THE SHAME OF CARROLL GARDENS Have you read about how some Carroll Gardens residents are trying to stop the conversion of a local building to house 20 battered women and children? They think it would lower their property values. But it's the opponents themselves who are threatening local property values. Who would want to buy a home next to neighbors so heartless, ignorant, and paranoid that they would turn away women trying to hide from abusive husbands for a few months until they can find permanent housing? Before these opponents stain the neighborhood's reputation any further, a local politician needs to set them straight. Of course, that would take guts and leadership. We're not holding our breath.

OPPONENTS HOPE TO TANGLE NETS Our brief item about State Senator Velmanette Montgomery's opposition to an arena for the Nets (and perhaps Devils) at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues angered some readers. It seems more than a few locals are ready to join Montgomery to keep the Nets out. Their primary objection is that an arena would increase traffic. We dared to note that a similar complaint could have denied the borough 45 years of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

Community Board 2 member Bill Harris, for one, didn't buy our comparison with Ebbets Field, which opened in 1913 at the edge of Flatbush. "I don't think it's really fair to compare Ebbets Field, which was way the hell out into Brooklyn, relatively speaking, in 1913, to today, with the possibility of putting this ballclub downtown in one of the most highly compacted areas of the city," Harris said. He added, "I don't know why you're so in love with this concept."

Well, if you're going to have sports venues, best to have them next to 11 subway lines, eight bus lines, and the LIRR, not in places like the Meadowlands, accessible only by road, and not where City Council candidate Tish James wants it, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which has just one subway station in the vicinity (York Street on the F line).

We also got this email from Prospect Heights resident Jezra Kaye: "You completely miss the point when you make it sound like Velmanette Montgomery opposes progress when she opposes a Devils' Stadium at Flatbush and Atlantic. What she opposes is the destruction of four thriving neighborhoods-Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Boerum Hill-by overdevelopment, namely shoving a gigantic structure into a space that can't handle it, and would be better used for affordable housing and a park where people actually play sports instead of shelling out for skyboxes." Kaye added, "It's well known that stadiums disrupt and cripple local economies, while bringing no long-term gain-or rather, no long-term gain for anyone except the sports team's owners. So why should New Yorkers fork out $350M-plus in welfare to billionaire developer Bruce Ratner so that he can buy the Devils and Nets? Especially since it's only a matter of time before these teams move on to their next stadium, leaving us with an ugly hunk of concrete and four ruined communities." Kaye makes some good points and some not so good.

The notion that an arena for 23,000 people would destroy four communities housing hundreds of thousands of people is absurd. The quality of life for someone living in a quiet brownstone next to Fort Greene Park wouldn't change one iota, except that he'd have the option of walking with his kids to a basketball or hockey game for six months of the year. Yet arena opponents compare a Nets arena to Shea Stadium (an outdoor venue seating 58,000 with one subway line) and say it would bring muggers, prostitutes, and asthma to their neighborhoods. Then they complain that the proposal would include luxury apartments. Who would buy a luxury apartment in a place destined to be a slum?

Opponents are always predicting their neighborhoods will be destroyed by something. Brooklyn Heights, we were told, would be destroyed by the Office of Emergency Management building. Funny, since OEM's approval, we haven't noticed any folks putting their homes on the market for half price. Perhaps destruction isn't inevitable after all. Nor would an arena "cripple" the local economy. How would nighttime hockey and basketball games stop people from buying antiques all day on Atlantic Avenue?

But Kaye is right about public financing. Taxpayers shouldn't give Bruce Ratner $350, much less $350 million. Hordes of studies have shown that public financing of stadiums is a boondoggle. Politicians who claim to believe in American capitalism should live by that credo and leave the market free. Brooklyn shouldn't give in to blackmail just to get a pro team. What about building affordable housing and a park? Good idea. But we guarantee people would oppose that as well. Think of all the traffic and crime it would bring.

TISH'S WISH The Democratic primary victory of City Council candidate Anabel Palma in the Bronx bodes well for Tish James, New York Sun columnist Errol Louis told us. Palma overwhelmed Pedro Espada thanks in part to the Working Families Party, which sent 1,000 people to help her campaign and could do the same for James, Louis said.

But he acknowledged that a greater factor in her victory might have been union support. One report credited "a heavy muscle-and-money effort by Local 1199/SEIU, for which Palma works as an organizer." We'd like to know if Working Families even has 1,000 campaign people.

James will need all the help she can get to defeat Geoffrey Davis, who has the Democratic line and the sympathy vote from fans of his brother, the late Councilman James Davis.

Unfortunately for James, she'll start the race $29,244 in the hole. Her 2001 campaign was just fined that amount by the Campaign Finance Board, all but $500 of it for exceeding the spending limit by $14,372. The rest of the fine was for filing a disclosure statement more than two months late.

TOWNS READIES FOR NORMAN'S FALL Insiders believe Rep. Ed Towns's resignation as a Democratic district leader is part of a plan to groom his son, Assemblyman Darryl Towns, as the next county leader. Towns quit at the last leaders' meeting and asked for an immediate vote to select his son to replace him. But unanimity was needed to put it on the agenda that night, and Assemblyman Vito Lopez objected. So the 41 leaders will vote in October instead, with Darryl Towns still the favorite.

Should he become a district leader, he'd be eligible to succeed Assemblyman Clarence Norman as county leader should Norman be forced out by the current investigation of his financial and political dealings. "They realize Clarence is about to go down," one source said of the Townses. "If he's indicted I would imagine he'll be removed as county leader. Ed Towns controls a considerable bloc of district leaders. Darryl Towns would be a viable candidate" for county leader.

Towns aide Karen Johnson said her boss resigned "because he felt the process was tainted." She added, "The congressman will never work with Clarence again." Did he ever?

Meanwhile, The New York Times published a long piece about Norman's finances, raising the question of whether the county leader uses his four campaign funds to enrich himself. Darryl Towns would see an increase in scrutiny as well were he to succeed Norman. The younger Towns's 2000 reelection campaign received free transportation and workers from Correctional Services Inc., according to the company's chairman, yet never reported it on campaign finance disclosure forms, as required by state election law, the New York Post's Fred Dicker reported.

The same was true for Assemblyman Roger Green. Sources told Dicker that indictments would be handed down within a month.

FIDLER-ROCOFF REPRISAL The person least surprised that controversial literature surfaced at the end of Housing Court Judge Dawn Jimenez's campaign for Civil Court was Councilman Lew Fidler, an arch enemy of Jimenez's chief campaign strategist, Alan Rocoff.

Rocoff was working for Doreen Greenwood's campaign against Fidler in 2001 when two anonymous and offensive fliers surfaced. A third piece, mailed to prospective voters, claimed that Fidler was "under investigation."

Other Greenwood literature-eerily similar to the one in which Jimenez used photos of Councilmen Bill deBlasio and David Yassky and Assemblyman Jim Brennan (none of whom endorsed her)-showed Greenwood in photos with State Senator Carl Kruger and Councilman Mike Nelson, who'd both endorsed Fidler. Just as the Greenwood piece used a legitimate endorsement and quote from then-district leader Rene Hauser, lending legitimacy to the Kruger and Nelson photos, the Jimenez piece featured a complimentary quote from district leader Jake Gold.

Fidler won the election anyway, but blamed Rocoff for the literature, despite Rocoff's assertion that he had nothing to do with them and was in France and preoccupied with the birth of his son when they were produced.

Likewise, Fidler assumed Rocoff devised the Jimenez literature. "It is so characteristic of his style, that I don't know why anyone was surprised when it arrived," Fidler said. "A leopard doesn't change its spots." Another Jimenez staffer, Cole Ettman, said he put together the literature, but that Rocoff was in charge of the campaign. Rocoff said he played a minor role in the literature and mostly did legal work for the campaign. Whatever the case, the controversy didn't do Jimenez's aspirations for promotion any favors, since she cannot rise to Civil or Supreme Court without delving into the political world. "I think it will hurt in the future," deBlasio said. "It's the kind of thing that people have to realize, if you do something like that, it's going to be remembered … It's amazing to me that people think they can get away with something like that."

But Ettman said the flier was legitimate and proper. "I stand by the literature," he said. "We didn't imply that these people endorsed Dawn. They took a picture with Dawn. They were happy to do that. Politicians take pictures with people all the time. "And in no way did we imply that she was endorsed by any newspapers that she wasn't. We took out the relevant excerpts."

Well, consider for yourself the implication of these two sentences from the paper's endorsement of Simpson: "These are our Civil Court recommendations for Tuesday's election … Dawn Marie Jimenez, is an incumbent Housing Court judge whose performance suggests she is well prepared for elevation to Civil Court."

Asked if Jimenez had approved that literature, Ettman said, "The candidate does not always see every piece of literature." (Not a direct answer, but we'll take it as a "no.") What about Rocoff? He was described by two Jimenez campaign staffers as the person in charge of the campaign, yet he told us, "I didn't get involved in the literature end of things … I'm in the legal end of things."

But he seemed very familiar with the controversial flier and acknowledged that he played a role in putting a quote from Gold on it. "I was the intermediary, maybe, because Jake and I know each other forever," Rocoff said. Gold said he complained to Rocoff, who replied that he'd captured the spirit of what Gold said upon introducing her at a candidates forum about six months ago. Gold said Rocoff, during their conversation, never denied producing the flier. Gold recalled saying something complimentary about each candidate he introduced at the forum hosted by his Democratic club last spring.

But he was shocked to see himself quoted on Jimenez's literature saying, "I know Judge Dawn Jimenez to be an outstanding jurist whose integrity is beyond question. She is a credit to the bench." "He kind of paraphrased my words and used that as a quote. Somehow he turned that into an endorsement," Gold said. "That kind of thing should not happen and Alan Rocoff ought to know better." Rocoff said, "There was no intent to claim an endorsement … Maybe there was a lack of clarity. Maybe in the rush of things there was a miscommunication.

"To the extent that there was any implication, that there might have been a mistake, the campaign offers an apology for that."

EASY TARGET FOR GENTILE City Councilman Vinny Gentile recently lobbed himself a fat pitch, demanding that meters near churches be free on Sundays. "These meters are an infringement on my constituents' rights to enjoy a day of rest and leisure without having to carry around a pocketful of quarters," Gentile declared. Such a quote will earn Gentile pats on the back from the voters he needs to defeat Republican Pat Russo in November. Unfortunately, it doesn't make sense.

First, the inalienable rights listed in the City Charter and state and U.S. constitutions do not include free parking.

Second, meters are not simply revenue-raisers. They aid drivers by turning over parking spaces. Meters cost money but without them, parking in busy areas would take much longer.

If Gentile can find streets in his district (Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst) where parking is plentiful on Sundays, he should indeed press for the removal of meter regulations. Otherwise, he should thank the city for making it easier for churchgoers to park, since metered spots are more likely to be empty.

That is not to say the city wasn't motivated by revenue when it instituted Sunday meter regulations citywide (which Gentile opposes). Some blocks, including the one on which yours truly resides, saw meter rules extended to Sunday even though the blocks had no stores or churches but only doctors and dentists, who are closed Sundays.

On our block, the city plans to remove the Sunday meter regulations, thanks to efforts by Councilman David Yassky. But Yassky did not demand free Sunday parking be returned to Park Slope's 7th Avenue, where shops are busy on Sundays. It's an example Gentile would do well to follow.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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2000
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