Yet the city's indifference is telling the soon-to-be-displaced merchants very clearly to drop dead.Ruiz’s peeve is the city’s refusal to even consider the construction of a new market and its factually inaccurate claim that, unlike the Fulton Fish market case, the city is not the landlord of the BTM. In his rebuttal Ruiz cites our blog:
"But Terri," they answered her, "the city is indeed the landlord and in its landlord capacity brokered the deal that brought Related into the market."Ruiz goes on to cite Monserrate’s concern about the lack of transparency and proper due diligence in the Related deal and labels the entire mess a “secret deal” done between Deputy Mayor Doctoroff and Steve Ross of Related, Dan’s once and future business partner.
All this makes the July 20th meeting between the merchants, EDC and Bronx political leaders that much more compelling. Will Bronx leaders insist on the city’s obligation to reconstruct a market? Will they be willing to use their considerable leverage to force EDC and Related tot the negotiating table? This week will, perhaps, be the crossroads for the final determination of the fate of the merchants.
