Councilmember Rivera’s betrayal on Tech Hub is one of the most callous, cynical, and egregious put-up jobs I’ve seen in the forty-plus years I’ve been following NYC politics.
A friend called up and said that Rivera had been on WBAI touting the progressive issues she supports–this was after Rivera caved on Tech Hub. I said to my friend, Why would you believe a word this woman says?
Rivera’s defense of her action in a recent issue of Town and Village descends to Orwellian flim-flam; she deflects away from the facts presented by Andrew Berman, and says she objects to his “messaging.” As if that was what it was all about.
She obviously thinks that by the time she comes up for re-election, this whole mess will have been forgotten; but by that time the Tech Hub neighborhood will have been ravaged by developers, thereby making her sabotage of the neighborhood all the more graphic.
More about Rivera and similarly regressive Council Speaker Corey Johnson in a bit.