Real Park Slope Neighbors Upset at Yassky Endorsement by "Park Slope Neighbors"

Who are the real Park Slope Neighbors? Well, if the names of neighborhood groups mean anything, the real group would be one that has been working in the community on some time on neighborhood quality of life and other issue. So, in the closing days of the heated Democratic primary race (closing days being the traditional time to drop things in the mail so that people can't respond), Park Slope Neighbors are up-in-arms that Congressional candidate and City Council Member David Yassky has mailed out a flyer from "Park Slope Neighbors for David Yassky" endorsing David Yassky. The email Gowanus Lounge just got from a member of the real Park Slope Neighbors (which has made no such endorsement) says, in part:

I came home from a business trip to find a copy of a letter from "Park Slope Neighbors" endorsing Dave Yassky. As one of the first members of PSN, an organization founded to support good development practices (they were instrumental in the negotiations to change the design of Commerce Bank), I was appalled to see we had endorsed a candidate, because during our charter discussions, we voted to never endorse candidates so that we could enventually achieve non-profit status.

Of course, we hadn't - someone had simply used the name. Of course, it could be an honest mistake, but we have thousands of people on our e-mail list and the PSN "brand" has definited cache and credibility, as many of our members are also involved in other neighborhood institutions like community boards, block associations and the food co-op.

Apparently, when a member of the real Park Slope Neighbors called the Yassky campaign to complaint that creating a faux Park Slope Neighbors might trick or confuse some neighborhood residents, Mr. Yassky's Chief of Staff, Evan Thies, said "Don't waste my time with this," and hung up on the caller.

Safe to say, then, that the Yassky campaign doesn't have an issue with a document that might mislead some residents into thinking a neighborhood group has provided an endorsement that it really hasn't?

Watch for more interesting things flying about in the next 48 hours as this race goes down to the wire.