« Lawyers: Yards neighbors will enjoy decades of blight | Main | Fighting a Homeless Shelter Closing »
January 20, 2010
New Public Advocate Assails Bloomberg’s Performance on Homelessness
The New York Times
by Julie Bosman
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is apparently making homelessness job one, so we're wondering what prevented him from standing with the protesters Monday night who held a vigil for families being evicted from the Prospect Heights shelter in the Atlantic Yards footprint that Bruce Ratner plans to turn into a parking lot?
Was it his support for the project, despite no iron-clad guarantee that affordable housing will ever be built? Was it the dearth of TV news cameras? Or is this just more "empty rhetoric" from a politician, to quote Councilmember Letitia James.
In his first policy announcement since taking office, Bill de Blasio, the city’s new public advocate, will challenge Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s record on homelessness and call on him to intensify his efforts to address the problem.
A day before Mr. Bloomberg’s State of the City address, scheduled for Wednesday, Mr. de Blasio will hold a news conference of his own at his office at noon on Tuesday, surrounded by invited elected officials and advocates for the homeless.
Posted by eric at January 20, 2010 11:03 AM