The Seawall; an explanation

via Courier-Life;

With the election less than a week away, the ongoing slug-fest between Rep. Vito Fossella and challenger Steve Harrison has moved from rude to ridiculous.

Case in point: a recent e-mailed ad to residents on the Brooklyn side of the 13th Congressional District claiming that Steven Harrison caused the downfall and destruction of the Shore Parkway promenade.

You might recall Rep. Vito Fossella's attempt at attacking Harrison over the seawall at the fifth debate in Brooklyn. Unfortunately for Vito the crowd appeared to favor Harrison's leadership skills in preventing overdevelopment in the community.

“The Community Board is a group of volunteers,” said Harrison. “The only way we can get change is to demand it from the bully pulpit. Over the years both myself and my predecessors had asked him [Fossella] time and time again to please get the money to fix the seawall and he paid no attention. But after the seawall collapsed into the water, he went down there to take a picture in the remnants.”

Harrison went on to say that, while he claimed credit for getting the promenade repaired, Fossella “didn’t give ten cents to the repairs.” The job to repair the promenade was ultimately left to the Army Corps of Engineers, he charged.

In a press release this past May, Fossella’s office said that the Congressman “had secured $5 million in federal authorization from the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to help offset the cost of the project.”

“[Fossella] is lauding himself for something that he should be blamed for,” Harrison said.