Monday, October 29, 2007

Where Was Bill De Blasio For The Last 7 Years?

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BROOKLYN CITIZENS AGAINST
BILL DE BLASIO
No, that group does not exist yet, but it should!



Yesterday's email from Bill De Blasio informing us that he is running for Brooklyn Borough President sent shivers down my spine. I knew the announcement was coming, but until now, I had hoped that it would just all go away. No such luck.
I don't want to speak for all Brooklynites. But, here in Carroll Gardens, Bill De Blasio has been mostly absent in his almost 7 years in office. Yes, he shows up occasionally to make an appearance, but he has not ever truly followed through on any of the issues.
During his tenure as councilman, he dropped the ball on so many issues that most Carroll Gardeners just shake their head when they hear his name. In this community, we have come to expect the very least from him and his office.
So pardon me for asking, why are we supposed to vote for him for Borough President?
I hope everyone will remember his lack-luster performance representing our little Council district before making him responsible for all of Brooklyn.

The quote below is taken right from his new and improved Bill De Blasio "campaign" site

To protect our neighborhoods Bill de Blasio believes we need to crack down on out-of-control and irresponsible builders and put the breaks on development that hurts our communities. In the City Council Bill fought hard to encourage the Department of City Planning to down zone Carroll Gardens and has stopped irresponsible architects like Robert Scarano from continuing to violate the city's building code with impunity.

Really Bill? How come our neighborhood is still not down-zoned, how come C.O.R.D. still can't get you on the phone and how come Scarano is still the architect at 360 Smith.

MORE ACTION AND LESS TALK, MR. DE BLASIO


Here is another reaction to DeBlasio's announcement by fellow blogger Lisanne at
FOUND IN BROOKLYN. Its worth reading.

For Home Page, click
Pardon Me For Asking


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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Katia! At the risk of sounding very very very redundant here, I would like to point out (again) that after FIVE LONG MONTHS of constant grassroots level work work on the 360 Smith Street development project and so many other critical, related issues we at CORD have NO ANSWERS! to even the most basic questions. All of our hundreds of volunteer hours have produced stalling and more stalling on the part of the POLS and yes Mr. DeBlasio's office is surely front and center as he is our Councilman. He is quoted as saying "we need to come together as a community" at his anti-Scarano rally in late May. I think he missed the point. We in Carroll Gardens were already together, but he seems to be continuously absent as far as I can see. He was quoted in the Courier as saying "keep the fires burning" to our CORD moratorium effort, and we have surely kept up our end of that bargain. What about his end of the bargain? What about his support for us, his constituents?
Where are the answers to (some) our simplest most basic questions?
How about just ONE? of our questions?
Pick one:
What is being built at 360 Smith Street?
Where is Mr. Stein with those new building plans he promised everyone?
Where is Mr. Scarano and he is still on this job?
What ever happened to the wide streets ruling issue and has Councilman
DeBlasio followed through on his promise to the community? He agreed that
Second Place did not look like a wide block (and it isn't!).
Who has jurisdiction over the outdoor subway plaza at Carroll Street?
How will our subway service be altered/interfered with before/during/after
construction?
How will the closing of the Smith and Ninth street station on the F-line
(confirmed this week by the MTA) further impact our plight at the Carroll
Street Station?
Has Councilman DeBlasio followed up on his promise to introduce a moratorium
resolution at the City Council?
Who is willing to help us with the ULURP for the Moratorium that City
Planning explained is necessary?
Unfortunately these, and far too many more, critical questions that the Carroll Gardens community would certainly seem to have the right to know by now (since we started asking many of them five long months ago) have still
not been answered.

Councilman DeBlasio congratulated the Carroll Gardens community at the CGNA meeting in early June when the 360 Smith Street story had just broken. I will always remember his words: "The worst thing you could now do, (as a community), is to lose all that wonderful momentum that you have been so successful in harnessing to raise awareness, and attract so much support and attention onto this 360 Smith Street development issue (and the issue of overfevelopment in Carroll Gardens)" Personally I never thought WE were going to "disappear" because we live right here remember? This is our home! How can we "disappear"? Little did I know it was the Councilman who would disappear. The only other persons who have disappeared along with him are several other prominent POLS who are supposed to be representing us, the "people" of Carroll Gardens, who live here and pay taxes here, not the wealthy developers looking to capitalize on all our hard work without so much as an honest, building proposal/plan discussion. Surely the "AS OF RIGHT" ruling needs some tweaking by now, does it not?
T. Samaras

Anonymous said...

It's time to get the word out about Bill to all who live in Brooklyn.



I suspect that after hes looses the BP raise, he'll end up working as a lobbyist for certain Brooklyn developers--that what he knows.

Anonymous said...

So, let me get this straight - De Blasio supports a CG downzoning yet supports up to 14 story buildings on the canal. Hmmm.
I hope we can get a large contingent to make a statement in the voting booth and send a strong message. In the last council election a good number of us had wised up to Bill and I crossed party lines and I think others did likewise while some chose not to vote for that office.

Anonymous said...

Why send shivers down your spine?
BP is powerless position and has no real say in very much of anything. His current position is more important than BP.

Kelly said...

You mean B.P. would be a demotion?
Oh, I would like that very much. But somehow, I think that Bill is too smart to take on B.P. without trying to get the most exposure from the office.
He has lots of ambition, make no mistake. He is working his way to the top. His grass-roots, "I represent the people who can't defend themselves" spiel is all very calculated.

Anonymous said...

So Bill wants to be BP ain't that great. He's been so responsive to the Carroll Gardens residents. As a Carroll Park volunteer when we called his office re the serious rat problems in the park 2 years ago, his office responded by advising us that they would call 311....we already did that and nothing much happened.....not until the New York Times took up our story did our politicians seem to think it might be a problem...we don't need more of this!

Anonymous said...

The majority of de Blasio's constituents oppose the size and scale of the Atlantic Yards project but the "Pol" de Blasio has always supported this ill concieved idea.

I would call on all voters -Dems and independents -to toss out de Blasio and Markowitz on their duffs. THANK GOD FOR TERM LIMITS!

Oh yeah,. if you run into de Blasio ask him why he couldn't get a mailbox put on Ocean Parkway for some elderly residents. Or why it took the State Assembly member Brennan to have a townhall meeting about the horrendous Kenningston Post Office. And good 'ol Bill de Blasio showed up 45 minutes late to the meeting and all he could say was that it was a Federal problem, sorry.

Well it took a State Assembly member to take some action. de Blasio I'm afraid is just a slimy politician. Go listen to him and see for yourselves.

I plan on supporting Barron or anyone else that has a chance of beating de Blasio. It will be a disaster for this borough if he gets elected. Believe me, I've been one of his constituents for his whole time on the council

Kelly said...

Well, welcome to the "Club of Ignored Bill De Blasio Constituents."
Lateness definitely seems to be a problem for Mr.dB. If he shows up at all, that goes without saying.
He has consistantly dropped the ball on most issues that my neighborhood cares about. So I feel your pain.