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August 1, 2007
Hot Dog With Relish
Cyclones put Markowitz on a bobblehead doll. Now he'll pop up even more.
Village Voice
By Keith Greenberg
The Chairman of the Atlantic Yards Chamber of Commerce and Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz is officially a bobblehead:
Abe Beame never had a bobblehead. Nor did Donald Manes, Charles Barron, or Ruth Messinger. So what is it about Marty Markowitz?
"I wish I knew," says the 62-year-old Brooklyn borough president. Oh, he knows—anybody who describes himself as a "character," as Markowitz does, knows it's no accident.
...
But what does Markowitz do for Brooklyn? With a puzzled look, Eliyahu turns to Shlomo, who replies, "We're not sure, but he seems to care."In reality, the borough president appoints some 900 members to the borough's community boards, panels that influence decisions on matters like the transfer of public property to private use. As a result, in places like Park Slope and Prospect Heights, Markowitz catches a lot of heat for exerting that authority to support developer Bruce Ratner's plan to use eminent domain to build his Atlantic Yards project.
Posted by lumi at August 1, 2007 7:44 AM