Bill de Blasio channels Carl Kruger, Marty Golden in condemning "heavy-handed, rapacious bureaucrats” blocking development

New York Magazine's Chris Smith reports on Public Advocate (and mayoral hopeful) Bill de Blasio's attempt to curry favor with real estate developers:

He ripped “heavy-handed, rapacious bureaucrats” getting in the way of development, and beat up on the city’s land use approval process and its buildings department, two eternal villains in the business community. And as a badge of business-friendly courage, de Blasio cited his support of Atlantic Yards despite the fierce opposition the project provoked in Park Slope, the neighborhood he represented in the City Council.
"When it came to the criteria that mattered above all others — good jobs and affordable housing,” de Blasio said, “it was clear that Atlantic Yards would help stanch the bleeding in an area facing huge problems of affordability.”
If only that were how things have turned out.

Channeling Kruger & Golden?

de Blasio, actually, sounds like a couple of seeming ideological opposites, a conservative Democrat and a Republican from south Brooklyn, who in the spring of 2009 beat up on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to get the agency to give Forest City Ratner a sweeter deal.

Consider a press release from Marty Golden:

State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn), strongly advocated for ending the government generated delays that have prevented the Atlantic Yards project from moving forward at a meeting of the New York Senate Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions held this past Friday.

Or one from Carl Kruger:

Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) is demanding that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hand over its financial records concerning the Atlantic Yards project in the wake of the MTA’s “apparent refusal to move forward on a project that is critical to New York City’s economic future.”

Given that Kruger's now in federal prison and Golden's had his ethical problems, maybe de Blasio might choose some better role models.