Metro

B’klyn revival’s ringmaster

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He thought he’d never pull it off.

Bruce Ratner doesn’t walk. He bounces. In a hard hat, rumpled suit and never a tie, Ratner vibrates giddily amid buzzing saws and deafening drills, before leaping amid never-sat-in seats covered in dusty plastic.

We’re in the brand-new crux of the known universe, Barclays Center, now under construction, talking about the rise of Brooklyn.

“It’s incredible!’’ enthused Ratner, 67, the hyperactive developer and CEO of Forest City Ratner.

“We’ve got Barbra Streisand!’’ said Ratner (who lives in Manhattan). “This is like the Dodgers and Yankees.

“It’s going to take people away from all of the tsuris in their daily lives. ‘Disney on Ice!’ Completely take you to another place with the person next to you.’’

When Barclays is christened this fall as home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, Ratner will have pulled off the seemingly impossible. Almost single-handedly, he’ll have brought the Borough of Kings, long neglected and overshadowed by Manhattan, back to buzzworthy health.

“A young person can go to Brooklyn to see hometown [rapper] Jay-Z. A family who lives in the projects will walk here or take the bus. This is the soul of Brooklyn.’’

We’re sitting near “Vom 2’’ — short for “vomitorium,’’ which architects insist on calling the entrances in deference to ancient Rome, not modern beer guzzling. Behind us is a gigantic window proudly overlooking the borough. When La Streisand helps inaugurate the center with two concerts, she’ll look on her Flatbush birthplace.

That this project was nearly 10 years in the making speaks to the selfishness of a gaggle of well-heeled spoiled brats and celebs. People who would protest the opening of a drugstore (as they did in my neighborhood) and care not a bit about Brooklyn.

“I was confident I was going to get it done,’’ said Ratner, “but there were a few moments when I said to myself, ‘I don’t think this is going to happen.’ ’’

The low point came in late 2008, when “the world came apart.’’ The economy tanked and Ratner was hit by slow-moving lawsuits that might have stalled the project indefinitely.

“It was crazy. A lot of newcomers from outside New York’’ fought the arena. He tries not to be bitter.

“It gets to me, in a sense. We were constantly attacked. Our company put hundreds of millions of dollars into something that many times looked like it might not happen.’’

The arena drew opposition from Rosie Perez, Steve Buscemi and the late Heath Ledger, whose loyalty to Brooklyn was suspect, at best.

But then, the last obstacle, a fellow named Daniel Goldstein, sold his house at the site to Ratner for $3 million, six times what he paid for it. The project was a go.

When I toured this site in 2004, it was a disgrace. It was scarred with toxic rail yards that had squatted on this spot, like a disease, for decades. Then I spied a pile of hypodermic needles.

It was long past time to breathe air back into Brooklyn. Or shut the lights and get the hell out.

The arena will pump 2,000 sorely needed jobs into the economy, putting a dent into Brooklyn’s unemployment, which stood at an unconscionable 10.3 percent in May, compared to 8.2 percent in Manhattan. Half the job applicants live in public housing.

Plus, 6,400 “awesome’’ housing units are going up next year, about a third of them classified as “affordable.’’

Threats of snarled traffic were greatly exaggerated. The arena sits next to 11 subway lines, 11 bus routes and a Long Island Rail Road station.

And the place is intimate. “There’s not a bad seat in the house,’’ said Ratner.

In coming years, protesters will scurry back across the river and leave us in peace. Go, Nets!

Brooklyn is back.

Gimme a brake on Kennedy ‘seizure’

The Kennedys are acting like the fictional Soprano crime family. Better known for awful driving than public service, the clan behaved “aggressively’’ in a full-court media and legal press to free Kerry Kennedy, a law-enforcement source told The Post.

The daughter of slain Robert F. Kennedy and ex-wife of Gov. Cuomo was driving down I-684 in Westchester when she plowed her Lexus into a tractor trailer. Slumped at the wheel, she told a cop she took the sleeping pill Ambien. But when Kerry pleaded not guilty to drugged driving last week, her excuse was that she suffered a “partial seizure.’’

A seizure caused by a head injury she suffered 32 years ago while bungee jumping from her dorm window at Brown University. Kerry apologized but took no responsibility.

The truck driver was then charged for failing to report the wreck. And I thought the Kennedys flee accident scenes.

Kerry kept driving after her “seizure,’’ stopping only when her damaged car ran off the road. Her cousin, ex-Rep. Patrick Kennedy, was looped on prescription meds when he crashed a car near the White House in 2006. And her sloshed late uncle Ted left Mary Jo Kopechne to drown after driving his car into the drink off Chappaquiddick in 1969.

Why doesn’t Kerry surrender her driver’s license, rather than risk another behind-the-wheel “seizure?”

She risked lives. And all that matters to this family is winning.

GOP has A sense of Huma

Anthony Weiner has stiff competition.

After setting up a gauzy “re-elect my husband’’ interview in People magazine, his wife, Huma Abedin, is hot stuff. The Hillary Rodham Clinton aide, who stuck by the ex-congressman after he tweeted penis pics to random cuties, was lauded like a rock star by Republicans after Rep. Michele Bachmann accused Huma of having Muslim Brotherhood ties.

House Speaker John Boehner said, “She has a sterling character.’’ Sen. John McCain said that Huma “represents what is best about America.’’

Get used to being a househusband, Anthony.

Everybody out of the pool!

It sounds like a “bias crime.’’ But I haven’t heard the words uttered in the case of Sara Puk, 13, a white girl who was attacked at McCarren Park pool by black females who broke her nose, then danced for joy.

This was the fourth violent incident to hit the Brooklyn pool since it reopened last month after being shut 28 years. Community leaders simply shrug. Can anyone keep McCarren safe?

Maybe it’s time to shut the place down.

Gun-tlet thrown down

The carnage in Colorado allegedly unleashed by masked gunman James Holmes is a wake-up call.

There are too many guns.

“Maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president . . . stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about it,’’ said Mayor Bloomberg.

He’s right.