NO VELMA-NETS FOR BROOKLYN State Senator Velmanette Montgomery has come out against an arena for the Nets and perhaps the Devils near the Atlantic Avenue rail terminal. She cited NIMBY-ism as her reason. Well, she didn't specifically say Not In My Back Yard, but she did note that a professional sports arena would increase traffic.

No kidding! News flash: Ebbets Field increased traffic on Bedford Avenue when the Dodgers played there from 1913 to 1957.

Were Montgomery around in the early 1900s, would she have stopped Charles Ebbets from building the stadium that brought Brooklynites so many memories and helped fashion the borough's identity? Heck, Brooklyn's 2.5 million people increase traffic, too. If Montgomery were around in the 19th century, would she have opposed housing construction in Brooklyn to preserve its traffic-free farmland? Think about all the traffic caused by the 8 million residents of New York City. Does Montgomery believe the folks who settled here a few centuries ago should have stayed in Europe?

We suspect the good senator wouldn't want to be known as a modern-day Robert Moses. So we'll remind her that Moses cited traffic when he opposed a stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers at virtually the same spot the Nets are eying-Atlantic and Flatbush avenues-leading to the team's departure after the 1957 season. The Atlantic Avenue nexus, with its nine subway lines and LIRR station, plus two other subway lines nearby, is an ideal spot for an arena, especially if it could be built on the unused space above the rail bed.

NORMAN'S BIRTHDAY BASH Embattled Democratic county leader Clarence Norman, speaking at his own birthday party, slammed Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes for investigating him-and asserted that Hynes was doing so for political reasons.

"There's a great political philosopher who said if you wanna stay in power, find, identify an enemy," Norman said. "Joe Hynes realizes that he may have some political problems, so what he has done is demonize and started attacking the Democratic Party which he's always been part and parcel of. And he thinks that somehow or other will allow him to resurrect his political career." What he meant was that Hynes is trying to persuade people to vote for him and not State Senator John Sampson in 2005. Sampson's people have made no secret of his desire to run for higher office soon, either Congress (against Rep. Major Owens) or, more likely, for D.A.

"He's been asked by many members of the legal community to challenge Mr. Hynes," Sampson's chief of staff, Lisa Falcone, called to tell us. "A lot of people feel that it's his time and we actually have a number of political strategists calling here left and right, wanting to be a part of it." The Sampson staffer criticized Hynes for "just waking up to all this corruption after all these years." Norman's point, however, is there is no corruption, at least on his part.

"If you ask a candidate who comes before you, or a person who's running for office, 'Do you have the resources to run for office?' that's called a shakedown now," Norman told supporters at his party. (Norman, incidentally, did not invite us to his August 27 party at Bargemusic, though he did make sure the daily papers were there to hear him bash Hynes. But someone was kind enough to give us a transcript of Norman's comments.) Norman also criticized Hynes for implying that Norman used his Democratic Party credit card for personal expenses.

"We have party rules that say the county leader can in essence have a credit card and use that credit card in the advancement of the party's interests and activities. And those are our bylaws. And I ask you, guess who wrote the bylaws that govern that type of activity? Our district attorney, Joe Hynes." Something tells us Hynes didn't write in the bylaws, "And the county leader shall be able to use the party's credit card to purchase DirecTV, sporting goods, health club memberships, a $1,600 Rolex, gourmet magazine subscriptions, fancy shoes, dinners up to $931.02 at Le Cirque and other swanky restaurants, miscellaneous household items at Cracker Barrel, Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Mikasa, Macy's, Sid's Hardware, Tower Records, Radio Shack, etc., and to go bowling and play billiards, for a total of $143,637.45 over a five-year period."

When the New York Post found those charges on Norman's party-issued card, which is only supposed to be used to advance the party's interests, party spokesman Bob Liff said every charge was either justified or accidentally charged to the wrong card. There certainly seem to have been a lot of accidents.

TISH JAMES CHANGES TUNE Before Councilman James Davis was murdered, he was criticized by political opponents, notably the camp of Assemblyman Roger Green and his aide Tish James, of using the non-profit organization Stop the Violence to advance his political career.

Now a candidate to succeed Davis, Tish James showed up at a recent Stop the Violence rally and told reporters that she was there to demonstrate her opposition to violence. She also reportedly said she'd attended past Stop the Violence marches and had even contributed money. Is this not political opportunism? Or worse, hypocrisy?

The day before James lost to Davis in the 2001 general election, one of her supporters, Green aide Janella Meeks, filed a complaint with the Campaign Finance Board charging that Davis violated its spending limits because Stop the Violence expenditures were really part of Davis's campaign. Davis denied the charges and told us he suspected that the complaint was actually written by Tish James, an attorney, and not Meeks. But regardless of who wrote the complaint, it wouldn't have been filed without James's approval.

Yet now she's trying to catch a little of the organization's spotlight to further her own political aspirations. It hasn't escaped the attention of Davis's brother, Geoffrey Davis, who is running against her in the November election.

"Clearly she has not been a supporter of the Stop the Violence march," Davis said. "She has at times stated that the Stop the Violence funding was being used for my brother's campaign, which it was not." Furthermore, Davis said, James seems to be trying to identify herself with his late brother. "At block parties and different locations, she's been saying let's have a moment of silence for James Davis, my friend James Davis. She's assuming that people are asleep or have a bad memory. It's an insult to their intelligence. Everyone knows she said negative things about my brother, during the campaign and afterward."

James was the only candidate who rebuffed James Davis's overtures after the 2001 election, Geoffrey Davis said. "After the race he approached her and every candidate with love saying, 'Let's work together for the betterment of the community.' And everyone accepted that. Everyone except Tish James. She was completely bitter about the loss."

Our messages at James's house and with the Working Families Party, on whose line she's running, were not returned.

JUDGE TANGLED IN WEB Housing Court Judge Dawn Jimenez was snared by the pro-tenant Web site RentWars.com, which published a scathing review of the judge just before her Democratic primary showdown with ShawnDya Simpson for Civil Court.

The commentary, written by webmaster Ronin Amano, can be found from RentWars.com by clicking on Rent Wars Public Forum, then Reports and Show Supplements, then Court Monitoring Scorecards, then NYC Housing Court Judges. The review claims that tenants who represent themselves have no chance in Jimenez's courtroom. Amano writes, "Judge Jimenez at first appears to be courteous to pro se litigants, but in actuality is rather rude. She interrupts constantly and treats pro se's with a true disregard for what they have to say."

He continues, "Before becoming a judge, Jimenez was a partner at the largest eviction mill in the city, Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler & Schwartz. Her entire legal career was spent evicting tenants, over 90 percent of whom were pro se. Judge Jimenez brings her experience to bear against tenants. With her as judge it's as if the big-money slumlords have two legal teams against the tenant." Amano adds, "She does do a good job of explaining the law as she sees it. Which is to say, 'Tenants lose!'" The sites goes on and on about Jimenez. Yet Jimenez refused to offer any specific defense of herself.

Instead, her spokesman delivered a generic rebuttal. "Judge Jimenez, the only judge and merit-selected candidate running this year in Brooklyn, has been fair, unbiased, and above any repute in her conduct. And she will not belong to [Assemblyman] Clarence Norman and the machine should she be elected," spokesman Hank Sheinkopf said.

But what of the claim that Jimenez is in the pocket of the real estate industry? "Not accurate," said Sheinkopf. "She has been fair in her judgment, favoring tenants when appropriate but more importantly following the law." While Jimenez's pro-landlord rulings have infuriated RentWars.com, they have generally been upheld on appeal.

DEAR SEASON ENDS The end of Noach Dear's campaign for City Council finally came August 25 when a federal judge rejected Dear's claim that the term limits law unconstitutionally denied him the right to run for his old seat until 2005.

Dear told the Daily News he wouldn't appeal. He had earlier lost an appeal of a state judge's decision. Three winners emerged: Councilman Simcha Felder, who now has no opponent in the Democratic primary or general elections; city taxpayers, who will get back the $100,000 in matching funds paid to Felder; and Jerry Goldfeder, Dear's attorney, who presumably billed enough hours to enjoy the vacation he took as the federal decision came down.

Dear was a winner as well, since he was spared the ignominy of losing his fourth straight election. He remains a member of the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Dear didn't return a call to his Brooklyn office. Felder was out of the country and couldn't be reached, but before he left he told the News, "The federal court has confirmed what everyone has said all along, including the Board of Elections and the state court and Appellate Division. His attempt to run was frivolous and a waste of time, energy and money." Most of the money wasted was from Dear's own campaign fund, to which he does not personally contribute. Dear's court challenge was technically against the Board of Elections, but its most ardent opponent may have been Assemblyman Dov Hikind, his old Borough Park rival.

Hikind had assailed Dear's effort, which included campaign literature distributed in July that included a sentence that began, "Now that I'm allowed to run for my old seat…" Dear also wrote that the gedolim urged him to run because "my community needs me." "He talks about rabbis who have encouraged him to run. How come he doesn't list them?" Hikind asked. "I challenge him: give us a list of rabbis who urged him to run."

But gedolim doesn't merely mean rabbis, Hikind noted. "It means the great leaders. Not just any rabbi, not just any community leader, but the leaders. If he'd only mentioned one of them or two. Of course, he does not because it just isn't true."

KENDALL SAYS HE'S NOT RICH City Councilman Kendall Stewart introduced himself at a recent candidates forum organized by this newspaper by saying he ran for office in 2001 because he was already devoting so much time to public service that it made sense to get paid for it.

But, we asked, isn't he actually quite wealthy? Doesn't he have a bunch of rental properties and other income sources that allowed him to give up his podiatry practice 23 years ago? "If you consider making $100,000 wealthy, I'm guilty of that," said Stewart, noting that he has five children, including three in college.

Indeed, $100,000 per year to raise five children is not wealthy in New York City. But it would be surprising if Stewart were earning just $20,000 on top of his $80,000 City Council salary. He quit medicine 21 years before joining the Council. He certainly didn't raise his five children on $20,000 per year. We also gave Stewart the chance to set the record straight about comments attributed to him in the Daily News, which quoted him saying his Haitian tenants are poor so they crowd into apartments, and since they don't all have keys they break the locks to get in.

Stewart, who was born in St. Vincent in the Grenadines and calls himself "an adopted Haitian," said he was actually trying to compliment Haitians. "Because we are poor (upon immigrating) we try to help our brothers and sisters," Stewart said. "That's our love for one another."

He attributed the criticism that followed the Daily News article to his opposition to a lead paint bill. "To me it's only a political assassination because I didn't sign onto a bill I feel was inadequate." Stewart said landlords should only have to do lead paint abatement in apartments occupied by children.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

Borough Politics Archive

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2000
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1999
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