Strange things are afoot as City Hall and Albany squabble over how much money should be thrown at Bruce Ratner's feet.

First, Michael Bloomberg, Republican mayor of NYC, steamrolls a massive amount of NYC taxpayer money to help out Bruce Ratner, the good friend of fellow Republican Pataki. Bloomberg not only piled over $100 million in city money for infrastructure improvement, but also $100 million in city money to buy the land for Ratner. Which means Ratner had to pay nothing for the land. This, to me, was nothing but typical Republican crony capitalism at its worst. Some more reasonable minds, including David Yassky and Tish James, objected strenuously...to no avail.  read more »

[Editor's note: While I am on vacation I am reposting articles that I consider important, relavent and interesting. This one remains relavent, unfortunately. I would add that among the Corrupt Crony Capitalists I mention in this article, I should add Marty Markowitz and Vito Lopez]

I've been insanely busy, so it seems that Michael Bouldin has been covering Atlantic Yards, an issue that I covered extensively before. But I finally find the time to sit down and put into words the disgust and forboding that I feel as our state government green lights one of the most un-American, corrupt and poorly conceived development plans in American history: the Bruce Ratner plan to profit from the exploitation of Brooklyn, with the help of tax money from NYC and NY State.  read more »