Posted on 10/01/2001 8:33:28 AM PDT by TheTopRead
NYPOST September 30, 2001 -- Mark Green yesterday accused Fernando Ferrer of narrowly viewing the World Trade Center horror through "the lens of The Bronx," while the Rev. Al Sharpton slammed Mayor Giuliani for hogging too much credit for uniting the city, saying "Bozo" could have done as much. Two days after Green and Republican Michael Bloomberg accepted, and Ferrer rejected, Giuliani's pitch for a three-month term-extension, Sharpton - a major Ferrer booster - sharply criticized Giuliani for trying to stretch his term.
"We elected you mayor, not Messiah," Sharpton said at his Harlem headquarters during a rally attended by Ferrer.
"You didn't bring us together, our pain brought us together and our decency brought us together," Sharpton said.
He added, "We would have come together if Bozo was the mayor."
A spokesman for Ferrer, who has praised Giuliani's handling of the crisis, said later, "Although [Ferrer] would have chosen different words, he agrees that our city's unity" comes from New Yorkers' shared grief.
Giuliani wouldn't respond to Sharpton's jabs, which came hours before Green, who spent most of the mayoral race avoiding conflict, ripped into Ferrer, his Oct. 11 runoff foe.
Outside Brooklyn Borough Hall, Green said Ferrer has a "short-sighted" view of rebuilding more than 20 million square feet of lost office space.
"While I tried to show leadership by proposing big plans given this big crisis, I thought that the borough president of The Bronx reflected a business-as-usual and politics-as-usual attitude," said Green.
Green bashed Ferrer for "first comparing the unprecedented criminal attack on the trade center to - his word - the ‘rubble' he inherited in The Bronx 14 years ago and by being largely silent on how he would respond to needs of reconstruction and security.
"The planes that attacked the World Trade Center did not attack The Bronx, with all due respect," Green added. "The Bronx of 14 years ago has very little to do with the crisis in downtown Manhattan, New York and the world now."
Green noted he has a plan for a reconstruction authority - and chided Ferrer for saying the city's financial center should be decentralized.
"I think we have to take not a narrow borough approach, seeing it through the lens of The Bronx," said Green.
Ferrer sought to keep the spotlight squarely on Giuliani, calling the mayor's plan "unprincipled" and charging Green ditched his promise not to go negative.
"What caused Mark to abandon his principles and break his word?" Ferrer said. "I think he thinks he has to say these things and do these things to win an election, and I think that's a shame."
Meanwhile, Giuliani insisted his term-extension bid is for the good of the city and not about politics. "When you have watched 10 or 12 of the people you really care about die, you've gone to as many funerals that I've gone to . . . you really don't care about political spin," he said.
And? So...my post made no sense to you? YOU said it, I responded to it. It's a simple as that. Next time, remember to read what you write.
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