Check out this article in the DN.

Green is trying to roll-back an agreement Mayor Street made with casino developers to allow them a property tax abatement in exchange for an investment in infrastructure--water pipes and stuff. Green says:

I can't see a public policy rationale for providing casinos a tax abatement.

I leave it to someone else to get into the meat of this matter (and it is an intriguing one: it was my memory that Street himself had originally not wanted abatements for casinos either, and somewhere along the way he changed his mind, but Green's point is solid).

But what is UP with Bill Green? Remember last week when he proposed eliminating DROP for elected officials. And the Inky reported this:

[Councilwoman and Majority Leader] Tasco said she liked Green and tried to "help" him Thursday with a resolution that dulled the sting from Green's DROP bill. She called for hearings to examine the larger impact of DROP before considering his action. Some saw that as putting Green in his place.

When you're new, there are a lot of nuances that you're not familiar with, and sometimes it's a wise move to get the lay of the land, get a feel for your colleagues, and get some history of the Council," Tasco said. "So what happened yesterday certainly was not an effort to spank him, but to help him understand that he should get the lay of the land first.

That's a nice way of saying she doesn't really like him.

The Inky already wrote an article in the 1/28/08 Inky article about zany Councilman Green, and how his colleagues are not cazy about him, so I am not so much writing about that.

It's more like I am wondering why this image--this notion of what Green would be like--didn't seem to get communicated during the campaign. I had no idea he would be like quite like this as a Councilman (and it doesn't hurt that he comes to every Liberty City meeting even though the election is over--Councilman Kenney never did that ;). He seems pretty cool so far.

Was I just out of it? Did anyone expect..all this...from him?