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Markowitz running for Mayor? He'll have to explain why he lied blatantly about Atlantic Yards (on video) to help Forest City Ratner

The New York Post reports that, after likely 2013 mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner's sexting implosion, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is “strongly considering” a run:
Brooklyn itself is a great brand name, and its amazing Renaissance goes hand-in-hand with Marty being borough president. He’d make a great mayor," said Peter Meyer, chairman of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.

However, Markowitz has also infuriated his share of constituents, including bike activists over his opposition of a bike lane at Prospect Park West. And opponents of the controversial Atlantic Yards project, which includes the arena, regularly ridicule him for being its biggest booster.
Markowitz deserves more than merely ridicule.

Markowitz's AY buffonery

He deserves scorn.

His performance in a video presented to potential immigrant investors in Atlantic Yards--a dubious program offering huge savings to Forest City Ratner--as I wrote in February, is spectacular.

Markowitz claims, incredibly, "Brooklyn is 1000 percent, 1000 percent behind Atlantic Yards."

He knows that's false. But it could help save Forest City Ratner some $191 million under the dubious exploitation of a federal program in which immigrant investors get green cards for themselves and their families in exchange for purportedly job-creating investments.



The original video, produced by the New York City Regional Center, an investment pool, is made available by a South Korean video-sharing site. It is hard to download, so the excerpt was created the old-fashioned way, by filming the screen.

Markowitz closes by asserting that "there's nothing better than China and Brooklyn together."

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