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May 23, 2007
Project’s Foes Shown Door in Brooklyn
The NY Times
By Andy Newman
Mr. Markowitz on Monday replaced at least five longtime members who had sought reappointment to Community Board 6, which covers the brownstone neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Park Slope and Carroll Gardens.
The five members had one thing in common: they voted yes last year on a resolution denouncing Atlantic Yards, the $4 billion development project that Mr. Markowitz has spent three years and much of his political capital extolling.
Mr. Markowitz refused to comment on the reasons for his move, but there certainly seemed to be something about Community Board 6 that displeased him.
While he did renew the appointments of some Board 6 members who voted against Atlantic Yards, he replaced a greater percentage of Board 6 than of any other community board in the borough.
“It’s a shame to punish people for having independent judgment,” said Jeff Strabone, a board member whose term is not up until next year. “On the one hand, in order to have fresh blood on the board there has to be change, but losing this much leadership at once is a bloodletting.”
How does this board differ from the other Community Boards which compose the 22-acre Atlantic Yards footprint?
The other two community boards in the Atlantic Yards project area have also made critical comments about the project, but did not pass formal resolutions condemning it. Officials of those community boards said yesterday that all the members who had been appointed directly by Mr. Markowitz had been reappointed.
Posted by lumi at May 23, 2007 8:00 AM