Thinking About the 33rd

AYR supports (“gingerly”) Jo Anne Simon. Part of the calculus is Evan Thies’ role – or lack thereof – in Broadway Triangle. As Norman puts it:

Could Thies have stopped the Broadway Triangle project from going forward, as Simon’s latest mailer suggests? No, but his departure from Community Board 1 before the vote was not his best moment…

UPDATE: Realreformbrooklyn took Simon to task for her campaign literature making essentially this same accusation.

Since I was there, I can shed some more light on all of this.

As Norman says, Evan’s vote on Broadway Triangle wouldn’t have made a whit of a difference – the vote was 23 in favor, 12 opposed and 1 abstention. Evan was clearly on the record opposing Broadway Triangle (as he said to me, the process was the biggest problem – “shockingly exclusionary” – and he wanted to see more bulk in the zoning*).

As for his resignation, Evan told me in April or May that he would be resigning from CB1 in order to focus on the campaign (and in particular the petitioning) long before Broadway Triangle hit the Community Board’s schedule. I don’t know when Evan actually resigned, but I do know that the certification of Broadway Triangle happened very quickly. (Recall that at its May meeting, CB1 voted not to meet in July or August because there was nothing on the land use agenda – it wasn’t until the end of May that Broadway Triangle was certified, upending our summer vacation plans.)

For the record.

[* Which is where Evan and I part company – I voted for the Broadway Triangle rezoning because it was the right density. But Evan and I agree on the process.]

2 responses to “Thinking About the 33rd”

  1. You’re right, Evan’s opposing vote for the full board vote on the Broadway Triangle wouldn’t have made a difference.
    His opposition WOULD have made a difference had he attended and voted in the ULURP committee’s vote. There, where his voted mattered utterly, he failed to take a stand.
    He hadn’t put in a heckuva lot of time as an environmental committee chair so his excuse that he needed time to focus on his campaign is just that – an excuse. And a lame one.

  2. Read the timeline – I believe Evan had already told me of his intention to resign BEFORE the ULURP meeting. June was petitioning month, and since Broadway Triangle was not on the calendar (nothing was on the calendar), it was the logical time to step off the board.
    I suppose he could have rescinded his resignation, but my point stands – as of late May, when Evan told me he was leaving the board to focus on petitioning and the campaign, Broadway Triangle had NOT been certified (and I at least had no idea it was about to be certified).