the Public Advocate’s job “worse than useless.”

After one year, the arena is a marquee venue, but not the promised home for civic events.

If the new arena could speak, its first word would be “Brooklyn.”