| Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 06:28 pm Welcome to November's Forum discussion topic. This month we discuss the impact of Mark Green's campaign on the race for governor next year. Will the backlash against the Green campaign's "racist" messages cripple the democrats? Was that it's real purpose? A sizeable percentage of Ferrer voters are planning to vote for Bloomberg in protest of Green's tactics. But is punishing Green by voting Republican a smart thing to do in the long run? Is staying home in protest a smart thing to do in the long run? Will a strong showing by Bloomberg further weaken the democrats and further endanger the rights of tenants and small homeowners? If Green intention was to weaken the Dems, would the best way to thwart his plans be to vote for him? Please post your thoughts on this issue. Registration is not required to participate. Below find some "Darth Nader" analysis to add fuel to the fire.
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| Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 07:03 pm What is "Darth Nader"??? Darth Nader is the Rent Wars designation for a Dark Barracudi (see glossary) who aided the Usurper Court in its theft of a democratic election. By using his reputation and powers as a great hero in the Drone Wars against the unchecked forces of greed, he was able to lure enough voters away who were unaware of his turn to the Dark Side..... After accepting huge sums of money to undercut the Democratic candidate in states that were too close to call, Darth Nader was able to lure away a small but significant group of Democratic voters. Ironically, in a triumph of deceit, Nader was able to use the votes of those concerned about the environment to gaurantee the ascension of a Dynasty that promised to destroy environmental protections of the nation. Hilly-wan Clinobi In 1998 it was clear that Democrats had lost many statewide offices, and were unlikely to win any new ones, but after a close campaign, in which the Republicans used the Slumlord pet, Speaker Vallone to leech away excitement from Democratic voters and neutralize more effective candidates, the Democrats were able to defeat Darth Damato.... Two years later, despite an all out effort by the national Republicans to stop her, Hilly-wan defeated them with the most numerous and excited turnout of Democratic voters in 20 years. Now less than a year later, Mark Green, apprentice to Nader, has large communities of Democrats too disgusted to vote or actively considering jumping party lines in protest. Is there a connection?
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| Friday, November 02, 2001 - 01:57 pm Yesterday ABC aired the first 'sanctioned' debate using a novel 5-borough questioning format. Blumberg did well for his first public debate, although he missed the point of his own question on Green's hiring practices. Bloomberg had noted that Green had not hired any minorities to top posts. Green responded by highlighting Barry Ford, a former candidate for office that Green had previously endorsed. What Bloomberg missed was that Ford had only joined Green's office a few months ago. Green had the upper hand in the debates through sheer experience. Nonetheless, Bloomberg has single-handedly placed the N.Y. Republican party in sync with the "inclusiveness" message promoted by the national GOP. What a rare treat to watch the Republican candidate take a Democratic candidate to task for insensitivity on racial issues. Even stranger was the populist, pro-working class sentiments addressed by Bloomberg. For a blow by blow check out the ABC website at 7online.com .
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| Sunday, November 04, 2001 - 04:15 pm Mean Mark Green The Darth Nader analysis….continued, The Wolf in Wool Booties. A different kind of undecided voter Reasons to be fearful, part 3…. Freddy Ferrer, the best man for the job of mayor is no longer in the race. On Friday I was planning to write an essay arguing that we should vote by party lines as tenants, and not let the blatant racism of Green's campaign weaken the Democrats in the upcoming race for governor. Basically, I was going to recommend that you hold your nose and vote for Green. But then the allegations surfaced that top Green aides participated in a meeting to discuss the best way to use race as a factor to blunt Ferrer's momentum. What's worse is that Green confirms that they were there but says that they just observed. Whoa! They just observed!! What the hell is a "super-liberal" doing sending observers to racially discriminatory meetings? That's it, this is the last straw. Mark Green is scum. Until this I couldn't say that he was personally involved in the racism, and it bodes ill for all tenants regardless of race. Racism is a cloak for many an anti-tenant initiative. I have always liked Mark Green… I have often voted for him, and greeted him whenever he would set foot in Brooklyn. But this summer his campaign showed a very interesting twist, it became anti-tenant. Mark Green transformed into a rich ultra conservative overnight. His Billionaire brother, Stephen, was unveiled. His plans to demolish all of Manhattan's remaining Rent Stabilized apartments was unveiled. His intentions to return the NYPD to Bratton's discriminatory policies. And of course his willingness to use race to win the runoff. Then his unwillingness to hire any minorities during his 8 years as Public Advocate. To sit down and plot racist strategies in an official capacity on top of these other outrages is too much. If he's sitting down with racists, you can be certain that he's sitting down with the Slumlords and other inimical Real Estate players and it's not public because it's not as explosive as race. If Green gets in tenants and small homeowners are screwed. Plain and simple. The bulk of his campaign dollars are Real Estate dollars. As Mayor of New York Mark Green could do far more damage to the Democrats than as a defeated racist scumbag. I am not voting for Mark Green. I downgrade him to Vallone's Slumlord bootlicking status. I recommend no one else vote for him either. So now I am undecided. Do I vote for Bloomberg or not vote for mayor? Before Friday it was all clear. I was going to recommend that, for the sake of the upcoming gubernatorial race, people hold their nose, vote for Green, and cross their fingers. Green was bad, but not bad enough to "anti-endorse". Only Peter Vallone and David Yassky were that bad. Vallone for being a Slumlord puppet, and Yassky for liberal racism. But now Green gets anti-endorsed on both points. I am a life-long Democrat. Only once did I not vote for a Democratic candidate (when Vallone ran for Governor- that is why all these third parties have lines- Vallone sucked). Bloomberg is a far better candidate than Green. He's even a Democrat running as a Republican for strategic reasons. The best Green smears still don't equal even half of the impact of the simple fact that Green is a Real Estate patsy, and a racist public official who didn't hire a minority until the last months of his 8 year term. But then I open up Bloomberg's campaign materials and a cackling ghoul looks out at me. Will time show that the ghoul got rich off of graft from the donations to the fund that he "manages", he threatens to use Bloomberg as a puppet and rule as the puppetmaster. The Republicans are not a party I can really relate to. The question is how independent of them is Bloomberg. Can I really pull a level to a party for which I have had a life-long aversion??? Many people of color are planning to set aside their aversion to the Republicans for the first time and vote for Bloomberg, there is even a sense of excitement about it. It could open up a new era of political respect for the majority of this city. But still I keep seeing the cackling Ghoul.... The other option is not to vote for Mayor and just vote for the other positions. But that sucks, because then Green could win by a narrow margin. I would much rather have an awful, racist, and corrupt Republican mayor than an awful, corrupt, and racist Democrat. It just fits my worldview better. I expect Democrats to be good (on the whole of course). Bloomberg even has the potential to be a pretty good mayor, he's not a real Republican. So I'm undecided. Does anyone have suggestions, ideas, or thoughts that could help me make a choice? I'd really like to hear it. This is a very depressing election year.
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| Sunday, November 04, 2001 - 04:39 pm Ronin i'll tell you what i think. I agree with you that Mark Green is a pig, but Blomberg is a much bigger pig. I think you are really scruntinizing Mark Green and even though I am not going to defend him, I think people need to take a closer look at Bloomberg. Yes, it is a ashamed that he is not surrounded by or hired more women and people of color. Bloomberg also doesn't fare so well in this area; he has a company of 8000 people and the minorites that have been hired(until he decided to run for mayor) have been very low level posistions (janitorial, etc.). He has a history of belonging to racists clubs & organizations ( of course he cancelled his memberships for the elections). So, I think we can leave racism out since if we matched them one for one, Bloomberg would lose. When you elect Bloomberg, you elect Guiliani. I really thought after the runoff that this would be the first time I wouldn't vote at all because I was so disappointed in Green's campaign tactics. However, after much thought I decided to look at Bloomberg. The more I looked and the less I factored in emotions, the more I started to lean towards Green. I don't like what happened but I do think he is a lesser evil for the city. Now, I am not even sure he did the phonecalls. I think that it could have been a smart Repulican ploy, knowing that he would cause a minority backlash against the democratic candidate, or if Freddy did win it have cause white dems to vote white. In ending, I never could trust anyone spending so much money to become mayor. His spending is one the most expensive campaigns (including presidential) in history. A week ago he had spent 41 million of his money, probably in the end he will have spent 50 million. He is not going to buy me.
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| Sunday, November 04, 2001 - 10:16 pm Just vote for the Green candidate!
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| Monday, November 05, 2001 - 02:50 pm The Bloomberg Staten Island Flap Now it appears Bloomberg's people are of the same racist stripe as Green's.... But what is surprising is that the Republican acted with speed to punish those involved instead of being two faced about the issue. I really can't say I'm surprised by SI Republicans being racist, but this is a reality check. If only Green were the Republican and Bloomberg the Democrat. Life should be so simple. So now what. The Ghoul is looking out at me from my TV like a Halloween hangover, urging me to vote for Bloomberg. This was too much. I cringe at the thought of the Ghoul. I cringe at the thought of Green and other "liberal" racists like Yassky. I give up. I've decided to skip the mayoral levers and vote for the other posts. Ronin PS. I can't vote for the Green's because of the Darth Nader thing. I see them as a second line for the Republicans... they took Republican money in 2000 to defeat Gore.
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| Monday, November 05, 2001 - 04:07 pm Wow! Tenant Net just released their endorsements. Some nice analysis. They backed Green with the "hold your nose" caveat. Here is there view: NYtenants Online/TenantNet 11/5/01 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tomorrow New York City residents go to the polls for the fourth time in eight weeks. For us, the bottom line is: who will help tenants and neighborhoods on the issues we care about and hear about. You will be disappointed -- again this year the Democratic Party has outdone itself by fielding the most mediocre talent it can find. And underneath the Republican skin you won't see much difference. Even the Wrecking Families Party (that's not a typo) is proving itself to be nothing other than warmed-over Democrats--for the most part having a line almost identical to the party of failed promises. BEFORE WE GET TO THE MAYOR'S RACE, we suggest a write-in vote for Manhattan Borough President. As Abe Hirschfeld often claimed a New York Grand Jury would, if given a chance, indict a ham sandwhich -- we're going to write-in a vote for a ham sandwhich for Manhattan Borough President. Virginia Fields has done nothing except take over the community boards with inept cronies and turn once-promising City Councilmembers into political reflections. Go to Manhattan community boards and mention Virginia Fields' name--after they get up off the floor with uncontrollable laughter, you'll see eye-rolling, pantomimes of barfing and other similar expressions of endearment. Probably the most adept at acceptiong money from developers and side-stepping the question as to why she didn't fight Vallone's vacancy decontrol, Virginia Fields has proven to be a complete embarassment and the poster child for Democratic Party mediocrity. For another view, see "Fields: NY's Dumbest" at http://www.nypress.com/13/6/mail/mail3.cfm SECOND, WE RECOMMEND A NO VOTE ON THE NYC CHARTER QUESTIONS. While some of the questions may have merit, it's also a question of process. All of these issues can easily be handled by the City Council in everyday business. So why are they on the ballot? It's because the Mayor uses this tactic to keep other issues OFF the ballot. A little known quirk of Charter Questions is that questions from a mayorally-appointed Charter Revision Commission preclude other questions and citizen referendums. The public has a hard enough time gathering many signatures to get something on the ballot, but all the Mayor has to do is place an innocuous question on the ballot with a crony-infested charter commission. He's done this three out of the last four years. And none of these questions have had any public debate. FOR MAYOR... In early September, we felt that Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, despite his connections to an often-corrupt Democratic machine, and despite his lack of a record friendly to tenant and neighborhood concerns, had earned the right to be in the expected runoff election. He had raised many issues of concern to New Yorkers. The villification he received from people like Peter Vallone -- for even suggesting that there was an economic divide in the city -- was unwarranted. To even accept the notion of America's Tale of Two Cities was to delegitimatize everything on which Vallone and others were running. People are hurting and can't afford 200% increases on rent? Well according to Vallone, Hevesi and Green -- and not even questioned by the corporate media -- that can't happen in the new sanitized New York. But we also felt Ferrer needed to address these issues beyond his coalition base. Would he come into Manhattan neighborhoods and talk about overdevelopment, too much traffic, nightclubs keeping people up all night? Would he talk about the real tenant problems (beyond the RGB) -- why does a corrupt state agency (DHCR) continues to be fiercely anti-tenant and what would he do about it. Well Ferrer did nothing, despite our asking. We know representatives from other groups asked him as well. We told him he need not concede Manhattan to Mark Green. But he did. And he lost. While the Village Voice's apologists tried to explain Ferrer's loss as the trumped-up fears over Al Sharpton, with a margin of only 18,000 votes, we feel Ferrer could very well have overcome the racist New York Post and similar operations in Brooklyn -- only if Ferrer had made an attempt to deal with the real issues many new Yorkers face every day. So in the end we have Mark Green. We have big issues with Mark Green. He keeps saying that he has visited all 200 New York neighborhoods, but when we ask (about Manhattan's west side where we're located), other than to play footsie with corrupt politicians, no one can remember when. And despite his background as a Nadarite, he's moved considerably to the right in this campaign. Some say that once the primary is over, everyone must support the nominee of the party. Bullshit! If that was the sole rationale, we'd be outta here. After all, what real talent has the Democratic party produced in the last generation? Virginia Fields? Peter Vallone? Vito Lopez? Even the progressives (the classic West Side liberals) are more worried over their own hides than solving problems. So if we reject issues of party unity, the question remains which of the two major candidates are more inclined to help tenants and neighborhoods ... or less inclined to hurt tenants and neighborhoods? There is a slim chance. Slim is still in town (but we hear he's headed for Port Authority). If enough people get all over Mayor Green, there might be enough of Ralph Nader left in him that some good things might happen and some awful things might not happen. We don't have high hopes -- after all Mark Green's last signal before election day is to have a party with the corrupt west side McManus "Republican" Club tonight. So we reluctantly urge you to vote for Mark Green. And we mean it -- go vote for Green. Hold your nose if you have to, but do it, else we may be stuck with Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg has money and no ideas -- except the ideas that you really don't want to hear. He refers to NYC residents as "Caves" -- "There are people who are just against any kind of progress whatsoever. In the power business I think they call it 'caves,' a citizen against virtually everything..." He said this same thing at a recent Crains Power Breakfast where he jumped on Giuliani plan to tear down half of Chelsea and Clinton/Hell's Kitchen -- so his friends at the NYC Partnership (the developer's association) would have room for more skyscrapers. Bloomberg has consistently refused to answer questions on tenant issues and he certainly has no connection with any New York neighborhoods -- except for may be a few Giuliani Democrats somewhere far out in Brooklyn. His entire campaign is that he's "like Rudy." He says NYC needs a businessman, but his company has no Board of Directors, he doesn't have to answer to anyone (yes, that can work both ways) and he's never negotiated a union contract. With Bloomberg, NYC has no future other than that of a myopic sanitized suburbia with tassle-shoed yuppies of questionable value. It's like those tenants that wear their rents on their arms. "I pay $2,500," says one. The other, not to be outdone, proudly announces his rent is $3,500 AND he has no heat AND he's being evicted! We don't get our sanity back by buying (literally buying) into Mike Bloomberg. Green will take a lot of work (he has his own contingent of palm-piloted tassle-brained advisors/apologists), but as we said, Slim is still in town.
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| Tuesday, November 06, 2001 - 12:43 pm Why can't people publically unite on the rent wars issues? A majority of the population isn't aware of the enormous changes concerning Rent Stabilizaton. People throughout the city are being displaced from their affordable apartments due to our Republican "landlord friendly" governor's very liberal "owner occupancy" laws. I'm one of the casualties who will soon be out of a home because of unscrupulous, without conscience politicians. Can't we at least try to create a backlash against these wrongs? Can't we form demonstrations & get the media to respond to our concerns? This is a very frightening situation nonetheless there is victory in numbers. Just writing about it isn't enough. Thanks.
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| Tuesday, November 06, 2001 - 04:34 pm Hi Carol, I agree with you that writing isn't enough, but it's a start. One of the main things is that people shouldn't be fooled by pro-landlord pols like Mark Green. The other part is that viable Democrats have to defeat Pataki and his cronies. By at least seperating Green's actions from the Democrats in people's minds, we may be able to head off Democratic voter apathy next year and defeat Pataki. This Green campaign was, in my opinion, designed to weaken the Democrats as much as, if not more than, Naders Florida vote skimming. If you have any other ideas of how to address the overriding issues I would love to hear them. We do segments on Renter's Rights and other practical issues. We are also working on a courthouse outreach to help tenants in need. Would you be able to volunteer some time? Ronin
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| Tuesday, November 06, 2001 - 05:20 pm Late Hi Everyone! Last night I attended a gathering of political activists and community leaders in Brooklyn. Several people got up and made the "Green stinks but hold your nose and pull the lever" argument. I responded from the peanut gallery with the thoughts I detailed above and got a standing ovation. Ovations certainly warm the heart more than critical email. Several bosses of Dem clubs said that I had helped them make their decision. So I split on a high note before anyone found out that I was Ronin. Last night I also heard an ad by Pepe Sutton, the son of Percy Sutton (former Manhattan BP) and owner of several radio stations, on the radio. He also anti-endorsed Green and said that Bloomberg was not the first choice, but that he's the best choice remaining. More tales from the Green Crypt. Apparently Green addressed a gathering of public officials of color and told them, "I don't need your support. I'll win without you." Rumor has it that several stood up and left the room in protest. If someone goes on record with this, Green's statement may be his political epitaph. Bloomberg is on the Independence line too. I could have endorsed him on that line had I known (maybe? almost anythings better than Green). Things you only learn by going into the booth.... I was handed a palm card and suffered the same reaction to the Green picture at the top as Clark Kent will to kryptonite on Smallville tonight. I had to rip his head off the thing with his name so I could go vote for Marty Markowitz and the rest of the ticket. I suddenly realized, I now react to Mark Green the same way I do to the Ghoul. (Man! and to think we almost endorsed him this summer!) Don't let Green's mug scare you from voting for the other Dems. Just rip it off and vote the rest of the Democratic ticket. (There are only 4 hours till the polls close- don't dilly dally).
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| Wednesday, November 07, 2001 - 03:02 am The election is over. I thank everyone who contributed and read this topic (including those of you who emailed responses). The racist candidate lost. Bloomberg won. Mark Green conceded defeat by a mere 45,000 votes while pundits tried to minimize the role of his racist campaigning on Bloomberg's decent showing with people of color.... Green didn't even take the opportunity to try and mend fences. He would have been more obnoxious than Guiliani had he been elected mayor! Bloomberg in his victory speech, on the other hand, took special pains to say that he would reach out to the entire diversity of New York. Even including a special visit to a run-down area of Brooklyn tomorrow followed by a full city tour. Not a bad speech at all. Only time will tell how much he sticks with it, but the omens are good. A point was made tonight. Liberal racists like Green, so arrogant and contemptous of minorities, cannot succeed citywide. Rent Wars News is available in over 1.5 million homes in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Mark Green snubbed the thousands who watch it and tried to sabotage our election coverage. And then lied about having accepted (see details in other topic). Just as he lied about wooing Al Sharpton. The man is defined by his lack of empathy and truthfulness, even about simple things. Why lie about wooing Sharpton while admitting you took him to dinner? Why lie about accepting Rent Wars invitation when you admit you set studio dates? His campaign seemed more like a doppleganger than a real Democratic campaign. Again to his roots- Darth Nader's Florida work for the Republicans comes to mind. In closing, I am very happy that Mark Green did snub Rent Wars. Thanks to him, we were free to endorse the best candidate, Freddy Ferrer, without running afoul of our interview policy (which will soon be revised to avoid such limitations in the future). And thanks to his dishonesty, we had complete freedom to examine his record and habits. He is no friend to tenants and no friend to minorities. He was also no friend to community media such as Rent Wars. It is truly poetic justice that he lost by a margin less than the average community media audience. All the different groups that he went out of his way to snub cost him a gauranteed election. We don't need a new mayor who is too self-important to talk to people and too self-important to be honest about accepting invitations, etc. So called progressive have to understand that liberal racists are not acceptable. Green didn't win the black and latino votes he got. He stole them. Had they been better educated about his various actions he would have had less minority support than Guiliani. He is aware that the community media was unable to react quickly enough to get the word out about him to enough people. Next time the community will be educated about his racism. As it was, Bloomberg's support was pretty diverse. Green has reaped the fruits of his racism. One can only hope that the other major Democrats have absorbed his lesson and can cleanse themselves of his affiliation in time to unify the party and take back the Governor's mansion. Congratulations to mayor-elect Bloomberg for an excellent campaign. May your reign equal or surpass your rhetoric. Ronin
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| Saturday, November 10, 2001 - 01:33 am Independence Line- I just read an article claiming that it had issues with anti-semetism (while presenting a ticket headed by a Jewish candidate, go figure). So just to make it clear, I was not and am not endorsing that party. At the time it seemed like a much easier way to vote for Bloomberg.....
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