On the key New York City issue of development, de Blasio has gone along with the real estate interests, supporting projects that environmentalists and community representatives opposed.
If Bill de Blasio becomes mayor, he will drive the “hardest bargain possible” with developers, he says. But his record, back before he was a
public advocate planning to run for mayor, is distinctly that of a
pragmatic deal maker who chose his battles carefully on the issue of
development, rather than that of the populist hardliner he now sounds
like.
....
(About his support for the Atlantic Yards development project):
After several members of Park Slope's Community Board 6 voted
against the project, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and
de Blasio “purged” them.
....
"Mr. de Blasio has never criticized the deeply flawed process that gifted
a complete zoning override and 22 acres of valuable Brooklyn real estate
to a single developer without any vote or any bidding process," said
Daniel Goldstein, the founder of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn,
which led the anti-Atlantic Yards fight, in an email. "He's never railed
against the sweetheart deal, or advocated on behalf of homeowners and
tenants who faced the highly controversial use of eminent domain. From
the start and right up to the minute he has unconditionally supported the
biggest land grab of the Bloomberg years, a deal made entirely in back
rooms."
Bill de Blasio's history of siding with real estate during controversial
development fights goes beyond Atlantic Yards. (from
"Bill de Blasio, development pragmatist" in
Capital New York)
The article also notes his support for the development of condos in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Furthermore, at the behest of developers, he opposed the designation of the toxic Gowanus Canal as a Superfund site, a designation that went through anyway and that is now finally leading to a cleanup process.
Thus, it's not surprising that the real estate lobby doesn't see him as a populist who concedes nothing:
The president of the powerful Real Estate Board of New York, which spent $4.9 million on its preferred City Council candidates this cycle, said recently the board doesn't intend to do a similar independent expenditure to support Lhota in the general election.
....
(Steven) Spinola, a close ally of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, shrugged off de Blasio's rhetoric during the competitive Democratic primary, when the public advocate painted rival Christine Quinn as a tool of the real-estate industry and called the mayor's pro-development approach "incredibly counterproductive."
"People say a lot of things in the campaign," Spinola said. "We go through campaigns all the time."
"I know Bill de Blasio," Spinola added. "He's not somebody that there's any reason for us to be frightened of. We've worked with him. We have no reason to believe he won't work with us." (from
"Real estate group doesn't fear de Blasio, won't spend for Lhota")
We can hope that other Democratic politicians will learn the lesson that they should be more forcefully progressive in their campaigns. We must also hope, however, that they don't learn the lesson that they can get away with antipopulist policies as long as they throw in some fiery rhetoric.
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