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November 29, 2006
MIKE BID TO WIPE OUT 'BLOCK'HEADS
NY Post
"Inside City Hall", by David Seifman
Here's a column we missed about Mayor Mike's disaffection with the Public Authorities Control Board (you know, the group that Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner hopes will rubberstamp his Brooklyn mega-project).
MAYOR Bloomberg was so livid after a little-known stateboard blocked two major city projects that he ordered the city's top lawyer to review its legality.
Sources said Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo came back with a surprising finding: The irksome Public Authorities Control Board may be unconstitutional, but there's not much the city can do about it.
"He reported back that there is a case to be made, but the city can't be the one making it," said one source.
The problem seems to be that the city is a creation of the state, which is why the state's highest court has ruled it can't sue the state.
But someone else could.
NoLandGrab: From a legal perspective, the point about how the City can't sue the State is moot in the case of Atlantic Yards because the Mayor has supported the project from day one. But it does inform the public as to why the State can simply override City zoning with the vote of a board of non-elected officials.
From a political and PR point of view, it's amusing that the Mayor has now come to the same conclusion about the Public Authorities Control Board as Atlantic Yards critics.
Posted by lumi at November 29, 2006 7:04 AM