The fight over the proposed Soho Business Improvement District takes a strange turn. Here’s an email we just received from Kelly Magee, City Councilmember Margaret Chin’s spokesperson:
As I am sure you are aware, Carl Rosenstein hosted a ‘community meeting’ regarding the SoHo BID at his gallery last evening. Although Council Member Chin was invited to attend, the invitation was extended too late to move her schedule around. Three staffers, Jake Itzkowitz, Chief of Staff, Matt Viggiano, Director of Land Use and Planning, and myself, went to the meeting on her behalf. All three staffers were refused entry into the meeting. We hoped to offer to set meeting between community residents –including those outside the BID area– the BID organizers, as experts on the proposal, and our office. There has been a lot of information about the BID floating around, not all of it accurate, and we would like to get everyone in a room together for a fruitful dialogue on the BID.
Last night’s antics are a continuation of the war of words that’s been raging in the Villager.
If the three staffers had arrived at 7:30, the time that Councilmember Chin was invited, they would have been very welcome and could have aired their views. But, they arrived an hour too early and missed their chance.