Doctoroff Withdrawal

New York magazine is reporting (and Liz is citing) that Deputy Dan may be looking for a new gig, because he "wants to run his own show." The news is bound to send shock waves over at the Related Company's headquarters on Columbus Circle; after all, for the past six years it's been an open secret in city government that Related CEO Steve Ross and Deputy Dan are joined at the hip, and that the company has a favored nation status when it comes to city projects.

Probably the best example of this, is the sweetheart deal that Dan gave to Related on the site of the old Bronx Terminal Market. Without any competitive bid whatsoever, the Doctoroff beneficiary was able to "purchase" the old BTM for less than a dollar a square foot. In the process, city procurement rules were bent better than Yuri Geller bends iron; with the City Council seemingly turned to stone just like Lot's wife. In the process, the COIB rolled over and played dead concerning the Doctoroff/Ross relationship.

So, as they say, God speed to The Deputy, and the funniest line in the New York piece is the following: "...the view is that Doctoroff is waiting to wrap up Bloomberg’s congestion-pricing plan before making any decisions." Well, the fate of that venture is very much up in the air, but we guess that we're the only ones who see irony in the fact that, in just six years The Deputy has engineered more car-dependent projects than any single official post-Moses (Robert, that is); and has done so in the most asthma infested areas of the city.

So we wish Dan well, and are reminded of the Shakespearean observation: "Nothing became him so much as his leaving." The question that remains is, will anyone look back on this blatant favoritism and reconsider the lionizing of the Bloomberg tenure?