John Catsimatidis… I was just joking about affordable housing!
Surprise, surprise… John Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocery store owner and real estate developer, has canceled plans for an affordable housing component at his new development on Myrtle just east of Flatbush. He demolished businesses serving the nearby housing projects forcing residents to search far and wide for groceries. Many residents especially the elderly and those on a fixed income don’t have the means to travel all the way to the Atlantic Terminal Pathmark. While I understand the need for development, to demolish those businesses with no definite plan for replacing the services and offier of an alternative solution in the interim (6 to 8 years!) shows his lack of respect for the community and its citizens. The current financing environment has delayed his plans and now the affordable housing component has gone bye bye too…
Now he wants to run for political office as the “Mayor from Main Street”. Is he joking? Bloomberg’s done a good job but I don’t think we need another billionaire mayor. Especially this guy. He’s from a fairly humble background but from the look of that jowl he’s hasn’t missed a meal in a while… I doubt he can empathize with local residents.
Hey, let’s be fair about things and not make useless comments about what someone looks like physically (Unless you’re willing to show your own not-ready-for-prime time mug off to the world. Look, I’m a tall skinny guy, would you say that this makes me better able to “empathize with local residents”.
From what I see when you walk in to one of his supermarkets, is that the employees — and the managers and assistants he promotes from the floor — come from a rainbow of ethnic and minority groups. (At WHOLE FOODS all you see is white guys.)
For my vote, anyone who climbs up to the top of the business world as (except for guys on Wall Street) gets there by really hard work and treating people well. That’s the kind of person NYC needs now.