Mole333 on the Daily Gotham, a news and activism blog "fueled by you" had a post yesterday about Marty Martkowitz called "When Clowns Go Bad: Marty Markowitz Goes on a Rampage." The blogger says that Markowitz lashed out recently at a meeting of Community 6 and sent out letters firing "anyone who has shown any
spine in standing up for the community against Ratner." These are very serious allegations and the blogger claims to have three sources on this story.
I am posting this because I too used to find Markowitz to be very likale –if a little zany and self-promoting but it all seemed to be in the name of what was good for Brooklyn. I even included him on the Park Slope 100 because, well, he was Marty. But it seems that something has changed and the volatility of the Atlantic Yards issue has exposed a different side of his personality.
I used to like Marty Markowitz. I remember greeting him as he
crossed back over the Brooklyn Bridge in the NARAL march for Choice
just before the Republican Convention. I liked his seeming combination
of liberal politics and jovial, well, clownishness.Only slowly did I begin to realize that behind that jovial exterior
lurked a vindictive little shit that began emerging over the past
couple of years. Markowitz is now showing that nasty, vindictive side
as he fires members of Community Board 6 who failed to blindly support
Markowitz’s master, Bruce Ratner.I have now heard this from three sources, so I can report on it. Not
one source has yet agreed to be public. But collectively they tell me
that Marty Markowitz has become a raging nut case, yelling at people in
public and threatening people right and left. One person has, in all
seriousness, called Marty’s sanity into question. Markowitz seems to
have snapped.His most recent lashing out is at Community Board 6 (I know for
certain) and possibly other Community Boards. Markowitz had appointed
people in hopes that they would sign on to Bruce Ratner’s project
faithfully and blindly, much as Pataki was able to do with the much
tamer Empire State Development Corporation. Ignore the fact that Ratner
has filed no business plan and is expecting taxpayers to foot the bills
for him, Ratner demanded and Markowitz wanted to deliver…but it
didn’t work that way. The Community Boards showed they actually had
some scruples and some sense of serving…well, the COMMUNITY, not just
millionaire developers who happened to be Pataki’s law school crony.Now I hear the letters have gone out. It is Revenge of the Clown as
Markowitz fires anyone on the Community Boards (again, I know this for
certain about Community Board 6 and possibly others) who has shown any
spine in standing up for the community against Ratner. MORE FROM THE DAILY GOTHAM
Ya’ll know Marty is a serious drunk, right? “High functioning” alcoholic is an exaggeration only on the first account. While it IS a little impressive he’s made if this far without cracking from the lies (or he’s a better actor than is given credit for vis a vis orignal “Nets arena’ ruse), I thought Marty’s “condition” was better known than people here seem to imply.
Wake up white people!
Regards,
MS
Ruben, I do not doubt your sincerity. I do not doubt for a second that you think this is a good project. My question is this: How effective has your rhetoric been? Can you give me some examples of how you convinced someone from being anti-Ratner to pro-Ratner?
Just for the record, I don’t think you are getting paid a penny. Marty obviously thinks he’s doing the right thing as well.
And, just for the record, I live in Prospect Heights, and we have had long debates over the history and boundaries of our small neighborhood. If you’re interested in a serious discussion of that, let me know.
But let me repeat my main question: How convincing has your rhetoric been? And can you acknowledge that Marty has alienate some people with his sincere advocacy of Bruce Ratner’s development plan?
BTW – how much money do you think I get paid to post here? More than Marty or less? Or maybe Markowitz, an elected official who has earned his strips with Brooklyn’s diverse communities actually understands just how good this opportunity is for the City of Brooklyn and believes in it. Maybe he isn’t even on the take and is just unselfishly doing the right thing.
I will also use the words “selfish”, “self absorbed”, “non-representitive of the Borough of Brooklyn or the Community”, “ignorant”, “greedy”, and BTW – that neighborhood can not be called “Prospect Heights” (name itself made up out of the blue) unless you actually believe that the flood plain of Downtown is a
“height” near Mount Prospect almost 5 miles north of the Atlantic Avenue yards.
Of course if one believes that a world class sports area and tower complex in the middle of the nations 3rd most important urban buisness center can be “bad” sitting on the largest transit hub of the city of New York, then one can believe that the rail yard is part of “Prospect Heights”.
I think Ruben’s reaction is a fine example of how the pro-Ratner crowd can be shrill. Disregarding for a moment whether the anti-Ratner crowd is justified or “just thieves attempting to steal our well earned future.”
The discussion here was supposed to be about Marty Markowitz, and how this battle has changed him. Ruben calls people who disagree with this particular development proposal for Prospect Heights “nuts” and “wackos.” Is this supposed to be an example of who Marty has brought people together? Is this supposed to be an example of how Markowitz has brought charm and quaint buffoonery to the political discourse?
Ruben, who are you speaking to? What is your experiencing in turning people from being anti-Ratner to pro-Ratner? How many people have you personally convinced with your colorful language?
“I’m an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.”
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attacted at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one.”
<>>
You are theives, or worse. This development is going to be a cornstone for future generations and makes use of a largely useless by key part of the Borough for the first time since my great grandfather worked there during the first world war.
<
Thats because you don’t know anyone. The “community” is the entire borough, not the friends you have at your Saturday night dinner party. There is no corruption expect in the heat of people who want to use the largest intersection of the Borough as a private domain, like we really need yet another Park Slope rather than a aports complex designed by award winning archetectual.
Any wonder how the Dodgers got driven out of this city?
Your looking at it.
Ruben
Thanks for the coverage! Appreciated.
As to Ruben’s comment, you get several things wrong here. First off, NO ONE that I know of are opposed to development in Brooklyn. You ignore the fact that there are FOUR plans for Atlantic Yards, with Ratner’s being the least acceptable to the community. The main thing I have advocated is put all four plans on the agenda on an equal footing rather than favor Ratner, the low bid, in behind the scenes manouvering.
Next you ignore the fact that Ratner’s project was approved without even the submission of a business plan. We know next to nothing about his plan and what it costs because nothing has been above board. Even the environmental impact statement is highly flawed. But the failure to submit a business plan shows just how irresponsible the process has been. If someone came to you and asked you to foot the bill for a business venture and he didn’t have a business plan, would you even give him the time of day, let alone millions of taxpayer’s dollars?
Which leads to the next major flaw. NYC taxpayers are being asked to purchase the land for Ratner. Ratner bid $100 million for the land, the low bid. It wasn’t even a fair bid, capitalist process. It was a Pataki crony getting the job despite a low bid. Now, Bloomberg is proposing that NYC taxpayers chip in $100 million to buy the land. Ummm…you and I are being asked to buy the land so Ratner can profit off it.
These are just a few flaws in the process. Even if the project was a sound one, which we don’t know since no business plan was filed and the review process was so flawed, the corruption that surrounds it would be reason enough to oppose it. Do you support a corrupt, irresponsible process? The other three plans should be considered and the process be made fair and responsible. Instead, Markowitz is trying to force a corrupt and dubious project down the throats of a community that WANTS development, but wants that development to be reasonable.
Ruben, apparently you don’t know anything about those who are against this uggly mega development. We are NOT the thieves who try to steal Brooklyn’s future. The thieves are those who abuse eminent domain to get people kicked out of their homes, the thieves are those who get immense tax breaks and use our taxes (yes also your taxes buddy) to persue this insanity.
We, who are against this development as it stands right now, we ARE Brooklyn, a melting pot made up of folks who grew up here and those “wacko out-of-towner” who chose Brooklyn over Manhattan because of its neighborhood feeling.
And let me enlighten you further: we are all for responsible development. We are all for development that takes the community’s input into consideration. We are for development that benefits every single person in Brooklyn, and not just a handful of billionaires and corporate America. We want REAL affordable housing something that has become a foreign concept with “luxury” condos being built on every corner.
I strongly suggest that you check out http://www.developdontdestroy.org or the documentary “Brooklyn Matters” before you accuse us of standing in the way of progress, and get ALL the facts.
We are not the culprits here, the culprits are the Ratners and Markowitz of this world who only think about their own gain whether it be financial or political, and to hell with the rest of us.
Ruben,
If you like tall buildings so much, move to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We live in Brooklyn because it is not Manhattan.
Also, please allow me to introduce your ignorant ass to a dictionary and a book on proper usage of the English language.
Abe
you commenters, you funny!
Yeah yeah
And the nuts opposed to the Atlantic Yards development represent the 2 million plus residents of Brooklyn more than Marty? Don’t bet on that.
Markowitz has managed to merge the two largest ethnic groups of Brooklyn into one political career, that is the West Indian and Jewish Communities. Not an easy feat through those riot filled years of Brooklyn history. The people of Brooklyn have waited a lifetime for the kind of positive development that Ratner is bringing to the complete slum of Atlantic Avenue and Fifth Avenue. We should be denied of the long denied reshaping of this great city because of a few out of town transplants and wackos.
fooee…
The people who would deny this project are just thieves attempting to steal our well earned future. Let them move the upper west-side or back to the midwester rocks they came from.
Every major improvement in this city for nearly 50 years has been burned by short-sited anti-development wackos.
You don’t want to live with tall buildings and traffic, then move to Scranton.
Ruben
http://www.mrbrklyn.com