Scheduled for 12:15, Mayor de Blasio makes an announcement at a City Hall news conference… Buzz is that it could be his appointment of a new commissioner (more about the options here). Unlike this presser, de Blasio’s afternoon meet-up with Pussy Riot will, tragically, not be televised…
Update:
As I linked up top, de Blasio is indeed naming Carl Weisbrod as chair of the city Planning Commission. Weisbrod co-chaired de Blasio’s transition team after the November election, and as soon as the two entered the Blue Room, tweets started hitting as to the fact that the then mayor-elect’s team
promised that those who led the transition were not looking for jobs in the new administration
. As you can see below, the detailed official Weisbrod bio accompanying the announcement leaves out the fact that he was a top transition leader…
Update:
Our Matt Chaban, who wrote the aforementioned piece about Weisbrod and other potential de Blasio appointees, points us to this tweet:
About Carl Weisbrod
Carl Weisbrod has more than 35 years of experience serving the people of New York. He has left his mark on some of the city’s most dynamic and fastest-growing neighborhoods.
Weisbrod’s service in government extends back to the Lindsay administration, which he joined as a young anti-poverty lawyer at the Department of Relocation. He was appointed by Mayor Koch to spearhead the city’s efforts to transform Times Square, and he also served as the Executive Director of the New York City Department of City Planning, Executive Director of the National Service Program, and Chairman of the New York City Loft Board. As president of New York State’s 42nd Street Development Project, Weisbrod led the effort to revitalize Times Square, transforming it into a global hub for tourism and entertainment.
Under Mayor Dinkins, Weisbrod was the Founding President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where he negotiated the United States Tennis Association’s 99-year lease in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park—regarded as one of the most beneficial municipal sports deals in the nation—as well as the transaction that brought Harlem its first major supermarket, the Pathmark on 125th Street.
Mayor Bloomberg appointed him as a Director of the Trust for Governors Island and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, where he helped lead the post-9/11 recovery of downtown neighborhoods. That tenure overlapped with his 10 years as the founding president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, the largest business improvement district in the nation, setting in motion the evolution of the financial district from an area dominated by daytime office workers into a thriving 24-7 neighborhood.
Weisbrod also served as the head of the real estate division of Trinity Church. He is a former Trustee of the Ford Foundation and the Urban Land Institute. He has been a partner at the firm HR&A since 2011, where he managed the successful rezoning of the Hudson Square area in Manhattan into a dynamic hub for creative industries and new housing, including up to 700 affordable units.
Weisbrod grew up in Parkchester and Fresh Meadows, and he is a graduate of Cornell University and New York University’s School of Law. He currently lives on Roosevelt Island with his wife, Jody Adams, a retired family court judge.
