De Blasio Talks Real Estate With Brooklyn Bloggers
Councilman Bill de Blasio organized a Brooklyn blogger gathering on Wednesday night, ostensibly because “more and more of my constituents say they’re getting their news from blogs.” The meet-up may have also had something to do with the rumor that de Blasio is running for borough president (he admits to being interested in the gig,…
Councilman Bill de Blasio organized a Brooklyn blogger gathering on Wednesday night, ostensibly because “more and more of my constituents say they’re getting their news from blogs.” The meet-up may have also had something to do with the rumor that de Blasio is running for borough president (he admits to being interested in the gig, but says he hasn’t “made a decision yet”). Discussion at the meeting, which was attended by bloggers from Gowanus Lounge, Atlantic Yards Report, Found in Brooklyn, Pardon Me for Asking, and Green Brooklyn, touched on de Blasio’s positions with reference to a wide range of Brooklyn development issues. The capsule version: De Blasio worked at HUD before becoming a Councilman, and conversation seemed to inevitably circle back to questions of affordable housing. “The government’s approach to housing is broken across the board,” he asserted. He noted that the city and state’s hands-off policies when it comes to subsidized housing (as evidenced by the sunsetting of Mitchell-Lama, problems with the Section 8 program, and the fact that no new public housing is being created), combined with the rising tide of gentrification, have placed the onus of affordability on new construction. Thus, he thinks City Planning’s initial framework for the rezoning of Gowanus is “legitimate,” particularly in terms of the height and density that are being proposed for the Public Place site (where towers may be allowed to rise as high as 14 stories), since he believes that sort of height is necessary to support the creation of affordable housing. Similarly, he said he approved of Atlantic Yards in large part because of its “tiered approach” to affordable housing (whereby units are set aside for low- to middle-income residents), and that the project deserved the special subsidies it received through the revamp of 421-a tax abatement legislation because of the number of affordable housing units that Forest City Ratner has pledged to build. The councilman was critical of Forest City Ratner’s lack of “transparency,” especially in terms of keeping community members abreast of demolitions. He said he was also interested in ensuring “transparency” from the DEC during cleanups of toxic sites in Gowanus like the Public Place, and seeing a DOB that’s better at communicating with Brooklynites, especially when it comes to responding to citizen complaints at development sites. And so just how communicative and transparent is Bill being about his possible run for borough prez? “The world’s changed a lot since Marty came into office,” he says.
Lumi: “””Ethan: Bill de Blasio has a reputation for being honest in his sit-down chats with constituents. What happens afterwards is usually the litmus test for how people feel about him.”””
That is a totally fair comment, very valid. I don’t take ANY politician at face value. The key is holding them to their statements and making sure they follow through. I hope his environmental legislation passes, and I will certainly be watching them closely along with other matters.
Re: affordable housing, there was another gentleman constituent there named Patrick, and he was also questioning the high cut-off rate for affordable housing. I do not believe Lisanne was talking about Norman, but I could be wrong… For the record, I’m with Lisanne and Patrick that a $70-80k/yr combined salary should not even be on the radar re: AH. I also agreed with Patrick’s sentiment that some AH housing in the AY proposal seem to be shoved off to the side in an apparent attempt at “ghetto-izing” the AH units. Patrick said that he thought that those units would receive lesser quality care. I agreed, Bill did not. How can we trust a group like FC Ratner to provide fair service when they lied and distorted every single step of the process? I don’t trust a thing that comes from FCR and I think it would be folly for any politician to do so without pressing for hard accountability on every level.
Ethan: Bill de Blasio has a reputation for being honest in his sit-down chats with constituents. What happens afterwards is usually the litmus test for how people feel about him. I get the sense that his staffers are trying to make his office more pro-active and make him seem more accessible. I’m not sure that going through a bunch of crabby bloggers/constituents (myself included) is the best way about it.
I posted some direct de Blasio quotes from the first meeting with bloggers on NoLandGrab. I chose not to do it as a news item just after the meeting because I didn’t that a chat with my City Councilmember was that newsworthy. I posted it this week with Katia Kelly’s post on de Blasio’s evolving Wikipedia entries (http://www.nolandgrab.org/archives/2007/09/a_bit_of_editin.html).
Lisanne: I think that the guy who was talking affordable housing numbers with de Blasio was Norman Oder of AtlanticYardsReport.com. As far as I know, he received an invitation to both meetings. I hope that he begged everyone’s pardon for boring the group with minutiae about affordable housing — like many things in government, the devil is in the details. I expect that he WILL end up posting on his chat with de Blasio.
After De Bloggio Fest #1, I came away with the impression that his staffers really understand the blogosphere and the dynamics of our hyper-local online community. However, when we interviewed him at the first meeting de Blasio said that he didn’t read
our blogs. Nuf said.
2:27PM: He’s really not THAT hot in person.
— lumi
NoLandGrab.org
oops: “Ignoring the fact that he not only talked about environmental issues, but has walked the walk as well is very heartening”
should be: “The fact that he not only talked about environmental issues, but has walked the walk as well is very heartening”
>>>So Ethan, wtf is he doing “considering” running for public office then????? (I would think one would contribute to the public good?)
First of all, his IS in public office. And politicians do need to “consider” their options about further elected office. I don’t understand why that would be an issue to anyone. That is politics. That is ANY career. As for contributing to the public good, I listed the issues on which I felt I agreed with him — all of those issues are, to me, serving the public good.
>>>Was there anything else that impressed you besides this guy telling you what you already know this city needs??
Yes, I know the LEAST about public housing and development, zoning, etc… So that was informative (again, I dont agree with everything he said).
I found it interesting that he tied the lack of development of fully public housing directly to the 80s Reaganomics and the early 90s GOP’s Contract for (on) America and also to the fact that the last generation of public housing projects were horribly designed. So when you combine these factors, it is easy to see how public support of public housing has waned.
And, guest, it is not simply about what everyone knows needs to be done, but the fact that he is actively doing something about it in the form of legislation. THAT is the process. Ignoring the fact that he not only talked about environmental issues, but has walked the walk as well is very heartening, as was his sentiment that his styrofoam ban was received positively in the City Council and has a good chance of success.
Remember folks, it is not only the liberal/Democratic contingency that lobbies these people, but the other side does so as well. Issues like styrofoam and development are huge issues to many avenues of thought and debate, and a proper democracy gauges popular opinion as well as financial solvency and other issues. I found his responses genuinely leaning heavily towards public opinion versus the opposite end of things, and for that I am optimistic.
He’s kinda hot.
“he doesnt have THE answer to solve the problem of a municipal government’s response to significant problems.”
So Ethan, wtf is he doing “considering” running for public office then????? (I would think one would contribute to the public good?)
“That said, I DO agree with him on many of the issues he discussed such as the need to fix the affordable housing problem, the need for more adequate response to citizen calls for action, more building inspectors, and — of course — his environmental legislation. ”
Was there anything else that impressed you besides this guy telling you what you already know this city needs??
My name is Ethan and I write for GreenBrooklyn.com. I haven’t written about it yet because I wasn’t taking notes and don’t have any direct quotes, but I am going to post about the meeting.
I find it interesting that people were so negative about the meeting that I thoroughly enjoyed. What people might not understand — or underestimate — is that he is thoroughly embedded in the political apparatus that is the NYC government. Let’s face it folks, this is the way government works. It is slow to respond, it is clunky and beaurocratic, it is self-serving. While I did not agree with everything he said, I found his responses to be genuine and, for the most part, well informed. So, disagree with him if you want, but don’t cast aspersions simply because he is not the expert on your specific issue or because he doesnt have THE answer to solve the problem of a municipal government’s response to significant problems.
That said, I DO agree with him on many of the issues he discussed such as the need to fix the affordable housing problem, the need for more adequate response to citizen calls for action, more building inspectors, and — of course — his environmental legislation.
ALL POLITICAL BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH RHETORIC!!!
FUCK THE CURRENT AND NEXT BOROUGH PRESIDENT… WE NEED A BROOKLYN BOROUGH PUBLIC ADVOCATE!
PEOPLE PLEASE STOP BELIEVING THAT THESE ASSHOLES GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT OUR ISSUES, EVEN IF YOU ARE A SUPPOSED “CONSTITUENT”!
This was the 2nd of these events. We went to the first one and chose not to write about it because there was less substantive discussion of real estate issues. Clearly he’s got his own agenda in these meetings, but it seemed worth it to have Gabby write this one up. Readers are smart enough to have their own b.s. detectors…Personally, his stance on Gowanus was new to us, and that’s going to be a big issue in the coming months.