Just because he spent millions to overturn term limits and tens of millions more to win a third term doesn’t mean Mayor Bloomberg likes every aspect of his job.
Our Erin Einhorn reports:
He seemed particularly unenthusiastic today about a fake “groundbreaking” for a new industrial center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
“We’re gonna now, uh… throw some dirt,” Bloomberg said as he ended a press conference for the groundbreaking and glanced over at the short wooden box filled with soil and shovels beside him on an asphalt parking lot.
He rolled his eyes and added: “I can’t wait for the last one. You have no idea.”
A line of politicians including Bloomberg, Reps. Nydia Velazquez and Jerrold Nadler, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz then each gripped a shovel and tossed a bit a dirt from the box onto the asphalt as camera shutters clicked.
Later, the mayor clarified his gripe.
“No, no, no. I like groundbreakings,” he insisted. “I just always thought that you could do something better with the dirt on your shovel.”
The new industrial center is the 1.1 million square-foot old Federal Building #2 along the East River waterfront in Sunset Park.
Salmar Properties is coverting the naval warehouse into a light manufacturing facility with $45 million of its own money and the help of $37 million in tax subsidies.
City officials say the project will create 1,300 permanent jobs and 400 construction jobs.
(Photo via Brooklyn BP’s office)
