Who

Markowitz is the Brooklyn Borough President, a largely symbolic post that makes him chief advocate for the borough—and himself.

Backstory

A Brooklyn lifer, Markowitz was born in Crown Heights, where his dad worked as a waiter in a kosher deli; when he was 9, his father passed away, and a few years later his mother relocated the family to Sheepshead Bay. Marty received his B.A. after taking night classes at Brooklyn College for nine years, and first entangled himself in the borough's politics by organizing groups of senior citizens and tenants in Flatbush in the early '70s. In 1978, he was elected to the State Senate. His district would change over time—first he represented mostly whites in Flatbush, then he represented mostly blacks and Latinos in Crown Heights and Midwood. But Marty's M.O.—doing precious little in the way of legislative activity—remained the same: His biggest and arguably solitary achievement was making possible the free outdoor concerts by semi-famous performers that are now a staple of city summers.

In 2001, after 11 consecutive terms in the State Senate, Markowitz ran to replace outgoing Brooklyn beep Howard Golden, whose job Marty had been eyeing since his initial disastrous bid for the office in 1985 (see below). By that point the job had been defanged by a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that disbanded the powerful Board of Estimate, on which all beeps sat; nonetheless, after winning, Marty jumped into his nearly powerless position with gusto, and was easily reelected with just shy of 80 percent of the vote in 2005.

On the job

Being a borough president basically means serving as a borough's head cheerleader, and indeed, no one is as cartoonishly enthusiastic about Brooklyn as Markowitz—he attends every parade, high school graduation, street fair, and block party in the borough, and shoehorns references to Junior's cheesecake into an ungodly number of conversations. His cheerleading took a turn for the literal during the 2005 transit strike, when he stood on the Brooklyn Bridge cheering on weary commuters trudging home on foot. He also made news for pushing for signs on roadways going out of Brooklyn that say quaintly Brooklyn-y things like "Leaving Brooklyn—Fuhgeddaboudit."

He can also be counted on to stump for any massive development, even if it threatens to alter the borough's character. One of the most ardent backers of Atlantic Yards, it was Markowitz who called developer Bruce Ratner and sold him on the idea of building a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets in Brooklyn. Other sprawling development schemes he's energetically gotten behind include the redevelopment of the waterfront area in Greenpoint and Williamsburg; the conversion of the Brooklyn House of Detention into a mall; and Joseph Sitt's abortive bid to colonize Coney Island. Meanwhile, the ever-jolly Markowitz's actions have done little to address the borough's most intractable problems—it's still home to some of the city's poorest, least healthy, and most dangerous neighborhoods.

Keeping score

He made $160,000 as Brooklyn borough president in 2007.

Upcoming

Term limits will force Markowitz out of Borough Hall in 2009, and it's widely believed that the attention-loving beep will seek an even grander post from which to promote himself–namely, Mayor of New York. His rivals for the Democratic nomination will almost surely include Congressman Anthony Weiner, Comptroller Bill Thompson, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Whether residents of New York's four other boroughs will go for someone so parochially Brooklyn—and whether any voters will feel comfortable entrusting Markowitz to a job with real responsibilities—remains to be seen.

Legal file

When Marty initially ran for Brooklyn beep in 1985, challenging Democratic incumbent Howard Golden, he failed to disclose a contribution from a Brooklyn businessmen. After the infraction came to light, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor, paid almost $80,000 in fines, and performed 75 hours of community service.

Personal

Markowitz didn't marry until he was 54. He and his wife, Jamie, a graphic designer, own an African gray parrot named, appropriately enough, Beep. (Amazingly, he isn't the only borough president with an African gray parrot—Scott Stringer also owns one.) The Markowitzes live in a Park Slope rental fronting Prospect Park.