We Don’t Need No Stinking Bagels

A pocket of dead-enders refuses to give up the fight:

Just a few hours after bagel man Ravi Aggarwal put up an “Arena Bagels and Bialys” sign on his soon-to-open Fifth Avenue shop, opponents of the basketball stadium that inspired the name made their feelings clear: they planned to protest outside Aggarwal’s store if it remained “Arena Bagels.”

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“For me, naming it ‘Arena’ was all about location,” [Aggarwal] said. “I just knew I wanted to come to Brooklyn with my bagels, which are the best, by the way. I don’t know anything about the Atlantic Yards project.”

He quickly got an education about the mega-project — and the negative passions it provokes in some.

From the moment the sign went up this week, people started complaining — and some were openly hostile, he said.

“At first, I said, ‘No way. I’m not going to be pushed around,” Aggarwal said.

But that steadfast conviction didn’t last long. Aggarwal said the sign would come down on Thursday — after this issue went to press. His other stores are named “Slim’s Bagels,” so he said it’s likely that he’ll name the Fifth Avenue store “Brooklyn Slim’s.”

This week, Atlantic Yards opponents were pleased that they’d beaten the bagel man into submission.

“I think the whole story shows perfectly how passionate this neighborhood is against Atlantic Yards,” said Jon Crow, one of the people who expressed his displeasure to Aggarwal.