JUDGE CURSES HYNES New Supreme Court Judge Artie Schack, purportedly miffed that Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes missed his swearing-in ceremony, did some swearing of his own during a January training event for all the new Supreme Court judges. In front of the other new Supreme Court justices and about 35 other people, Schack blasted Hynes. According to one insider, Schack bellowed, "That f***ing guy, why didn't Hynes come to my induction? F*** Joe Hynes. F*** Joe Hynes!"

Of course, sources get information wrong sometimes. That may have been the case here, because another source told us Schack said something entirely different, namely, "I invited Hynes to my induction and he didn't show up. What a schmuck. F*** Joe Hynes. Joe Hynes can go f*** himself. F*** Joe Hynes!" So, you see, we really have no idea what Schack really said. But at this point, the accounts from our two sources converge. Both reported that when Schack completed his soliloquy, jaws dropped. "People in the room had their mouths open that a sitting judge could speak this way about a D.A.," one source said.

You will be shocked to learn that Schack's judicial temperament has been questioned in the past. But usually he reserves his venom for defendants. We've heard that Hynes once wrote an angry letter to Schack condemning his actions as a judge in a particular case. So it should have come as no surprise that Hynes skipped his induction. We called Schack at home for a comment. A woman who answered the phone, presumably his wife Delia Schack, a Democratic district leader in Bay Ridge, said there's more to the story between Schack and Hynes.

Unfortunately, the judge didn't call back to share it.

ARENA WARS Opponents of Bruce Ratner's proposed basketball arena and 4,500 housing units next to Atlantic Center are furious with Assemblyman Roger Green, who they say literally snuck in the back door of Borough Hall to attend the unveiling of the plans.

The opponents, who were protesting in front of Borough Hall at the time, believe Green didn't want them to see him. After all, last fall Green's longtime aide Randy Toure had promised them a letter of support from the assemblyman, according to Patti Hagan of the Prospect Heights Action Coalition. "That was in September," said Hagan. "I don't think it's coming."

We don't either, especially since Toure has left Green's staff and is now working for Ratner. Green himself has been quietly supporting the project, which is somewhat surprising because so many of his political allies oppose it (Rep. Major Owens, his son Chris Owens, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Councilwoman Tish James, and Democratic district leaders Freddie Hamilton and Francis Byrd).

That's not what was expected of Green when Toure, representing the assemblyman at arena opponents' meetings four months ago, announced, "Assemblyman Green wants me to tell you that he stands with the community in opposition to the arena," according to Hagan. Perhaps that's why Green has been so low-key in his support for the project. "At Tish's inauguration (in early November), I did see him. But since then he's been invisible," Hagan said. "I guess that's his pattern, that you only see him in the six months before an election. At least, that's what they say."

Well, Green does have a reputation to live up to. But hiding out could also be a political calculation, to avoid rubbing his pro-Ratner position in the face of people he's been friendly with for years. Green has been telling folks he supports the project because minorities would get jobs, one arena opponent told us. But the reality is, Green has kept even his own friends in the dark about why he favors the plan.

CRITIQUING TISH Councilwoman Letitia James penned an article for GothamGazette.com outlining her opposition to Bruce Ratner's proposed basketball arena in her district, next to the Atlantic Center mall. In it, she wrote that "Yankee Stadium at 57,000 seats…is double the size of the proposed stadium in Brooklyn" which she described as a "20,000-seat basketball stadium."

In fact, the basketball arena (the term "basketball stadium" is propaganda invented by opponents) would have 19,000 seats. We consulted with several math professors and discovered that the 57,000 seats at Yankee Stadium would be triple the number of seats at the Nets arena, not double. Also, Yankee Stadium is much larger than any basketball arena, because the playing field for baseball is many times larger than a basketball court.

Persisting with comparisons to Yankee Stadium only delegitimizes the valid claims opponents have, including that the expected economic benefits of sports venues is generally overestimated, and government subsidies for them are unjustified.

James also wrote, "The developer also claims that the 17 skyscrapers in his second phase will create 4,500 to 5,500 new apartments. That claim is the biggest joke of all. Organizations involved with affordable housing do not build high-rise apartment buildings anymore. They realize that people want housing on a human scale where children can play in a yard and neighbors can look out for each other." Our understanding is the project would include four skyscrapers, not 17, and we suspect heights will be reduced when deal-making commences.

But more important here is the claim that housing need be low-scale. If people don't want to live in towers, why is there a decade-long waiting list for every high-rise housing project? And why do Donald Trump's towers sell out? Simple: there's not enough housing. And the best way to fit lots of apartments in a small space is to build up, not out.

James is correct that many recent affordable-housing projects have been built suburban-style, with a yard in back and a parking pad in front. No doubt residents love them. But James neglects to mention that such projects have been criticized by urban planners as woefully inefficient. For every lucky resident who gets one of these low-scale units, countless more are shut out. Brooklyn doesn't have the space to give every family a walk-up apartment with a private yard. Better to serve the needs of the masses than the dreams of a few.

In the suburbs, the poster child for inefficient land use, big yards go unused most of the time, whereas city parks and playgrounds are well utilized. Low-scale housing also creates more automobile traffic, since spreading out the population makes mass transit less efficient and encourages people to drive. Residents of taller buildings without private parking spots are less likely to own cars.

James wrote that the "stadium" (she used "stadium" 14 times in her article, and "arena" zero times) and the rest of the development would bring 23,000 cars per day. Is this based on an environmental impact statement or arena opponents' own half-baked traffic study? (Hint: no environmental impact statement has been done.)

In his counterpoint piece on GothamGazette.com, Borough President Marty Markowitz admits that the proposal is not perfect, but he explained, "Issues such as traffic and parking…are real and need to be reviewed by experts with the participation of our community. Sadly, thus far the cry from some has not been 'let's make this work,' but rather, 'let's stop this project totally.'"

Lest James think we're picking on her, we'll note that Markowitz himself engages in layman's analysis in his article, saying the project "will create a real wealth of jobs." Contrast that with this general statement about sports venues by Smith College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist in an interview with the U.S. State Department: "The independent economic research that's been done on the question of whether sports teams and sports facilities have an economic impact on an area has uniformly found that there is no positive impact. By having a sports team or a new stadium or arena, you don't increase the level of per capita income, and you don't increase the level of employment. There's no direct economic development benefit." Zimbalist said that before he was hired by Bruce Ratner as a consultant for the arena project.

BARRON FOR MAYOR As promised months ago, Councilman Charles Barron announced on Martin Luther King Day that he'd run for both reelection and mayor in 2005, though state law forbids him from appearing on two ballots simultaneously. Barron, who was endorsed the same day by the Rev. Al Sharpton, said he'd challenge the law in court.

That's been tried before, without success, even though state law doesn't expressly forbid running for two offices at once. It only bans holding two offices at once. However, judges tend to stick to precedent, which would force Barron to decide which race to quit in 2005. State and federal elections are in even years, while city elections are in odd years. That's why Assemblyman Jim Brennan can run for city comptroller in 2005 without leaving his seat in Albany, but Barron can't run for mayor without losing his council seat.

Still, Barron told The New York Times his mayoral campaign is serious, though he has "not a penny right now" in campaign funds. But rest assured, whatever he raises he will spend. We point to his curious 2003 reelection campaign, when he burned through a whopping $88,223 (including $66,304 in public matching funds) to garner 81 percent of the Democratic primary vote against nominal opponent Derek Booker and 93 percent of the general election vote against a sacrificial Republican and Conservative. "

I did one mailing, and I opened up an office. I put up some posters and I had a very scaled-down election-day operation," Barron told us. "This wasn't nearly the campaign I ran last time (in 2001) when I spent $137,000." Of course, that race he won by 269 votes over machine-backed Gregory Jackson, a former Knicks basketball player.

Barron said he didn't ignore his reelection campaign because he didn't know the opposition would be weak. "I wasn't sure. I was trying to find out if the machine put somebody up," he said. Among the beneficiaries of Barron's spending was Rock Hackshaw, a political operative who was paid $3,500 in consulting fees, and campaign manager Nancy Randolph, who got $6,500. No doubt it took all of their expertise to eke out the victory for Barron.

Stymied so far in his quest to have the government pay slavery reparations to blacks, did Barron therefore use the matching-funds program to redistribute taxpayer money on a smaller scale? "That never crossed my mind. Reparations is a very serious issue. I'm not going to sit around and joke around about it," he said. "But you can if you want."

HIKIND IGNORES HOLIDAY Our January 19 edition of the Gotham Gazette declared, "In honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, city schools, banks, financial markets, government offices, and post offices are closed." But that wasn't entirely true. Assemblyman Dov Hikind's office was open on the state holiday until 1:30 p.m.

As one Hikind hater e-mailed us, "I hear Assemblyman Dov Hikind told his staff that he refuses to close on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I guess he feels that Dr. King and his vision do not warrant a holiday. Apparently there are no African-Americans on his all-Orthodox Jewish staff." Hikind is still not speaking to us these days, so we'll take the generous step of responding on his behalf. First, we don't suspect Hikind assembled his staff and announced, "I refuse to close on Martin Luther King Day!" More likely he reminded them the office was open that day but would be closing early. Second, should people be offended that Hikind didn't close for the whole day? Some might, we suppose, but not many of Hikind's constituents, who are largely Orthodox Jews. They're probably glad the office was open.

Are there no blacks on Hikind's staff? We don't know, but we do know the 48th Assembly District, based in Borough Park, is just 1 percent black. It's 18 percent Asian and 8 percent Latino, so if Hikind were to diversify his staff, hiring a black would be a low priority. Did Hikind disrespect Martin Luther King by opening his office on MLK Day? We'd guess that if King were alive today, that would be the least of his concerns.

However, when we mentioned this to a couple of white folks not affiliated with Hikind, they felt that by opening his office, the assemblyman sent a message to his staff that the day was unimportant. They also suggested Hikind's action could worsen relations between blacks and Jews. Perhaps Hikind's colleagues agree. We called the district office of every Brooklyn member of the Assembly on January 19, and only twice did anyone answer: at William Boyland Jr.'s office, where technicians were doing work on the computers, and at Adele Cohen's office, where the assemblywoman was working alone.

CLARK'S WIFE VISITS SLOPE Brooklyn native Gert Clark, the wife of presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, visited her old neighborhood of Park Slope on January 23 and then appeared at a reception at the 8th Street home of Michael Waldman, Bill Clinton's chief speechwriter from 1995-1999.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, who also grew up in Park Slope, was planning to show Clark around and then introduce her at the reception. Weiner is supporting the general for president.

Gertrude Kingston Clark was born in 1945 or 1946 (she won't specify, which is a lady's prerogative) in Brooklyn, part of a family of six. She attended local Catholic schools and met her future husband at a dance in New York in 1965, when she was 19. They were married two years later and began the itinerant lifestyle of a military family, moving 31 times in 34 years.

POLITICAL TIDBITS Mark Peters left his job as head of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's anti-corruption unit on January 16 for a job at the Midtown law firm Scarola, Reavis, & Parent, clearing the way for him to run for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005. Peters told us he's "seriously considering the race" because "the office is in real need of reform." That was a not-so-subtle swipe at incumbent D.A. Joe Hynes…

Brooklyn Democratic Party executive director Jeff Feldman's indictment for his role in judicial campaigns didn't stop former State Senator Marty Solomon from having Feldman preside over Solomon's swearing-in as a Supreme Court judge. "It's clear who [Solomon] owes his allegiance to and how he feels he got there. But it just blows my mind," one observer said. "It's outrageous."

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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