We’ve all heard of crony capitalism. Turns out, the left has its own version. And Bertha Lewis is proving herself a master.
The one-time head of the radical group ACORN, Lewis is a co-founder of the Working Families Party with Bill de Blasio. Now she has a new nonprofit, called the Black Institute. And it is being funded by Pledge 2 Protect, another nonprofit that is fighting the mayor over plans to locate a waste-station on the Upper East Side.
That’s rich. The UES site was part of deal designed to spread the pain around instead of sticking poor and minority neighborhoods with the trash stations. So you don’t expect a former ACORN leader more comfortable with excoriating the “1 percenters” to be making common cause with them to keep a smelly station out of their neighborhood.
For her part, Lewis says she’s opposed the project since 2003 (others say she’s gone back and forth), because it would also impact a nearby low-income housing project. But it’s not the first time she’s gained from her chumminess with the high and mighty. A few years ago, developer Bruce Ratner helped bail out ACORN with a $500,000 donation and $1 million loan. No surprise, Lewis provided crucial support for Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development project.
We don’t begrudge Bertha Lewis the right to make a buck. But when she advocates, New Yorkers might do well to look at who’s signing her checks.