Incidentally, in 2003, HUD got stuck with $3.4 million in dud DeWitt mortgages when the hotel's former owners, DeWitt Clinton Associates, stopped making payments.*** By 2005 HUD was set to auction off the DeWitt. But Chaim Ausch stepped in and saved it from possible short sale with a $4.1 million mortgage from the State Employees Federal Credit Union (SEFCU).
A friend from Jersey recently asked me why I hadn't been writing about Albany of late. Meaning Albany as the symbol of state government. Saying "has Governor Paterson cleaned up all the corruption?" After I stopped laughing I wrote back "I've become so cynical, disgusted and bored with politics at the state level (Albany in the broader sense) as well as Albany the city, that I have absolutely nothing to say. Why bother? I see no game changers on the horizon. The political situation is frozen in amber..."
I know. I was being too gloomster. No system, no matter how calcified, is immune to change. Tiny almost imperceptible cracks appear then suddenly split wide open. Think of the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, back in Brooklyn, Atlantic Yards rages on. The court decision re eminent domain abuse in the UDC/Ratner footprint is expected by Thanksgiving. Whatever the outcome, folks in and around Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn will keep fighting. Their never-say-die is an inspiration...
Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Mondo QT
*New York's Shadow Government, New York Times, 08/18/09
**Despite debt, grand hotel plans, Chris Churchill, Albany Times Union, 10/14/09
***"DeWitt Clinton finds a buyer; $5.3M sale of Albany landmark brings few details, eviction notice, " Brian Nearing, Albany Times Union, 04/11/06
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