"Bronx battle is on" Metro New York 12/4/8

Bronx battle is on
by patrick arden / metro new york

DEC 4, 2008
A letter from 200 psychologists helped torpedo Barack Obama’s pick of John Brennan to head the CIA. Now housing advocate Betty Robinson hopes a homegrown letter-writing campaign can ambush Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion’s chances of taking over HUD.

Carrion, in a 2006 Metro interview, defended his tussles with community boards 4, 7 and 12. “The community boards are there to unfold the vision for a new Bronx,” he said.

Carrion is reportedly on Obama’s short-list for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Robinson was angered by Carrion’s 2006 decision to purge Community Board 4 of members who voted down building a new Yankee Stadium on neighborhood parks.

“Obama was a community organizer, so he should know that they paid a price for standing up for the community,” said Robinson, a Costa Rican immigrant and longtime Bronx resident.

Lukas Herbert, an urban planner for Westchester County who Carrion declined to reappoint to CB 4, is enlisting more letter writers.

He admits his opposition to Carrion is “partly” personal, “but as a planner I deal with a lot of HUD programs. Why would you pick a county executive with no federal experience?”

Carrion, who holds a degree in urban planning and worked for three years in the Bronx office of the Department of City Planning, did not comment.

patrick arden/metro