Well, you heard it here first [1]...now even the NY Times is reporting on it. Brooklyn Borough Clown Marty Markowitz has flexed his muscles and ousted members of Community Board 6 who voted against him on Atlantic Yards. At least 5 people have been ousted, all of them opposed to Ratner's corrupt Atlantic Yards project. I am still waiting to hear details as to just how hard Marty has flexed, but other boards may be involved as well. But CB6 seems the focus of the Clown's revenge. (UPDATE AT BOTTOM)
(Image from the Brooklyn Record [2])
One thing that others are not really reporting on, which I did in my first article, is the fact that this muscle flexing, in itself not so unusual, has been accompanied by several loud and spittle spouting tirades by Marty in public where he threatened to do this. It is based on such public rampages that I was able to say so far in advance that Marty was purging. Community Board purges aren't really news. But when Marty, someone who has sounded out running for mayor or Public Advocate, is seen publicly berating people for standing up, in their minds, for the community interests on a Community Board, you gotta wonder about whether Marty has lost it. And people HAVE been wondering just that. I also feel increasingly uncomfortable with politicians who only want to be surrounded by yes-men. With Bush and his yes-men American has not been doing so well.
One final comment. I reported in my last article on this [3] that some City Council members may be involved. Bill DeBlasio largely admitted that he is all in favor of purging based on Atlantic Yards, but David Yassky's name was also mentioned in an article in the Observer. I now have from a few sources that his participation in any purge probably has more to do with either political favors (not uncommon for political appointments) or Brooklyn Bridge Park. I also have been told that to some degree, since Brooklyn's Big Clown has the final say in Community Board appointments, the City Councilmembers were probably largely warned who was unacceptable to Marty and so dropped names they knew Marty was rampaging against. I don't want to completely exonerate the City Council when it comes to failing to stand up on the corruption around Atlantic Yards, but I have noted that Yassky has started being a voice of opposition against the worst of Ratner, Bloomberg and Marty's excesses.
More later?
UPDATE: Lumi of No Land Grab [4] has the best round up of articles on Marty's Muscle Flexing Rampage. Excellent job, Lumi!
One thing I notice in her round up is that, like the Observer article not too long ago, DeBlasio and Yassky's participation in the purge are lumpted together with Marty's Rampage. As I say above, and as Bill DeBlasio has been very clear himself, this is probably a perfectly reasonable assumption for Bill. But I remain unconvinced that Yassky is willingly doing the Clown's bidding here. As a reader mentions in the comments, Yassky's purge doesn't look the same as Bill and the Clown's purge. The more I talk to people, the more I am convinced that Yassky is playing a different game than Marty's and should not merely be lumped in with Bill on this one. He and Bill may have had no choice on some of their choices, but Bill WANTS a purge for Ratner, Yassky probably has another agenda. Some people have given me their opinions on his reasons and they seem to boil down to either political favors or ousting people he doesn't agree with on Brooklyn Bridge Park. So I think the coverage of Yassky's part in this may be misleading, for what its worth.
Another source I have on this emphasizes that by now there is NOTHING Marty could have done to look good. He has already postured in public over this, so to back down too much would have made him look even more like a chump than he already looks. To carry out his threat makes him look like the rampaging clown. The one thing I do notice is that a couple of the quieter Ratner opponents are still around. I think the early publicity on Marty may have toned down the rampage.
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