A petty snub by the borough president or a show of respect for his mother
— you decide.
The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats honored a handful of neighborhood
groups and community leaders at its annual dinner this Sunday — including
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, a group that is fighting Bruce Ratner’s
Atlantic Yards project.
As is custom at such dinners, which double as fundraisers, Borough President
Markowitz took out an ad in the evening’s program. The ad congratulated
all the honorees by name — except DDDB, which has attacked Markowitz
for his support for Atlantic Yards.
Of course, it was no oversight.
“I am a proud CBID member … but on rare occasions, I may not agree
that one of their honorees is worthy,” he told The Brooklyn Papers
in a statement. “Besides, my mother always taught me that if you
don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
DDDB spokesman Daniel Goldstein fired back: “DDDB has a powerful
base of support and has done the work of informing the community about
Ratner’s plan — which Borough Hall has failed to do … We
have over 400 volunteers, well over 2,000 individual donors and a newly
announced advisory board of prominent, influential Brooklynites. Snubbing
us snubs not only CBID, but thousands of Brooklynites. It is unfortunate
that this is how our borough president behaves.”
Other honorees at the 37th annual dinner, at Park Slope’s Montauk
Club, were Jeremy Creelan of the Brennan Center for Justice, District
Leader Alan Fleishman, Councilwoman Darlene Mealy (D-Brownsville), activist
Warren Miner, Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, South Park Slope
Community Group, and Park Slope Neighbors.