Dan Doctoroff reprise

Editorial

Last week we opined on the imminent departure of Daniel Doctoroff from his post as Deputy Mayor for Economic Development for the Bloomberg administration. We painted a portrait of an indefatigable public servant whose vast array of major development projects and contextual rezonings was tempered by a mixed record during his six-year tenure. But Doctoroff also left a string of loose ends on the Far West Side that need to be more closely examined.

Significantly, Doctoroff failed to forge a consensus vision for this huge swath of Manhattan, particularly the Lower West Side. As a result, uncertainties abound:

Notably, the Hudson River Park Trust, of which Doctoroff is a board of directors member, is still considering whether to approve a monumental entertainment complex, featuring two Cirque du Soleil theaters, for Pier 40 at West Houston Street. Doctoroff joked about holding up Lower Manhattan Development Corp. money for the park’s Tribeca section after it was approved, but the long delay has had serious consequences: With rapidly rising construction costs, the section’s construction is likely to stop in a few months if no more state and city money is found. Also, despite community opposition, the Department of Sanitation, in order to get its garbage trucks off Gansevoort Peninsula, is plowing ahead with a proposed huge three-district sanitation garage at Spring St. that does not meet “fair share” criteria for regional facility siting. Finally, the city wants to put a marine waste transfer station (M.T.S.) on Gansevoort.

The community rejects all of these projects. In the case of the M.T.S., it’s clear that the city has not given fair consideration to an alternative plan being offered for Pier 76 at West 36th Street. And the sanitation garage was mysteriously moved from an already public-approved site near the High Line in Chelsea—the infamous Block 675—when the Hudson Yards development project got underway and real estate prospects in the area become red hot. Why Block 675 disappeared off the face of the map has been the subject of rampant speculation among Downtown activists ever since.

Basically, these various West Side projects should have been included under one coordinated development umbrella, but under Doctoroff, the approach was piecemeal. In Hudson Square, this means that the Department of Sanitation, which is planning the Spring St. mega-garage, has by default become the lead agency planning the future of this neighborhood, rather than the Department of City Planning.

In his capacity as a Trust board member, there are also lingering questions about Doctoroff’s past business ties with The Related Companies, which is backing the Cirque du Soleil plan for Pier 40 and is also a leading contender in the Hudson Yards site.

Doctoroff has developed a close working and personal relationship with Related Chairman Steve Ross, whom he first met in 1997, when they joined with two other investors to buy the New York Islanders. In 2003, Related negotiated with a private operator and the city to redevelop the South Street Seaport without a competitive bidding process; the company also won a lease to redevelop the Bronx Terminal Market without competition. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. The “pattern of behavior” between the city and Related has led some of Related’s competitors to grumble that more than pure public policy considerations have been at work during Doctoroff’s tenure; charges of favoritism and conflict-of-interest questions are sure to dog the pair long after Doctoroff steps down.

Doctoroff now takes the helm of Bloomberg, L.P., a move which has raised eyebrows about the mayor’s ability to keep separate his government role and business interests.

That’s not a surprise, and mirrors Doctoroff’s own “pattern of behavior” during his remarkable tenure.