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March 1, 2011
Private Sector Croynism Seeks to Replace Government in Wisconsin: Might New York Be Leading the Way?
Noticing New York
Michael D.D. White ends a blogging hiatus by weaving together an interesting thread that involves a shady adviser to New York's new governor, the hidden time-bomb in the GOP's all-out attack on labor in Wisconsin, and, of course, Atlantic Yards.
Here above all else is what caught my eye in the Krugman piece: That when these privitizations are done without bid, which is clearly NOT in the public interest, they will by law be deemed “by definition” to be “in the public interest.” It just seems impossible that sensible Wisconsinites could propose to indulge in such legal absurdities and fictions. Then I realized how closely this situation parallels one of the worst abuse situations in New York:
• The Atlantic Yards mega-monopoly was handed out to developer Forest City Ratner at Ratner’s initiative and without any bid. (Ratner is winding up with contiguous ownership of about 30 acres of Brooklyn real estate over the subway lines and a monopoly on about 50 acres of interrelated high-density real estate total.)
• The megadevelopment is essentially a privatization of the much of Brooklyn together with (through abuse) what is supposed to be the public function of eminent domain.
• In order to allow Ratner this cronyistic seizure, New York State public officials, with New York State court justices affirming their pretextual fiction, have similarly had to legally deem this privatization to be “in the public interest.”So whatever fight is going on in Wisconsin, maybe New York led the way. (The proposed expansion of Columbia University into West Harlem involves a set of misdeeds quite similar to Ratner’s Atlantic Yards.)
Posted by eric at March 1, 2011 11:29 AM