June 5, 2016 --

New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin concluded, in his May 25 column on allegations New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio gives his donors special treatment, that one way to deal with corruption is to have an “honest business community” whose leaders have the courage not to pay to play but to “blow the whistle instead.” When Mr. Goodwin was at the Daily News, the paper accepted the Giuliani administration’s phoney line that the Dayton Seaside apartment houses were tax deadbeats.

In fact, New York City manipulated the property taxes to send the three Dayton Seaside buildings into bankruptcy. Dayton Seaside was constructed by my family in the 1960’s under a tax abatement program, and instead of settling the transition from abatement to full taxes, the city listed the buildings as tax delinquents.

I received two stonewalling notes from Bill deBlasio, then middle management at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), dated March 8, 1999 and August 2, 1999. Perhaps de Blasio learned how to treat non-donors from his days at HUD. Alas, when he was at the Daily News, Goodwin apparently didn’t seriously question City Hall accusations against honest business people.