Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

So Letitia James, who's served as 35th District Council Member, NYC Public Advocate, and is currently state Attorney General, has her sights set on the Governor's office, after producing the report that spurred Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation, elevating Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose base is in Buffalo. A 10/29/21 TIME profile of James,  Letitia James Does Not Want New York to Be 'Defined By the Failings of a Few Men.' Now She's Running For Governor , focused on her background and her performance as AG, skating over her time in Brooklyn.  But her role in Atlantic Yards was covered, not always well, by some local publications. Bringing affordable housing? Here’s what a Gov. Letitia James would mean for business , Crain's New York Business wrote 10/29/21, including this curious paragraph: Councilman Steven Levin, who served beside James from 2010 to 2014, said her years-long opposition to Atlantic Yards brought increased affordable housing into the final project...

To a good number of people in and around Central Brooklyn, they're simply "Hakeem" and "Tish," charismatic, capable lawyer-politicians who've shown up at so many events and functions that they seem familiar. To political observers around the city, state, and country, they're now New York Attorney General Letitia James and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic Caucus Chair. Those are powerful positions: other than Special Counsel Robert Mueller and House impeachment managers, James has been best positioned to investigate President Donald Trump, given that his companies and foundation conduct business in New York. Jeffries, fifth in the House Democratic leadership, is poised to rise even higher once senior leaders retire or step aside. James, in many ways, has a bigger job, and a tougher one. After all, she's got to run a vast department, while also pursuing policy reforms discussed during the campaign (cleaner government, voting reform) and, no...

 The big news at the city inauguration yesterday, according to the media consensus, was the advance of new Mayor Bill de Blasio and the surprisingly harsh criticism, notably by new Public Advocate Letitia James and some invited speakers (Harry Belafonte, the Sanitation chaplain), of recent ex-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, stonily taking it in . de Blasio, according to his speech , doubled down on his campaign pledge: So let me be clear. When I said we would take dead aim at the Tale of Two Cities, I meant it. And we will do it. I will honor the faith and trust you have placed in me. And we will give life to the hope of so many in our city. We will succeed as One City. We know this won’t be easy; It will require all that we can muster. And it won’t be accomplished only by me; It will be accomplished by all of us — those of us here today, and millions of everyday New Yorkers in every corner of our city. You must continue to make your voices heard. You must be at the center of this debat...

I wasn't able to make it to the marathon (10.5 hours) hearing yesterday on whether the City Council should overturn voter-imposed term limits. (Heck, I wouldn't have gotten in, unless I came way late.) Still, thanks to the New York Times's extensive live-blogging ( evening and afternoon ), there were definitely some Atlantic Yards references (and perhaps more than reported). That makes sense, because, as I wrote yesterday, Bloomberg's effort, like Atlantic Yards, is a backroom deal that has generated much outrage. NY reported that 75 percent of those polled favor a referendum, rather than a Council vote. (Photos by Michael D.D. White. The Times has video , with Mario Cuomo, Letitia James, and especially Charles Barron.) The fundamental lie First, let's remember that the move to get Bloomberg a third term began well before the financial crisis. The Times's article today summarized the issue: For more than nine hours, the hearing returned repeatedly to a singl...

Rebecca Traister's 2/28/22 New York Magazine profile of Attorney General Letitia James,  The Object of Their Ire , counterposes her and targets Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump, noting: Years of challenging a moneyed white male grip on political authority have meant a diversification of who can make their way up, and those who have risen more recently are often asked tough questions about how: Did they move from the outside in via the propulsive force of collective community action? Or did they take the hand of the system they were supposed to be challenging and in so doing risk becoming beholden to it? Letitia James — or, as she likes to be called, Tish — is one of the few figures for whom the answer might plausibly be: Both. The profile is fascinating, and James comes off  well. But it's notable how Atlantic Yards has almost become a footnote: As soon as she got to the City Council, she began fighting the proposed development of the Atlantic Yards, a signal that her approa...

A News 12 debate taped last Thursday between 35th District Council incumbent Letitia James and challenger Delia Hunley-Adossa shows both candidates going at each other, unlike in their previous debate , when James tangled with third candidate Medhanie Estiphanos. Hunley-Adossa spoke somewhat more effectively than she did in the previous debate . Despite lobbing the same charge against James, she showed her focus was essentially Atlantic Yards, which she repeatedly pronounced herself in agreement with. She also claimed--for the first time publicly--that half the money received by her nonprofit, Brooklyn Endeavor Experience (BEE), went to air conditioners for her building--a curious example of Forest City Ratner routing money through a third party rather than simply doing the job itself, as it has done for other residents of the area around the AY footprint. It's a reminder that the pleasantly-named BEE, whose board members are Hunley-Adossa's family and neighbors, was original...

In a runoff election because no candidate hit 40% in the Democratic primary, 35th District Council Member (and Atlantic Yards opponent) Letitia (Tish) James beat Brooklyn state Senator Daniel Squadron with nearly 60% of the vote after a sometimes bitter race. That's tantamount to victory, though there are small-party challengers on the ballot in November. (The expensive runoff also prompted a push for instant runoff voting, in which voters mark second preferences at the primary.) Though turnout was low (under 200,000), given no others on the ballot, it was higher than expected, a tribute perhaps to James's strength with unions, the Working Families Party, her campaign push, and the notion that, in a city where white men are poised to win the mayor's office and comptroller, it would be good to have a minority woman in citywide office. Indeed, as James said emotionally in her victory speech ( on NY1 ), flanked by Comptroller John Liu and Council Member Melissa Mark-Viv...

There's a lot to catch up on regarding the Attorney General race. While Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided to stay out of the race--seemingly a snub toward Public Advocate Letitia James , a fellow Brooklynite--his wife Chirlane McCray has endorsed law professor Zephyr Teachout , the farthest left of the candidates. Ideology trumps identity politics: McCray is a black woman, bypassing two black women, James and Verizon lobbyist and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo aide Leecia Eve , either of whom could be the first black woman in statewide office. Teachout is white. Late-breaking pressure Meanwhile, as Politico  reported  9/10/18, "New York's biggest developer is helping to bankroll an eleventh-hour effort to take down an attorney general candidate who has vowed to do battle with the real estate industry," with the Related Companies giving money to a PAC fighting Teachout, while its had has donated significantly to  Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney , considered the most business-fr...

While the Brooklyn Paper’s coverage (headlined Our debate is a brawl! Candidates for Fort Greene seat get testy ) of the 35th Council District debate focused on the clash between Council Member Letitia James and longshot challenger Medhanie Estiphanos , perhaps the real news came from watching challenger (and Atlantic Yards supporter) Delia Hunley-Adossa , who currently leads AY opponent James in cash on hand, in action. Now we know why Hunley-Adossa has been so inaccessible. She relies on platitudes and her speaking style is peppered with malapropisms. Yes, people speaking extemporaneously shouldn’t be expected to speak perfectly, but Hunley-Adossa was well below the bar for political candidates. James spent most of her time clashing with Estiphanos, an energetic neophyte who lobbed criticisms both off-base and cogent, leaving Hunley-Adossa mostly unscathed--not a wise tactic for the incumbent. The toughest questions for Hunley-Adossa came from Brooklyn Paper staffers, and she didn...