One of our favorite bloggers, Faye Penn, was among the Brooklynites honored tonight by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at his swearing-in by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his State of the Borough address — as always, a spectacular tribute to Brooklyn’s diversity and achievement. Faye’s accomplishment? Her snappy new blog for savvy consumers, Brokelyn.com. (Full disclosure: Faye’s News Editor, Jonathan Berk, also serves as Associate Editor of CityPragmatist.com.)
Although Marty never quite said “it’s the economy, stupid,” his message was clear: Faye and the other stars on the stage at the Park Slope Armory are the reason that Brooklyn continues to grow and prosper. As to his own role, which is rumored to be threatened by an anticipated Bloomberg charter revision commission, Marty promised his audience that he will “demand charter changes to beef up the borough presidents, the Public Advocate, and the community boards.”
In Marty’s audience were the borough presidents of The Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, which, to this observer, implies that at least four of the city’s five beeps — and the Public Advocate — may be aligned in an effort to preserve and strengthen the voices of boroughs and neighborhoods in New York City.
CityPragmatist 
Marty is kind of like Bloomberg’s personal version of a useful ACORN. Don’t believe anything the Mr. Cheesecake has to say about opposing the Emperor. He’s going to be looking for work fairly soon (and not soon enough!) so he won’t do anything to alienate any rich guy. He’s got to have a list of potential employers, and daily evaluating whether they will/won’t/can’t hire him, starting with Bloomberg, going on to Ratner, and just follow the descending money trail. Marty will do whatever the Money says he should do. Period.