Yassky and Liu in Run-Offsky

By on September 16, 2009 7:19 am in Election09

Our man in the NYC Council / Brooklyn Heights resident David Yassky is headed to a run off against fellow Councilmember John Liu in the NYC Comptroller Democratic primary.  Neither received the 40% necessary to receive the nomination.   The winner of the run-off election on September 29 will face Republican candidate Joseph Mendola in November.

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  • T.K. Small

    If Yassky does not win the runoff, three characters on Homer’s keyboard will be unemployed!

  • nicky215

    Yasky deserves to be retired. He is an arrogant elitist who runs after the money of the rich by doing their bidding. He sucked up to Ms. Koval due to her ability to raise money. He supported private housing in a public park. He gave the BHA $200.000 of our money to install historically correct light poles to raise their property values. He arranged for Brooklyn Law School to build their monster dorm. He flipped floped on term limits until he ignored the will of the people. He put his name on garbage cans all over the neighbohood. From day 1 he saw this community as a way to advance his career. Nothing else at all. His neighbors know him best.

  • T.K. Small

    By no means was my earlier comment meant to be any kind of an endorsement of Yassky whatsoever! I agree with you completely. I am however a little surprised that he was able to come in second, forcing a runoff. All of the other candidates would have been preferable.

  • Neighbor

    As a former city employee, I have to point out that the comptroller’s job is one of the most important jobs in the city. He/she is a critical check on the mayor, the council, and city agencies. With the power — and responsibility — to audit all city-funded programs (think Dept of Ed) — and sign off on contracts, a vigilant and well-qualified comptroller is a potent force for detecting fraud and corruption and saving city taxpayers millions of dollars.

    I hope the level of debate here can be raised. People should be talking about qualifications — and not calling names and making nasty comments.

  • http://www.queenoftheclick.com Queen of the Click

    We can talk qualifications: Yassky’s area is Downtown Brooklyn. The same area where developers came in and stomped all over and the city claimed. Home owners asked him to help and he declined because he was for the Ratner stadium and for the developers. Apparently his father is a developer. An elderly woman who won her eminent domain case in Dec. 2007 had a press conference inwhich politicians who supported her came. JOHN LIU WAS THERE. REMEMBER THIS IS YASSKY’S DISTRICT. In December 2007, John Liu wasn’t running for Comptroller, he was standing with someone because it was the right thing to do. If you are a home owner here in Brooklyn, you know how valuable your property is to you, can you imagine receiving a letter that the city is going to try to take your home AND YOUR CITY COUNCIL PERSON SAYS THAT IT’S A GOOD THING?

    I am not the only one saying this: http://dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/davidyasskyweaselsonatlanticyards

    In 2008, Mr. Yassky decided to side with the home owners, but that was a little too late. Most of them were forced out.

    This valuable area of Downtown Brooklyn off Fulton street is dead and a mess now because the developers decided to wait (can’t get the funds together). See pics: http://queenoftheclick.com/?p=394

    Last Fall, David Yassky became known as “Brooklyn’s Flip Flop” as he changed his vote on the issue of term limits. Since this was an important issue for Brooklyn, I called all of the representatives in Brooklyn to urge them to vote with my Bay Ridge representatives on not changing term limits just so the mayor could have another term. Yassky’s office told me that he would be voting against changing the term limits and that he was putting forth a referendum. Two days later, I was shocked to see his vote in favor of extending term limits. Since I was on his e-mail list, I got an e-mail from him trying to excuse his behavior. I wrote him back; he didn’t respond. I don’t care how busy someone is, if they receive an e-mail they should respond back within three days. I’ve written to people in a lot higher positions than Yassky and they have responded to their e-mail.

    Maybe someone could ask Mr. Yassky to explain why he gave $15,000 to a fake fund run by Mr. DiBrienza. I don’t know why he would even think of doing. Yassky claims he is all about disclosure so why don’t someone ask him about this:

    http://www.dailygotham.com/17/blog/the_yassky-dibrienza_connection:_part_of_a_corrupt_pattern%3F

    Brooklyn Heights I love ya. I went to college in your area and I started my career in your area. I’m a new home owner in Bay Ridge, but even when I didn’t own a home here in Brooklyn, I knew that it was wrong for the City to try to take someone’s property and for a politician to think that he could stand with developers and then be re-elected.

    185K is the salary for NYC Comptroller. Mr. Yassky does not deserve this promotion. And you know the saying:

    “First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.” ~ Pastor Martin Niemöller

    John Liu is a serious man and an actuary. He’s ready to safe guard the city’s money.

  • nicky215

    i spent some time this afternoon looking at the Yassky donor base. My overall impression is that every lawyer who got out of Brooklyn law school gave him money. This makes sense given the horrible brooklyn law school building-dorm he oversized in downtown. It seems that all the lawyers and developers are in his pocket. I also looked at the members of the brooklyn bridge park deveopment corp board of directors who gave to him. The names and the numbers were not suprising
    Joanne Witty 2500
    her huband Eugene Keilin 1500
    Nancy Bowe BHA who wants private housing in a public park 1000.oo
    Don Corwll BHA Governor 1175
    Hank Guttman ESDC and BBP Board that supports private housing in a public park 3700
    John D Hasty publisher and part of the Heights elite 4950
    David Offesent ESDC board who wants private housing in a public park
    3000.00 and his wife Janet 500.00
    Otis and Nancy Persall BHA elites who want luxery condos in a public park 1500 and his wife Nancy 250
    John Watts Bha snob. wall street guy who will make money on private condos in a public park 3450 and his wife Martha 2500.
    These people have given more to Yassky to protect their turf than some people make in a year
    Yassky really needs to be exposed for the snake he is
    Please send this to the Liu camp

  • nabeguy

    Nicky, you’ve got to back up some of your claims. Where and when did Otis Pearsall ever claim to be in support of luxury condos in BPP? The man has spent his entire career devoting himself to protecting the historic quality of BH and was one of the architects of it’s designation as America’s first Landmark District. Unless you can prove otherwise, I find it hard to believe that he’d roll over on his own legacy and rubber stamp an agenda that is the antithesis of everything he fought for. Prove me otherwise and I’ll shut up. Otherwise, stop using the internet to connect your own dots.

  • nabeguy

    And by the way, Nicky, what’s with the elite snob list? Are you trying to be the Joe McCarthy of class-warfare?

  • nicky215

    OTIS PERSALL WANTED SHOVELS IN THE GROUND YEARS AG0 BEFORE THE HOUSING BUBBLE / HE WANTED PRIVATE HOUSING IN A PUBLIC PARK SO THAT OTHERS WHO REALLY REALLY NEEDED A PARK WOULD NOT DIRTY HIS BLOCK DURING THE SUMMER WHEN HE WAS AT HIS SUMMER HOUSE. THE MAN IS A TOTAL ELITIST

  • nicky215

    i AM GLAD THAT YOU ARE BEHAVING NABE GUY .. THANKS FOR NO MORE FOWL LANGUAGE

  • nabeguy

    Nicky, it’s time to take your medication. In regards to Pearsall, document your claim. As for my “fowl” language, even chickens have asses. Sorry if that offends you.

  • nicky215

    goodnght sweet nabe guy … take yours. contact persall directly… i noticed you did not question the other donations ( pay to play is what they really are.).. you are a minor player and by the way donations are a public record you should not need me to disinfect them for you

  • nabeguy

    I’m a player? Thanks for the compliment. And sweet too! You wouldn’t be being trying to sleep with the enemy, would you Nicky? Oh, wait, I’ll have to disinfect myself first.

  • Homer Fink

    I suggest everyone have a nice cup of hot cocoa and reacquaint themselves with our terms of service:
    http://brooklynheightsblog.com/about/terms-of-service

  • nicky215

    no need to disinfect yourself why would i want to get close toyou; sweet dreams to you and macarthys ghost.

  • Community Reactivist

    I don’t know about “years ago,” i.e., before the real community-based plan for Brooklyn Bridge Park came about, but the BHA floated the 2004 housing-filled plan in a series of private house parties throughout Brooklyn Heights. The former head of the BBP Conservancy, ostensibly the public advocate of the park, aided and abetted the new plan. Marty Connor (with help from Joan Millman) got the legislation for the PILOTS (housing-related payments, to be brief) into the park plan while up in Albany.

    Otis Pearsall is, I believe, a founder of the BHA — overall, a good thing. Otis Pearsal, I am pretty sure, was deeply involved with the housing “whispering campaign” — a bad thing — because he’s a BHA Governor in perpetuity. John D. Hasty is better known as Dozier Hasty, publisher of The Heights Press, Bklyn Eagle, etc. These papers have published repeated editorials, masquerading as articles, lauding the housing plan, discrediting the campaign for a REAL park, and casting doubt on the PIRC plan devised by Daniel Squadron and also proposed by Evan Thies. There are some people who don’t want to share our beautiful waterfront and will do anything in their power to do it — and since many of these people have money and influence, they succeeded for a while.

    Mr. Levin is an unknown quantity — I can only pray that he will uphold his pledge to keep additional housing out of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Steve — as a first step, how about getting it designated as actual parkland? Right now, it’s still officially a “project.” It’s ironic that some of these folks who seek to control and restrict access to our waterfront are in favor of a project in their midst, isn’t it?

  • Homer Fink

    CR you bring up many thought provoking points here. Thanks.

  • Community Reactivist

    Quite welcome.

  • Anti-despot

    Yassky voted to extend the mayor’s term limits, Liu voted against it. Something to take into consideration.

  • former supporter

    once someone ignore the twice will of the voters in ther term limits thing, nothing else matters. vote no to david.

  • T.K. Small

    Until approximately 1 PM this afternoon, I was going to hold my nose and vote for Bloomberg. What caused me to change my mind is that I have learned Gov. Paterson vetoed two separate pieces of important civil rights legislation which would have benefited the disability community. One of the vetoes came at the direct request of NYC/Bloomberg. Utterly contemptible!

  • nicky215

    also our main david yassky’s district office is not handicapped accesible.Do you think he is breaking federal law by not allowing our handicapped citizens equal access to his office?

  • T.K. Small

    Technically he is not breaking the law. I confronted him when he first moved his office and he explained that he had made arrangements with the Borough Presidents office for meeting space when necessary. Also, that his Manhattan office at 250 Broadway is accessible. So, while not illegal, it has annoyed me for quite some time. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to ask all of the candidates to commit to new accessible office space. Basically now I only need to contact Levin.

  • BklynLifer

    Dear FEllow Voters,

    I think John Liu is more qualified than David Yassky – on the merits. John Liu is, by training, an actuary who worked for McKinsey (I think) on pension-related issues. What are Yassky’s qualifications — being a lawyer?

    John Liu responds when PEOPLE are in need, while David Yassky thinks about the response that would best serve his political ambitions.

    There were three unscrupulous politicians who were largely responsible for turning BBP into a development project — Connor, Millman and Yassky. Connor lost his seat, in large part because of his role in this deed. JoAnne Simon was supportive of the Develo-Park — now she’s gone from the scene, too. Millman is, in general, irrelevant, but if someone savvy came along to challenge her, she’d be gone too.

    I think Liu will swamp Yassky in the runoff. It’s Yassky’s turn to leave the public payroll.

    Steve Levin had the strongest, clearest position on BBP, and soon he’ll be our councilmember. Not entirely a coincidence, I might add. Call it karma. Hopefully he and Daniel Squadron can overcome the Bloombergs and the Watts’s and the Witty’s who behave so arrogantly toward the will of the people — whether it’s parks or development or term limits.

    About time the Masters of the Universe heard from the people!

  • http://deleted anon

    For Otis Pearsall’s beliefs about Brooklyn Bridge Park see his DEIS testimony at the ESDC hearing held at the end of September, 2006 at Long Island Univ (go to the ESDC website and download the PDF of public comments). Mr. Pearsall praised the current plan that financed the park with private luxury housing. He was simply against the height of the hotel and condo buildings (8 and 10 stories) at Pier 1 because they would block some of his neighbor’s views of the Bridge from their homes on the Promenade (his concern for the view plane of the Promenade but not for towers lining the rest of the waterfront blocking others’ views and certainly blocking access to the water for the millions of other borough residents). At no point has Mr. Pearsall ever stood up against private housing insie the park. At no point did he dispute the housing plan in DUMBO that would totally eliminate park plans on the John Street site with a tower that would stand 20 stories high. At no point did he come out against the housing on Piers 5 and 6, where one building has already grown 20% (One BBP), and two new ones are planned at 20 and 30 stories tall. When asked directly to join with the coalition of neighborhoods and long-standing civic associations fighting for recreation in the park and against housing, he said he supported the current housing plan and refused to stand up against it. Those are the facts and the record is available. If the BHA published their meeting notes his thoughts on the subject of the park would also be well recorded.
    It is a shame, too, because he is wrong but he could have done the right thing.