Thursday, March 28, 2024
A Federalist 57 Website
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

Memo from David R. Zukerman
to Bill deBlasio

October 20, 2009 --

Bill, Public Advocate Is Not For You

Let me explain why. The statement on your website about your candidacy suggests that the main responsibility of Public Advocate is “that of a watchdog-ensuring that all New Yorkers receive the City services they deserve and have a voice in shaping the policies of their government.”

I agree with you that “the Public Advocate is, most fundamentally,…a watchdog….”
It is my view, however, that as “watchdog,” the Public Advocate must do everything possible to protect all New Yorkers from being treated unfairly, even brutally, by “the System.” (Isn’t the responsibility for delivery of city services that of the Mayor ?)

Here is one example of harsh treatment I would end as Public Advocate. More than four years ago, my car was towed by a city marshal from mid-Manhattan to a vehicle pound in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. The circumstances might be arguable. But to take the car with my Shana inside? I wrote about this twice in LPR.


As Public Advocate, I will not merely write about this type of conduct by a cold, callous, calculating City Hall; I will make certain that no person and pet ever again go through the trauma done by City Hall to my Shana and me, in February 2005.

Your statement professes a commitment to “accountable…transparent government.” May I inquire when you acquired this commitment? It was not evident – not to me, certainly - in March and August 1999 when, as a HUD official, you sent me two notes claiming no knowledge about HUD’s participation in the Dayton-Seaside matter – the matter that did involve the participation of HUD and was, clearly, a property tax manipulation intended – as it succeeded in doing – in forcing new owners at the Dayton Seaside apartment buildings in Rockaway Park, Queens.

How mysterious the ways of the Almighty, that your ill-considered candidacy for Public Advocate should be the means to obtain disclosure of the machinations behind Dayton Seaside. And so, in this regard, I thank you for your Public Advocate candidacy. I should not be surprised that you would prefer seeking a high political office worthy of your insider’s ambition and not an office that, properly conducted, would concern itself mainly with the travails of all of us political outsiders.

Thank you, too, for, as your statement says, “defending our right to full participation in the democratic process.” That is what my write-in candidacy is all about -- a candidacy that asks people to get the word, out – NOT their checkbooks.

Bill, believe me that I say this absent any malice: Public Advocate is not for you.