Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz refused to sign off on The Related Companies' proposal to transform the borough's largest indoor public space into a shopping mall.
He did the right thing.
The Bloomberg administration and its chosen developers expect communities to give carte blanche to projects even when they include massive chunks of prime public real estate and hand over considerable taxpayer subsidies to private companies. And they expect officials like Diaz to sign on the dotted line before negotiating Community Benefits agreements.
Adolfo Carrion, Diaz's predecessor, went along, but with this action Diaz has set a different tone early in his new administration, as we urged him to do in a July editorial.
The borough president's vote is advisory and the City Planning Commission, the majority of whom are mayoral appointees, is virtually certain to ignore it. But Related's proposal will then head to the City Council.
While the Council rarely bucks the mayor on development issues, Diaz's move puts pressure on the borough's Council delegation, especially Council Members Maria Baez, whose district the facility is in, and Oliver Koppell, who has taken a keen interest in the Armory even though it's just outside his district.
If the Bronx delegation votes "no," then Council members from other boroughs will almost certainly defer to its decision.