Roger Green

It sounds like one of those 36-point headlines in The Chief-Leader: "343 Maintenance Jobs at Atlantic Yards."

Maybe that's enough. Admitting that low-income, central Brooklyn residents would have difficulty getting the types of office jobs that are promised for Atlantic Yards, Assembly Member Roger Green, a cheerleader for the project, told us last year that the project, which will cost between $1 billion and $2 billion in public subsidies and benefits, was worth it for the custodial jobs.

"If I have 4,500 units of housing that need to be cleaned on a regular basis, those are jobs with benefits, and that's what we got to do," he said at the time.

The Empire State Development Corporation released figures this week (PDF)that showed just how many maintenance and security jobs the residential parts of the complex would provide: 343.

-Matthew Schuerman

"He's got to be the angriest man on the planet earth," said Roger Green, talking this afternoon about Charles Barron. "He must wake up in the morning and just start taking swings at anybody."

According to Green -- who placed third, after Barron, in a primary against incumbent Congressman Ed Towns -- he was prepared to drop out of the race before he saw Barron make comments about him on The Politicker.

"Had he not made that statement, Charles would probably have been elected a Congressman," said Green.

"There had been a resolution and it blew up," he continued. "It was done as done could be done. All I had to do was communicate with people that made commitments to my campaign. I told him that."

Green travelled out to Chicago the weekend before Labor Day to attend a convention for the Nation of Islam and met Muhammad Ali.

"I went out to Chicago and spoke to Muhammad Ali to secure an endorsement in addition to other things I'm working on and one of Ali's associates asked me if I would really drop out. I said I probably hadn't raised enough money to stay in the race. He asked if the councilman was a hot-head and I said yes, but maybe we need some heat in Congress to stir the pot. And he said, 'Well, is it stirring the pot or will he blow the pot over?' And I thought about that."

Green said that the conversation did not dissuade him from endorsing Barron, but after he returned and saw what the councilman said, it confirmed his fears.

"To hold public office, you have to diplomatic, you have to be willing to talk, you have hold your fire, you can't shoot at everything. You can't shoot at everything! Folks said to me it was a sign.

"Charles stomped on his own foot."

-- John Koblin

Charles Barron was back to work at City Hall this morning, after a late and crowded primary night at his campaign HQ. So what happened last night?

"Well, I won!" Mr. Barron said. Another phone in his office rang--he talked to someone else for a while. "I said, 'Roger, look at me,'" Mr. Barron told that caller. "I said, 'Brother, I got this, man.'" He hung up and came back. "Everyone's mad at Roger Green," he said.

"I wanted to win so badly," he said. "Even though I think it's a victory, in terms of launching a movement. Eight percentage points from someone who's a 24-year incumbent! He had to get Bill Clinton after us!"

"To be able to get this close to victory says to me that all of the things that people were saying about our campaign—'Charles Barron, he's too radical, he's too black, he can't win with no money'—it's out the window and down the drain.

"We brought back volunteerism, because people believe. Everyone gets paid on election day! I had a campaign manager, didn't get paid a dime. All of our workers in Bed Stuy didn't get paid a dime.

"I'm feeling like a winner today," Mr. Barron said. "I probably feel better than Ed Towns! Ed Towns has to be embarrassed. How can he have all of that money, and he has the whole county behind him? To me, we beat Towns, Clinton, Sharpton—Al Sharpton endorsed Towns. All of them lost!"

Mr. Barron said he had a new slogan, already. "Don't be late, cuz Charlie the Great will be back in 2008!"

— Choire Sicha

Roger Green just called to say he's a) staying in the race for the Ed Towns Congressional seat in Brooklyn and b) shocked that Charles Barron accused him yesterday of reneging on a deal to drop out of the contest.

Green was particularly upset by Barron's suggestion that he was staying in the race to assure Towns' reelection, calling it "totally illogical and demagogic."

"I think it's a shocking example of tantrum politics," he said. "I was under the impression that Charles and I were having a private and civil discussion about the future of the Congressional district. I'm still committed to defeating Congressman Towns, but I believe temperament and humility are requisite for public office."

(Barron had said he was angry that he hadn't heard back from Green this week to discuss forming a united front against Towns. Green said that he was in Chicago over the weekend and in Washington yesterday.)

"I'm a deliberative person," Green added. "I try not to be impulsive in my decision making and my actions."

-- John Koblin

If you saw last week's Congressional debate on NY1 between Charles Barron and Roger Green -- incumbent Ed Towns, as usual, didn't show up -- Green all but announced that he would be dropping his candidacy. Green said a "resolution" was a "few days away." All that was standing in between, both candidates said, was to have a meeting.

Nearly a week later, however, the two haven't met and both are still in the race.

Now, Barron says he wouldn't even accept Green's endorsement of it was offered.

"I don't trust Roger and I don't respect him," said Barron. "If he offered his endorsement, I'd tell him to get lost. He's not the kind of guy I'd want endorsing me at this point."

According to Barron, Green told him with a "straight face" that he would support him immediately after the NY1 debate last Thursday.

"I didn't even understand why we didn't announce it on NY1," Barron said. "I kept saying, 'Why don't we just announce it there?' He didn't want to and then never gave us a date when we would announce it."

In an interview last Friday with Carl Green (Roger Green's brother and campaign manager) he said his brother would spend the weekend in Chicago and meet with Mr. Barron on Monday or Tuesday.

According to Barron, that meeting never happened and Carl Green has yet to return nearly a dozen phone calls (Carl Green didn't return several phone calls and emails for comment).

"Roger has been very dishonest and deceitful in our conversations," said Barron. "He's been saying he's going to pull out. He said 'have your person call my brother,' and my campaign manager called him five or ten times and we got no response. Well, Roger, here it is Wednesday, six days from the election.

"He's in this to help Ed Towns, his friend," he continued. "That's the conclusion we've drawn. We will have to beat the Towns-Green machine."

-- John Koblin

On the morning of Sunday, Aug.  read more »

For anyone interested in who's representing us in Washington, Charles Barron and Roger Green are on WNYC right now poking holes in incumbent Rep. Ed Towns, who has declined to show up for what is, according to his challengers, their twelfth debate so far.

Barron just told Errol Louis - who is managing the impressive feat this week of filling in for both Brian Lehrer and Ben Smith - that Towns' absence is "disrespectful," while Green said it shows "contempt for the democratic process itself."

Green also noted that Towns owns one of the worst attendance records in Congress and called him a "Republicrat" for supporting the CAFTA and for not holding the Democratic Party line the repeal of the estate tax.

Barron also attacked Towns, but offered a spirited defense of this guy.

So far, Towns hasn't called in to respond. Which kind of fits.

-- Josh Benson

Robert Jackson, council member on Manhattan's Upper Upper West Side, is about to give Bill Batson his first endorsement by an elected official in the race to succeed Roger Green in his Brooklyn Assembly seat. Jackson represents a district that Batson is familiar with -- he used to work for the area's state senator, David Paterson.

Batson and Jackson met via Batson's civil rights project titled, the American Civil Rights Education Service. "We sent over 800 young people down south to learn about the civil rights movement and he has been one of our major supporters," said Batson. "He is one of the people in government that I admire the most because he went from being a parent, to a plaintiff, to a public servant. It's a great kind of arch."

On the endorsement:

"I didn't really think of it at the time as something to stop knocking on doors to do, but we're going to do a press release."

Expect the official announcement shortly.

—Nicole Brydson

The Times reports Roger Green and Charles Barron will meet to discuss which of them is in the strongest position to defeat Ed Towns.

Influential Queens Democrat Thomas Manton dies at 73.

Ben Smith reports on a Spitzer ally's strong words for Andrew Cuomo; and 32% of his constituents approve of the job Sheldon Silver is doing.

—Nicole Brydson

On Sunday, Hakeem Jeffries announced his candidacy for the assembly seat being vacated by Roger Green.

The race for the 57th assembly district will mostly likely have two major components. First, that there is fresh blood running. Second, that the campaign will be highly polarized by the Atlantic Yards project.

"I don't know what his position is" "I've never heard him give a definitive position, even to say that he's undecided."

"I don't know what that middle ground is, in his view." "He's got to say what [a principled compromise] means."

"There are always compromise positions, but there are very many non-negotiable aspects of Ratner's project from the point of view of the people who are very concerned or opposed to that project. Those are the size and density of it, the scale, the eminent domain, the process, environmental impact, the divisiveness in the community, the amount of public money with no oversight."

"We're tired of hearing politicians say 'we're very concerned about the scale' and 'we're very concerned about eminent domain' or 'against the use of eminent domain' but 'I support the porject' or 'I have no position on the project.' those other words are meaningless when they are followed by I support the project."

A lot of activists in this community are paying close attention to that race,

"I think the activists in this community who are active around that issue have been very hungry to have a candidate and an assembly member who supports their position. We didn't have that with Roger Green, and we're happy to see him go, and we're happy that we have a candidate who is unequivocal in his position on the project. And that's the problem with Hakeem. This project has been around for 28 months now and no one know's where he stands and all the meetings we've had he came to one and hadn't said a word. Its a long enough period of time to come to a position, and that doesn't mean he has to support or oppose it but he has to have a real position and to say tehre can't be a principled compromise, those are empty words, unless he says what it means. Until he says that, its a meaningless slogan."

The Sun reports that Roger Green doesn't want voters to hold his ethics violations against him in his run for congress.

The Daily News reports that Tony Avella is looking at running for mayor in 2009; and Rudy Giuliani believes he has common ground with Ralph Reed.

And the Times reports the New York Pension fund has filed suit against Qwest Communications International for overstating their earnings and revenue.

—Nicole Brydson

The Times reports on Roger Green's announcement; and Hillary Clinton continues to outpace her rivals in fundraising.

The Post reports that Joe Bruno is ready to "make war" on George Pataki over his budget vetos.

And the Albany Times Union also reports on Pataki's budget vetos, in the form of decreased funding for Legal Aid.

—Nicole Brydson

Tomorrow morning, Roger Green announces his candidacy in the 10th Congressional District.

In the evening, learn about New York's options in voting technology at NYU.

Then, network with the NY Young Dems Caucus of Color; or attend a book party at the Brecht Forum with Charles Glass, author of "The Northern Front" and former correspondent for the Observer.

—Nicole Brydson

In other Brooklyn news, an insider tells the Politicker they believe it will be difficult for Roger Green and Kevin Powell to make it past the petitioning process in the 10th congressional district race against incumbent Ed Towns.

The reasoning: Powell, a newcomer to politics, is having trouble with a history of violent behavior. (Errol Louis recently quoted his memoir Who's Gonna Take the Weight? "He cites two college incidents, 'one where I hit a female student in the head with a stapler during the course of an argument, and the other where I got into a punch-throwing exchange with a female student I had sexed and then discarded like an old pair of shoes.'")

There's also been erosion of Roger Green's base of support since he resigned his assembly seat in 2004 (although he was re-elected that year). The source seems to believe that Charles Barron may be the most formidable candidate against Towns.

Towns has run into his own problems though, on his vote for CAFTA for instance, which might hurt him.

—Nicole Brydson

Outside of City Hall today, I caught up with Councilwoman Letitia James about her former mentor Roger Green's likely candidacy against Ed Towns.

"I love Roger, I love Charles Barron, but I already endorsed Congressman Towns," she said.

—Nicole Brydson

Back in November, Assembly Member Roger Green, who represents most of the Atlantic Yards footprint and is a big supporter of the project, told The Observer that he was planning to introduce a bill to scale down the arena and housing complex:

"I didn't sign the C.B.A. and that was intentional, because my position was that my ultimate endorsement on behalf of this project would be the state legislation, the legislation that would authorize the resources that they would need to complete this project."

The bill, he said, would come in January:

"We're working on legislation as we speak. We are trying to do a comprehensive bill that looks at reducing the density. Another bill works with issue of traffic calming. It is going to look at consumption pricing similar to what exists in London. And the other bill is about the installation of vegetative rooftops to address stormwater run-off and heat islands."

Well, January ended two months ago, and the legislature is on the brink of approving $33 million for the project, and Green has not introduced any bill and is about to lose a very powerful means of leveraging any change. Green told us today that he would still introduce the green roofs and traffic bills, but as for reducing the size:

"It is really going to be a fiscal issue: Is there a way of developing this project so that we maintain affordability at the same time so that we make sure it covers the cost of developing the housing so it doesn't blow out the numbers that ACORN has worked on? We are going to work on it. There are some models other states have used--to reduce the cost of housing."

-Matthew Schuerman

Over at the Politicker, Nicole Brydson talks to Hakeem Jeffries, who (again) is toying with the idea of running for Roger Green’s Assembly seat, but won’t take a position one way or the other on Atlantic Yards.

Actually, the more we think about it, the more reasonable this sounds. Why tick off a constituency when the issue will be resolved before the primaries? (Or will it?)

-Matthew Schuerman

Ex-Hillary aide Basil Smikle confirms that he's signed on to Kevin Powell's challenge to Ed Towns in Brooklyn.

In a field of challengers that includes the legally-troubled Roger Green and the very radical Charles Barron, Powell is, well, the hot one. He got his start in, er, politics (?) as the angry young black guy on the inaugural Real World, and has been doing writing and speaking since.

Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz, running for re-election last fall, criticized the bulk of the proposed Atlantic Yards housing complex. We knew he was only joking, but thought the joke might last a bit longer. Now, in an affidavit in defense of developer Forest City Ratner's imminent demolition of several buildings in the footprint (PDF), he calls himself an "unqualified supporter of the Atlantic Yards project." For more analysis of the affidavits, including one from state Assemblymember Roger Green, another supporter who seemed to be bowing to bulk concerns, go to Times Ratner Report. -Matthew Schuerman

In the continuing debate over whether or not the Atlantic Yards footprint is blighted enough to warrant eminent domain, developer Forest City Ratner has tended to argue yes, while local state Assemblyman Roger Green and many of his constituents have said no. Tuesday, however, Jim Stuckey, Forest City’s project manager, offered this re-assessment while speaking at a minority business panel:

“There’s always gentrification taking place in parts of Brooklyn. One could argue it’s a phenomenon—if you look at the people who have come out and opposed the project, they’ve only been in the neighborhood for a few years.”  read more »

Characterizing opponents as newcomers will surely push a few buttons. On the other hand, it's an admission the neighborhood is "improving" on its own.

-Matthew Schuerman

Sometime in late 2003, a Brooklyn activist asked State Assemblyman Roger Green what he thought about  read more »

Forest City Ratner’s spokesman Joe DePlasco said a few weeks ago that he should have sent out a press release when the developer first paid out money to the community groups that are supporting the Atlantic Yards development—and saved himself and his client a huge headache. The new communications policy seems to be in effect: a press release announced today that Forest City had given the Downtown Brooklyn Educational Consortium $87,000. DBEC has created a consortium of nonprofit organizations in Brooklyn that “will focus on a wide range of programs, including establishing four charter schools, a healthy start initiative and a housing program for senior citizens who are raising their grandchildren,” according to the press release. DBEC itself is a new organization which the Secretary of State’s website does not list as incorporated. Its chairwoman is Freddie Hamilton, who is also executive director of the Child Development Support Corporation, which itself is going to be part of the consortium setting up the charter schools and other stuff. She was also the candidate backed by Assemblymember Roger Green for the chairmanship of the Brooklyn Democratic Party—but lost out to Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

The bigger picture here: the eight signatories of the Atlantic Yards community benefits agreement, criticized for being too few in number, are looking for ways to branch out.  read more »

-Matthew Schuerman

The Politicker's sister site, The Real Estate, reports that at an Atlantic Yards press conference (sans press) today, Roger Green "upstaged himself by announcing that Rev. Al Sharpton would come out for the Forest City Ratner project—the one with the Nets arena and 17 high rise towers—tomorrow night at the Duryea Presbyterian Church in Prospect Heights." Why does this sound familiar?  read more »

Assemblyman Roger Green held a press conference this morning to endorse the Atlantic Yards proposal in Brooklyn, but it wasn't just the fact that Green had pled guilty to padding his travel expenses last year which made this thinly attended event odd. (Oh, plenty of other electeds and community leaders stood beside him—it was the press that was lacking.) Rather, he upstaged himself by announcing that Rev. Al Sharpton would come out for the Forest City Ratner project—the one with the Nets arena and 17 high rise towers—tomorrow night at the Duryea Presbyterian Church in Prospect Heights. This isn't the first time the Reverend Al has gotten into the development game—he endorsed the Jets stadium for many of the same reasons, including jobs and contracts for minorities.

As much as Forest City must value Reverend Al's support, it surely cannot like the comparisons that journalists will doubtlessly draw with the failed Jets' campaign.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman