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In order to block the Bloomberg administration’s plan to turn the Muller Army Reserve Center into a homeless shelter, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. once again decided to boycott a scheduled meeting of the three member authority that controls the Muller Center’s fate.
The Muller Redevelopment Authority (LRA) – made up of Diaz, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs and Tokumbo Shobowale, the chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and managed by the city’s quasi-governmental Economic Development Corporation – needs all three members to vote on a recommendation for the vacant army reserve center. So, no Diaz, no vote. This is the second time, Diaz has missed an authority meeting in protest.
That means the Muller Center’s fate will fall back into the hands of the Department of Defense and the federal government. It could become a test of who has more support in Congress: Bloomberg or Diaz.
“We have a lot of friends in Congress,” said Diaz spokesman John DeSio, who pointed to Representative Eliot Engel’s opposition to the mayor’s homeless shelter plan. Engel represents the Wakefield area where the Muller Center sits.