'City Limits' Takes An In-Depth Look At Councilman Bill DeBlasio's Political Career

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Photo Credit: City Limits

City Limits reporter Jarrett Murphy takes a look at the political career of City Councilman Bill DeBlasio who is running for Public Advocate. The article considers his years as our councilman, including some of the controversies during his two terms in office , such as the Atlantic Yards and the Gowanus Canal.
Murphy even goes back to the days of DeBlasio's stint as a District 15 school board member and the financial mismanagement of then- Superintendent Frank DeStefano (with a quote from yours truly, Ms. Pardon Me.)
Here are some excerpts from the article:

**In 1999 de Blasio left HUD to run Hillary Clinton's campaign for U.S. Senate. Around the same time, he won a seat on his local nine-member community school board (a part of the school system that no longer exists). During de Blasio's tenure some parents in the district began to raise questions about the leadership style and fiscal practices of local superintendent Frank DeStefano. They took their concerns to de Blasio.
"He listened. He's very good at listening. He took notes. Asked really great questions," recalls Katia Kelly, one of the parents. But even as concerns about DeStefano mounted, deBlasio defended him. DeStefano ultimately resigned in 2001 as it emerged he had amassed $57,000 in car service bills, spent heavily on conferences and retreats and driven the district to a $1 million deficit. "I thought [de Blasio] was really going to look into it," says Kelly. "Turns out, he wasn't."

**De Blasio's harshest critics find fault with his approach to development in and around his district, which includes parts of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Kensington, Borough Park and more. While de Blasio has opposed some projects, he has largely supported rezonings—in Park Slope, South Slope and Gowanus—that protect certain low-density areas at the cost of allowing significantly heavier development (and, defenders say, the chance for more affordable housing) nearby.
Marlene Donnelly, an activist in Gowanus, recalls when she and other neighbors mounted opposition to a developer who wanted a zoning variance in 2004. "De Blasio had his aide call us, saying, 'Stop opposing this or this developer's going to build the ugliest industrial building and it's going to ruin your community,'" she recalls. The developer lost. The ugly building never materialized. But other projects de Blasio backed are getting built.

**The most high-profile project in Brooklyn, of course, is Atlantic Yards, which falls close to his district and which de Blasio backed from the beginning. Only last year—well after demolition had begun on the site—did de Blasio say he wanted a moratorium on tear-downs until it was clear that the developer, Forest City Ratner, would make good on its promises of affordable housing and jobs."I'm obviously not satisfied with how the process unfolded," de Blasio says. "I think there was an opportunity to take the initial vision which was in the community benefits agreement and involve the community and figure out a way to achieve what was in the [agreement] in a way that was acceptable. I really think that didn’t happen."Foes of Atlantic Yards don’t think de Blasio's late-day skepticism is genuine. "He has supported Atlantic Yards uncritically for years and now, like nearly every other supporter, has modified his position by picking away at this thing or that thing or 'I support it if [blank],'" says Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein.

To read the entire article (and I highly recommend it), click here

The race for Public Advocate will be an interesting one. Do you think that Councilman Bill DeBlasio's record in our district will help or hurt his run for this office?