NYC Councilman Cries Anti-Semitism In Affordable Housing Fight
The crisis over the Broadway Triangle continued this week, with opposing sides exchanging barbs ahead of a major zoning vote.
A group of activists called for Councilman David Greenfield, who supports a major development in the Triangle, to recuse himself from the vote in a letter sent this week. They cite his close ties to the UJO, an Orthodox Jewish organization that strongly supports the development.
Greenfield responded with allegations of anti-Semitism, saying that the activists’ letter “calls into question the true motivation of this group.”
“The letter is part of a clear and calculated campaign of intimidation and continued misinformation by the opponents of this private application,” Greenfield told the New York Daily News.
In an editorial Thursday, the Daily News backed Greenfield up, calling the activists calls for Greenfield’s recusal “deranged.” They call the activist’s concerns “a conspiracy theory so far-fetched, and held together so tenuously by the fact that key players happen to be Jewish, it can only be called anti-Semitic.”
Opponents of the plan maintain that because Greenfield’s next place of employment is the Met Council — which supported the original rezoning plan for the area, a plan that was found to discriminate against blacks and Latinos — it is in his personal interest to support the plan.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO