Spitzer is a Fake or an A'hole or Both

So, I met with Eliot Spitzer today and much to my dismay I discovered that the image he projects as fighter for the people, fighter against corporate fraud, fighter for all that is good and right in this world, is, well, utter pre-fab BS.

The meeting was about his public support for one of the worst corporate boondoggles New York City has ever seen: Bruce Ratner's proposed 17 high rise and Nets basketball arena in Brooklyn. It will suck 2 billion from the taxpayers, abuse eminent domain, be completely out of context with the existing residential neighborhoods, create a traffic and environmental mess. The arena is a bread and circus front for a massive corporate crony land grab. (Ratner is old friends of Pataki's and the Ratner family is surely friendly with the real estate Spitzer family). AND the approval, input and oversight of the development proposal will completely bypass ALL local (city) control and community involvement. (more info here)

more after the jump

What does Mr. Spitzer think of it? A month ago he said:
"I'm all for the development in Brooklyn, Bruce Ratner's plan, it is a spectacular development, it needs to be built, it should be built quickly, it will revitalize a critically underused portion of Brooklyn, right now, it'll build housing, it will generate jobs, tax revenue. It is a spectacular project and I think we should move forward on it immediately."

Lies.

So, as a leader of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, one of the scores of community groups against the project, our City Councilwoman, a colleague and I had this meeting with our future Governor today.

How'd it go?

I can sum up by saying, He is an ASSHOLE.

Let me sum up further:
1. He doesn't care about any of the issues
a. not the public financing
b. not the corrupt, opaque, undemocratic process
c. not the impact on the community
d. not the closed, non-competitive bid on the MTA Atlantic Rail Yards
e. not the community
f. not the lies put forth by the developer
g. not the abuse of eminent domain
h. not the bypassing of city council
i. not the scale of the project
i. NOT NOTHING

He was a rude, obnoxious, imperious asshole. I would be upset if he simply disagreed with us, but could accept that. But the rudeness and unwilligness to even have a discussion and hear our point of view, well its not what I want to see in a Governor. A future governor with such a cavalier attitude to how citizens are treated, how public dollars are spent, and how developers rule the roost in the state does not bode well for the future New York I want to see.

(Hell, he even came out against reform in Albany yesterday)

ALL he cared about, ALL he had to say was "Do you have an alternate Plan? Do you have developers with money who want to bid?" That is all he had to say. It was a mantra.

He asked "Are you a lawyer, is there something illegal going on here?" I told him that I'm not a lawyer, but yes, there are some legal cases to bring against the city and state. he didn't care.

It then turned into pretty much a free for all shouting match (or loud talking match). when i was making some point about how there is the same chilling effect on developers who'd be interested to bid on the rail yards in play and red carpet treatment for this one developer, Ratner, just like on the west side of Manhattan with the Jets Stadium, he said, basically that that is absurd, if someone was interested they'd bid. then he said to me:

"Have you developed any housing? How many units have you developed?" I should have told him "Yes, my name is Donald Trump." He might have listened then.

I told him we are talking about the lives of the people who live in this city. He cared not about that, not at all.

This was not a meeting, not a conversation or discussion, it was a talking down to.

The next Governor of NY State is a sham, a fraud and camera hog who projects an image that is utter bullshit. If he can get national exposure, he's interested. If he can't then he doesn't care about the issue. And if developer and real estate interests are questioned, well he's too unprincipled to even consider that perhaps something like this boondoggle stinks to high heaven.

I'm not a one issue voter, but the Ratner project raises scores of issues and he was uninterested in any of them and a total ass about it to boot.

he will never get my vote.

A Democrat who acts this way, is a Democrat I don't want to see at the helm of my home state. I want a candidate who doesn't project one image and contradict it completely in private. He's an embarassment. His behavior in this meeting was that of the hackiest of hacks, beholdend to monied interests.

He's been anointed on perception, alone. He acted like Giuliani after a bad night's sleep.

Shameful and shocking.