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September 30, 2010
Markowitz planning China trip to trade green cards for Atlantic Yards funding
NY Post
by Rich Calder
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s latest planned overseas trip sounds more like a punch line than official business.
Markowitz – who racks up more frequent-flyer miles on government business than most local elected officials and all of the city’s other Beeps combined -- is seeking city blessing to travel expenses-paid to China.
His mission: fly 7,000 miles to the other side of the world to help his longtime ally, developer Bruce Ratner, peddle green cards to rich foreigners in exchange for investing in Ratner's embattled Atlantic Yards project.
They want to use a little-known federal program to raise about $250 million for the financially troubled $4.9 billion Prospect Heights project, which includes an arena for the NBA’s Nets, officials said.
"[Markowitz] is clearly taking full-advantage of permissible perks to boost economic investment in the borough,” said Dick Dadey of the government-watchdog group Citizens Union.
Markowitz’s many other expenses-paid business trips the past three years include visits to the Netherlands and Israel and a Trans-Atlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
The planned China trip was first reported yesterday by the blog Atlantic Yards Report.
If the city’s Conflict of Interest Board says the China trip won’t violate city ethics laws, the beep will spent a week abroad -- – five days in China and two days traveling, sources told the Post. He also intends to pay out-of-pocket for his wife, Jamie, to accompany him.
NoLandGrab: Note to China — better hide the placemats.
Posted by eric at September 30, 2010 8:58 PM