Editor's note: We don't get into this until later in the story, but the big question here is whether Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. will decide to sit down for a vote with the other two members of the local redevelopment authority (LRA), both from the mayor's office. It's supposed to happen by tomorrow. He refused to show for a vote in late 2010, preventing the LRA from voting to recommend a shelter as the best use of the center, but Diaz spokesman John DeSio said on Monday he didn't know what the BP would do. Stay tuned.
By Alex Kratz
During his lengthy and impassioned testimony at a public hearing concerning the fate of the vacant Muller Army Reserve Center in Wakefield, Father Richard Gorman compared the Bloomberg administration to A) Josef Stalin and B) a group of slave owners (with Wakefield residents being the slaves).
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| Father Richard Gorman |
Gorman, the longtime chairman of Community Board 12, which includes Wakefield and Woodlawn, made those comparisons in the course of blasting the city's controversial proposal to house a 200-bed homeless shelter for men in the Muller Center. The mayor’s office says the city’s homeless needs outweigh the desires of community residents and stakeholders.
Calling the city’s plan “outrageous,” Gorman said the report that determined a shelter would be the best use of the center was full of misrepresentations and inaccuracies. “It’s a shame trees lost their lives to print that garbage,” he said. Gorman also suggested the city’s plan to turn the building over to the Doe Fund and give the group a fat city contract to run the shelter amounted to a giveback to the nonprofit, which provided valuable support to Bloomberg’s campaign to extend term limits two years ago.
