New York’s City Hall to Move to Brooklyn

By SARA KUGLER

NEW YORK – City Hall is moving – across the river. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and 85 staffers are setting up a satellite office in a Brooklyn emergency command center while their usual headquarters in Manhattan gets a facelift.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz made plans to meet Bloomberg at a borough subway on Monday morning, most likely bearing a welcoming gift. Staffers were betting it would be cheesecake, which Brooklynites prize.

“He’s been doing a great job, but he’s going to do an even better job being in Brooklyn,” said Markowitz, who represents a borough home to 2 million people.

The mayor usually works in lower Manhattan, in a three-story building – constructed from 1803 to 1812 – which has the honor of being the oldest City Hall in the nation that still houses its original governmental functions.

The two-week renovation project includes some electrical work, painting and new carpet, and will be limited to the western portion of City Hall’s upstairs area, where Bloomberg and his deputy mayors and staffers have their desks.

The mayor reminded reporters last week that the new digs are just a subway stop away; the Brooklyn Bridge also links the two buildings virtually door to door.

“So let’s not get too carried away with how far we’re moving,” Bloomberg said.