Bill de Blasio (Photo: Facebook)

Public Advocate and likely 2013 mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio is the latest city politician joining the push to establish an NYU and Polytech applied sciences campus at an empty building owned by the MTA in Brooklyn. The Politicker obtained letters Mr. de Blasio sent to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota last Friday urging them to support the project.

"The proposed repurposing of the MTA’s unused building at 370 Jay Street to house the NYU Applied Science Center would be an integral part of the continuing revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn and would also help a New York City educational institutional increase its contribute to education and in technology in our city," Mr. de Blasio wrote in his letter to the Mayor.

Mr. de Blasio, who is an NYU alum, also said the tech campus would be a boost to New York's emerging startup scene.

"The center will also serve as an incubator for start-up tech companies, augmenting the work done at Brooklyn’s other incubators at the Navy Yard and in DUMBO," Mr. de Blasio wrote.

NYU initially submitted the Downtown Brooklyn proposal as part of the bidding war sparked by the Mayor Bloomberg's offer of a $100 million grant to help build an engineering and applied science campus in the city. Cornell and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology eventually won out, but a growing coalition of lawmakers including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and State Senator Daniel Squadron have called for the city to help keep the NYU tech campus proposal alive.

In spite of the political muscle behind it, the NYU proposal became complicated earlier this month after the MTA upped its asking price for the 370 Jay Street building. In his letter to Mr. Lhota, Mr. de Blasio encouraged the MTA to cooperate with the proposal.

"I write to strongly encourage the MTA to work with NYU and City government to make NYU’s proposed Center for Urban Science and Program a reality," Mr. de Blasio said. "NYU’s plan proposes transforming the currently unused MTA property at 370 Jay Street into a new complex for NYU, unlocking the economic potential of this vacant building."

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand speaking at the ABNY breakfast. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

At the ABNY breakfast this morning, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said growing New York's technology sector is key to improving the state's economy. She said she hopes to help high tech companies flourish in New York by pursuing new legislation, investment and tax credits, and by supporting the push for an NYU and Polytech applied sciences campus in Brooklyn.

"We are becoming the new technological powerhouse, a viable East Coast sister to Silicon Valley," Senator Gillibrand said. 

Senator Gillibrand pointed to Facebook's recent Manhattan expansion, the planned Cornell-Technion campus on Roosevelt Island and the Silicon Alley darlings Gilt Groupe, Tumblr and Foursquare as proof there has been a great deal of progress in New York's high-tech sector of late.

"Homegrown companies like Gilt Groupe, Tumblr, Foursquare were nurtured by the assets of this city. We have now become a top destination for companies like Facebook, world class universities like the transformational project that Cornell and Technion University will be building right here on Roosevelt Island," Senator Gillibrand said. "This is just the beginning, I believe that we can continue to move forward in this direction by redesigning a currently unused building on Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn into a new applied science center. What it does is create a hub for science and technology right here in Brooklyn nourishing a new, digital future."

NYU and Polytech proposed building a 450,000 square foot campus in the city-owned building at 370 Jay Street as part of the competition for a $100 million grant to build a new, high tech school initiated by Mayor Bloomberg in 2010. Though the NYU-Polytech proposal eventually lost out to Cornell's Roosevelt Island campus, local lawmakers have pushed for the city to pursue the Downtown Brooklyn proposal as well.

In a Q&A with reporters following her speech, Senator Gillibrand said she supports the Brooklyn tech campus because it will create jobs and guide students toward a growing industry.

"It's going to be a net job generator and it's a great way to focus our students into growing industries--industries that are creating jobs, so they can have the jobs of the future," Senator Gillibrand said. "We're supporting it and we want to make sure that the parties can work out an agreement to move forward."

Mayor Bloomberg (Getty)

In a speech at MIT last night to discuss the packed sweepstakes to build a tech campus in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg said he prefers City Hall to the White House. Almost immediately after Mayor Bloomberg dampened recent speculation he's eyeing a White House bid, he added fuel to the fire by explaining why a mayor would be the best person for the job.

Mayor Bloomberg's recent criticism of President Obama for allowing the debt reduction Supercommittee to fail led many political tea leaf watchers to believe he's eyeing a potential White House bid. To the dismay of those who hope he'll mount presidential campaign, Mayor Bloomberg began his speech last night by discussing why City Hall is just fine by him.

"I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom's annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have," Mayor Bloomberg said.

At first, Mayor Bloomberg sounded he was outlining why three terms as mayor was enough experience in public office for him, but he quickly switched gears and began characterizing City Hall as the perfect preparation for the White House because it allowed him to buck the Beltway establishment get real on-the-ground knowledge.

"I don't listen to Washington very much, which is something they're not thrillled about," Mayor Bloomberg said. "We have every kind of people from every part of the world and every kind of problem."

Mayor Bloomberg explained that, unlike Washington politicians, mayors are people of action.

"The difference between my level of government and other levels of government is that action takes place at the city level," Mayor Bloomberg said. "The cities and mayors are where you deal with crime, you deal with real immigration problems, you deal with health problems, you deal with picking up the garbage."

You see, according to Mayor Bloomberg, he and his mayoral colleagues are focused on results. It's the rest of the politicians who are screwing things up.

"At the state or federal level, that's where the real problems are. You see it particularly in American government at the moment where they are just unable to do anything, and yet, the mayors of this country still have to deal with the real world," said Mayor Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg closed by expressing the desire for someone with real, executive experience to arrive on the scene and change things in Washington.

"Unfortunately, people at the federal level or the state level typically spend their whole lives in politics, and they've never been an executive and it shows," Mayor Bloomberg said.

Who could he possibly be thinking of?