Fighting words from Fernando Ferrer. He tells the Daily News Editorial Board that he would scale down the Brooklyn Nets arena plan "dramatically," noting that there were "apparent abuses of eminent domain." Mayor Bloomberg's campaign says that the Brooklyn Yards plan will bring more jobs and housing to the community, but even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says the plan should be scaled back, because that's what the community wants. Interesting! And in a speech in Stuyvesant Town, Ferrer invoked his two New York theme: "The average price of an apartment in Manhattan is well over $1 million - that may be affordable in Mike Bloomberg's New York, but not in the New York where the rest of New York lives." Amen. But is Ferrer's plan to take control of rent control from the state going to work? The Times says Bloomberg once supported that strategy, but the administrative costs were too much for the city to bear. Which makes Gothamist wonder how big would those costs be - like, are they that staggering that the city would have to raise taxes for residents that much? Anyway, the Mayor had it both ways when he discussed the Iraq War and MTA discounting, vaguely seeing both sides of situation. We call that the "I can't take a stand unless it involves knocking out Larry Silverstein"-12- days- before- election dance.
And did you get one of those scary recorded phone calls that Rudy Giuliani has done for Bloomberg? Gothamist received one the other night and we hung up in fear, thinking Rudy was going to tell us he was going to be coming back.
