Marty Markowitz Believes His Trips To Europe Should Be On The People's Dime

As things get interesting for one ethically tainted City Councilman tomorrow, scrutiny is being paid to Brooklyn's own mascot-in-chief, Marty Markowitz. The affable jokester who's face reminds me some buffoonish Disney character is back in the news for using his position for his personal gain. With the Atlantic Yards fiasco (and his collusion with it) seemingly safely behind him, Marty is back at it and willing to get away with more of our money and laughing all the way.

From The NY Observer:

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz took two trips, whose prices both fell somewhere in the tantalizing gulf between $5,000 and $39,999.

It took him four days in March to spend the first sum, while he enjoyed the "Kingdom of Netherlands." According to the form, he was a guest at Holland's "official celebration of their 400 year relationship with New York." Awkward!

He spent the next bundle during five November days in Izmir, Turkey, where he was doing more wooing than celebrating. According to the form, he spent his time trying "to develop sister-city status."

And then there's a trip to Israel in 2008, but no dollar amounts were mentioned. Markowitz proves over and over that behind his smile, lies a greedy political crook that is only looking for the perks of office and then some. If Ydanis Rodriguez gets the can for improper touching (and if it's true he should be tossed) then Markowitz should suffer the same fate for improperly stealing from Brooklynites and New Yorkers from all five boroughs.

Markowitz...And Atlantic Yards Gets A Challenge

Borough President can be seen as a largely ceremonial job with no real duties but in Brooklyn this year, voters are going to be presented with a real choice for the office. Marty Markowitz is an affable guy, gets plenty of laughs and is generally well liked. Yet his hearty support for Bruce Ratner and the Atlantic Yards development is loathed by Brooklynites that wish to preserve their home and not let an obnoxious developer dictate what is blighted and what is not. Markowitz was instrumental in helping Ratner to demolish several of downtown's blocks, using eminent domain to throw many residents to the curb.

Eugene Myrick isn't having any of it, and that's one of the reasons he's running:

Eugene Myrick, 37, recently became the first candidate to announce he's challenging the powerful two-time incumbent on the Democratic line in this September's primary.

Myrick's support is mostly over his opposition to Bruce Ratner's $4.9 billion project to build an NBA arena and 16 residential and office towers in Prospect Heights, a project for which Markowitz is widely considered to be the biggest booster.

The challenger -- who runs a bridal Web site with his wife, ex-KISS-FM deejay Kesha Monk -- told The Post he's upset with "sweetheart" cost-saving deals cut last week by the state and MTA to bail out Atlantic Yards, and ripped Markowitz for openly supporting them.

The Daily News recently started a "throw the bums out" campaign in response to the State Senate debacle. However, that "party" can be extended to local government and unfortunately, Markowitz is just another bum, despite the persona. I wish Myrick the best of luck in his race and hope that when Brooklyn goes to the polls, that they punish Markowitz for his collusion and install Myrick to give the borough a real chance for change.

Markowitz Doesn't Know What's Best For Brooklyn

While Mayor Bloomberg is busy trying to make the disclosure process for politicians less intimidating, Marty Markowitz has proven that if anything there should be more questions and harsher penalties for lying and/or manipulating for the ethically challenged politicos in our fair city. It turns out that the comedian/Atlantic Yards cheerleader/Borough President has been a little less than honest with his charity second Borough office and how it gets financed.

From The NY Daily News:

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz directed nearly $700,000 in city contracts to a nonprofit he controls - sometimes in amounts just small enough to avoid public scrutiny.

It's an ethically questionable arrangement that stunned government watchdog Dick Dadey of the Citizens Union when he was told about it by the Daily News.

"If it's not illegal, it certainly raises some very serious ethical questions and it should be banned," Dadey said.

Not only did the total amount raise eyebrows, but several payments for four contracts worth $24,999, all of which were $1 under the limit before the the City Controller had to examine it in detail. Those four were part of eighteen no-bid contracts given to the charity he runs. The explanation for the way things are handled is that Best of Brooklyn can accept private donations, but seriously, this is not ethical at all and should probably be illegal.

As the DN points out, the problems here are vast, from employing his city staffers, using the money to promote Brooklyn (that's part of his job as boro President) and styming other charities from city money that could be far more deserving. Markowitz at the very least put an end to this immediately and really should pay restitution to the city for his highly unethical behavior.

Ratner Manufactures Rally In Support Of His AY Failure

The Atlantic Yards Project envisioned by developer Bruce Ratner has fallen on hard times. With the lackluster support and energetic opposition, he has had to scale back his plans and hasn't done much except petition for more of Brooklyn's tax dollars to pay for the start-up costs. That is why he held a "Brooklyn Day" to conjure up community support of his massive plan to redevelop downtown Brooklyn. He even helped sponsor last weekend's "Jazz 'n' Roses" at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, perhaps to show that he cares about the borough or something like that. Yesterday's spectacle though, was a little more over the top than just sponsoring a nice event.

From The Atlantic Yards Report:

Despite decent weather, free t-shirts, a full-page ad in the Daily News, an E-newsletter, requests from union bosses to attend, and promises of free food, free transportation, and “international recording artist Maxi Priest,” the disparate and soon-diminished crowd was often subdued, even bored, and a passel of Forest City Ratner operatives monitoring the event looked somber, despite the billing as a “fun day.”

3500 attendees?

At the event’s peak, with union members streaming in from Downtown Brooklyn job sites, seniors and kids (who had a day off from school) bused in from throughout Brooklyn, and downtown office workers and Greenmarket visitors mingling during their lunch hour, there were probably more than 2000 people present. (Note that a similar event in 2004 drew 1500, according to the developer, though it's hard to tell from the photo if it was more crowded.)

WNYC and the New York Post suggested 3500 people were at the rally--that Forest City Ratner overestimate may apply to the number of people on the plaza, as I don’t disbelieve that 5000 sandwiches and 3000 t-shirts disappeared. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle estimated there were more than 1000 attendees (and noted that some seniors were just there for a day out), while the New York Observer counted “hundreds” and the New York Daily News cautiously stuck with “scores.” The Daily News, which has cheered for the project on its editorial page, bluntly stated in the lead that the rally was "paid for by the developer" and headlined the article Ratner cooks up rally for Brooklyn project. The New York Times, not surprisingly, ignored the event. The New York Sun wrote a tough preview piece.

Many attendees, however, didn’t stay for the speeches, and as the hour-long program of speakers proceeded, the crowd diminished, with fewer than 500 listening until 1:20 p.m., when the speeches ended and the music began. (The event was billed as from 11 am to 3 pm.) By comparison, at the counter-protest May 3, where AY supporters at least had visible antagonists in those calling for a “Time Out” rally, the energy was much greater. In this case, only a few project opponents were spotted in the audience, though Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein, in press coverage, called attention to the self-serving, even “desperate” nature of the rally. The Brooklyn Paper ran a scathing editorial questioning Forest City Ratner's correlation between "Brooklyn's renaissance" and the development of Atlantic Yards.

Check out the rest of their post for more details and lots of pictures.

On one hand, it is sad to see that quite a few local politicians are on board this sinking ship and that they have to try and engineer community support for something that clearly has next to nothing of the kind. On the other though, I'm glad to see these crooks going down in flames and on the defensive. For a while I was pessimistic about the fate of downtown Brooklyn and had almost given up on Ratner & Co.'s abuse of eminent domain to profit off of the borough. Gladly I can say I was wrong and hopefully all of this will be behind us soon enough.

Markowitz Gets Tough On Atlantic Yards Opponents

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is usually known as a comedic and affable guy that parades around Kings County. However the stunt he pulled yesterday against the leaders of Community Board 6 was far from funny. The Board was one of Atlantic Yards' most vocal critics, citing the massive building project would over tax streets, sewers and schools. Their condemnation of the development didn't have any teeth because it was a state operation, but Markowitz did not care for their opinions. So he let them go from their positions on the board.

From The New York Times:

In the case of Atlantic Yards, Community Board 6’s resolution last September, though strongly critical, was almost purely symbolic: the project is being managed by a state agency, the Empire State Development Corporation, and is exempt from the city land-use process.

But Celia Cacace, who has been on the board since the early 1980s — long before Mr. Markowitz was elected — said that he took her aside at a community event a few months ago to criticize her and her colleagues.

“He said, ‘I’m going to get rid of everybody on the board that voted for this,’ ” according to Ms. Cacace, 71, whose term expires next year. “He says, ‘Remember, you are my appointee.’ Every time I tried to say something he totally lambasted me.”

Treating an old lady like that is terrible and so is letting her go from her position. Despite the obvious pro-business bent that Marty has over the citizens of the area, there is no excuse to lambast anyone that volunteers time to help make their neighborhoods a better place to live in.

Although passionate civic leaders will try to fight to the end, it seems that stopping the project is a lost cause. There are lawsuits still pending on the matter, but I don't see any change in momentum to be very likely. The city wants the revenue that Atlantic Yards will create and has the state to back them up. Unfortunately it seems that the people have lost out on this one.

Marty Markowitz Owns The Crowd

On a much warmer Tuesday morning, Mayor Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz addressed a crowd at Prospect Park regarding the soon to be constructed Lakeside Recreation Center in the park. Replacing the 46 year old Wollman rink, this center would return the landscape to what it looked like when the park was created and add an additional ice skating rink. It is always nice to hear when one of our parks are restored and renovated, but this event turned out to be more about Markowitz than anyone else.

From The Empire Zone:

“Marty, have you spent a lot of time on the rink here?” Mr. Bloomberg asked, deadpan.

Seemingly impromptu, Mr. Markowitz replied, “In my day, if I had attempted a double lutz, they would have called me a triple yutz.”

“No, klutz,” Mr. Bloomberg joked.

“Klutz, yutz, it’s all the same,” Mr. Markowitz replied. “Now, after all that Junior’s cheesecake, I don’t think this is the kind of figure they’re talking about. I have more in common with Zamboni. And I want to issue a challenge today: when the Lakeside Center is complete, I will race the mayor in a new pedal boat for the right to call Brooklyn a city again.”

The potential 2009 mayoral candidate got a few chuckles from the remarks that stole the show from Bloomberg, but the finale really got the crowd going:

Let me tell you, it doesn’t get any more Brooklyn than Wollman Rink. Nowhere in the world, not even at the Olympics, will you find the diversity of skaters, figure-eighters and Icecapaders on display here. From African-American and Caribbean to Russian and Haitian, from Polish to Pakistani, from hipster to Hasidim, this rink, I might add, has always been, and will remain, one of the city’s most popular dating spots. Bet you a lot of you don’t know that. In fact, so many couples have fallen in love skating at Wollman Rink that having two rinks and being open year-round might just signal a population boom down the road. But hey, the more Brooklynites, to me, the merrier, and I know you feel that way, too. And I’m confident that for Prospect Park and for Brooklyn, double the ice will be twice as nice.

Marty certainly knows Brooklyn well and how to get the locals rolling in laughter. It will be interesting to see how the competition in 2009 shapes up and how Marty will take his place in that race. If anything, he seems to be able to run circles around the opposition, easily besting Bloomberg at this community event.