Gov. Carey Remembered: A Personal Recollection

I checked my email today, August 7, 2011 and caught the following headline in the Daily News blog, The Daily Politics: “Hugh Carey dies.”

Simple, but powerful.

I don’t claim to be a political historian, and for much of the time Carey was governor, I lived in Washington, D.C., so I don’t even have a clear personal recollection of him as governor.  But I recall clearly the 2006 meeting during which we discussed what was wrong with the Atlantic Yards project’s not having included community in its initial planning, the inevitable result of which made the project not only objectionable, but unsustainable. 

Gov. Carey’s advice made a significant impression on me that day.  Unfortunately, it didn’t have quite the same effect on then-candidate Eliot Spitzer...

Here’s how it happened: My friend and colleague Alan Fleishman and I came out to support former Gov. Carey’s endorsement of Eliot Spitzer for Governor. Gov. Carey had lived in Park Slope for many years and founded the Helen Owen Carey Child Development Center on Lincoln Place, among other social services, in honor of his late wife.  Working closely with neighborhood stakeholders, he had also created affordable housing on St. John’s Place in the 1970’s.  He was very proud of that housing and that is where the press conference was held. 

The plan was for them to visit the child development center, and for Alan and me to grab some space at the Park Cafe on Seventh Avenue where Gov. Carey and candidate Spitzer would later greet lunch-time patrons. 

Fly in the ointment?  When Alan and I arrived ahead of the politicians and press, no one was there.  When Carey and Spitzer arrived, we were still the only ones there! Undaunted, the governors came on over, sat down and had a cup of java with us, a phalanx of press crowding around.

If he was looking for a brief meeting, candidate Spitzer asked us the wrong question: “What do people think of Atlantic Yards?”  

Alan and I exchanged glances and said “Well, it’s not too popular around here…”

I explained why the project was too big and too highly leveraged to be sustainable and why meaningful inclusion of all community stakeholders was essential to make any project at that site viable, let along successful. 

Throughout the discussion, Gov. Carey was engaged, animated and sharp as a tack.  He listened very carefully. He shared with us that his approach to affordable housing had begun with involving the surrounding communities of interest. Spitzer suggested that people would come to support the project because property values would rise. By that time, Scott Klein, a local real estate broker, had joined us. “But at what cost?” he responded. Exactly.

Today we know even more about the project’s problems and the harsh measures it would employ and have won a significant victory in court.  As we now know, the state (ESDC) revealed certain facts only later – and too late to prevent what is clearly a net (no pun intended) loss for residents and businesses in the neighborhoods.

Back to the Park Café.  After about 40 minutes of a lively discussion—and I have to admit that Spitzer was game (after all, he could have told us to take a hike!)—I had to leave to meet a client.  As I said my thank yous and good-byes to them both, Gov. Carey stopped me and said, “Thank you. It has to begin with community.”

It seems to me that as we all celebrate the leadership of the late Gov. Hugh Carey, it might be wise for government and the private sector to plan in the spirit in which he led. It has to begin with community.