Should I invite John Liu to come to PH? Would you come?

CHE wrote: Didn't he just have an open rally a couple weeks ago at the synagogue on Eastern Parkway by Eastern Athletic?

Nope- that was a Comptroller forum put on by Brooklyn for Barack. It was also pretty poorly attended, except for the campaigns, ALL of which plastered the area with posters.

Here are a couple reasons why I do not support Yassky. The City Council generally defers to the local representative, so there are a bunch of troubling aspects of Yassky's record from his district.

* 4th Avenue: Ugly buildings with no benefits to the community (no funding for schools, no affordable housing, etc). Originally, the rezoning of Fourth Avenue was supposed to create a "Park Avenue" of Brooklyn. A really bad legacy.

* Opposes Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal. I have heard the arguments against the EPA cleanup, and I don't buy them. Yassky should care about his constituents, not about the profit margin of the Toll Brothers.

* Downtown Brooklyn: Local businesses displaced for the sake of economic development as part of the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning. This plan was supposed to create jobs, but instead it has brought thousands of empty luxury condos. Instead of helping his constituents who suffered from this scheme, Yassky has been more busy getting into higher offer. When I asked him about helping these businesses in Downtown Brooklyn at a candidate forum, his answer was that he's done a great job in the Williamsburg rezoning.

* Which brings me to the Williamsburg rezoning: The neighborhood worked for 10 years to create a 197a community development plan. This was thrown away by Yassky, and he's helped create New York's most dramatic example of real estate projects gone bad.

* Atlantic Yards: During this campaign season, Yassky has been caught on tape saying one thing to one audience and another thing somewhere else. He has a consistent record of being on both sides of the fence.

* Duffield Street Abolitionist Homes: I was at the hearing when the experts hired by the EDC testified that the homes represented "THE most exciting site for Underground Railroad research IN THE COUNTRY." John Liu saw through the holes in the AKRF report trying to dismiss the unique historical value of the site. When I spoke about this to Yassky at the CBID dinner this spring, he completely forgot about the expert testimony.

John Liu is not perfect. When considering his record before our club endorsement vote, I tried to find Liu's harshest critics, and I spoke with them. A friend of mine ran against him for City Council, and I know people from his district. I don't like all of his supporters, and it's embarrassing that he's told some false stories about his personal history.

But I am more concerned with his record in City Council I was really impressed when he stood up to AKRF in their report to the City Council land use hearing on May 1, 2007.

Sorry it took me a while to respond to your post, jakePH. I have opinions about this, as you can see, and I think it's worth a discussion that I do some more research into. I don't think I'll have that sort of time before the election. In the mean time, please read our local blogger on his support of Liu:

http://dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/johnliuforcomptrollerupdated[/code]