Markowitz quiz: "The [???] will distort and manipulate anything they have to, to justify their action"

Both Streetsblog and Aaron Naparstek point to a stunning interview of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz by Marcia Kramer of CBS, opposing the Prospect Park West bike lane.

"I don't believe a word coming out of that department, not a word," Markowitz says of the Department of Transportation. "The Department of Transportation will use any way to justify their action, distort and manipulate anything they have to, to justify their action."

While Markowitz thinks bike advocacy groups juiced the statistics by showing up the day of a survey, the DOT had a plausible explanation for the counter-statistics offered by Markowitz's favorite civic group: they counted only at the end of the line.

The Borough President wants an independent group to study usage of the bike lane, one not beholden to the DOT or the community.

The AY contrast

As several commenters pointed out, this sequence contrasts mightily with Markowitz's unyielding support of Atlantic Yards.

Consider, by contrast, Markowitz's lost opportunity to question the obviously distorted statistics on the Brooklyn housing market, contained in a KPMG report to the Empire State Development Corporation.

Or consider Markowitz's blatant lies in service to Forest City Ratner's effort to raise cheap capital from Chinese millionaires seeking green cards.