Black Eye an Anomoly?

The mayor has been roundly criticized by all media for his disastrous appointment of Cathie Black. But one editorial over at the Daily News sees the Black debacle as an aberration from the high quality appointments Bloomberg has made: "It's time for the accountability that goes with mayoral control, even if it means stating the obvious. Which is that Bloomberg's selection of Black was the single largest and most consequential error of his mayoralty...Based on Bloomberg's record in choosing top-notch aides, this page called his move "high-risk" and said Black should get a fair opportunity to prove her mettle. Unfortunately, she proved to be a poor fit."

Well, let's see here. We at WPU beg to differ with the News on this score. Let's take the entire cohort of deputy mayors for economic development-all taken from some or another Wall Street gig. First there was Dan Doctoroff who booted the Olympic bid and mishandled the West Side Stadium.

Doctoroff also was the fine fella who handed over, in a truly sweetheart deal, the Bronx Terminal Market to his good friend and former business partner Steve Ross of Related. In the process, twenty minority wholesalers were booted out of the market site-a sign of things to come over at Willets Point.

Doctorooff was followed by Robert Leiber who always gave the impression he was suffering fools and slumming when he had to meet anyone whose net worth was less than $10 million. Leiber promoted the disastrous Kingsbridge Armory plan-the worst defeat in the mayor's second and last (oops) term. Under inattentive Leiber's watch three bakeries with good union jobs left town.

Leiber was replaced by the comic genius Seth Pinsky who is trying by hook and by crook to jump start the Willets Point plan-doing anything within his power to avoid proper regulatory review and spitting in the face of SC Judge Joan Madden. While promoting the Willets Point traffic nightmare, Pinsky has had the time to also promote Flushing Commons, a giant mall in that downtown that will compound the error over at the Iron Triangle.

So, while Cathie Black is the most visible mayoral appointment to crash and burn, she is not the most egregious of his appointees, That honor goes to the troika of Doctoroff, Leiber and Pinsky: Bloomberg's three stooges.