Howard Golden, who led and defended Brooklyn, dies at 98

Howard Golden, who for a quarter-century as Brooklyn borough president pushed to strengthen the borough economically and defended it against slights real or perceived in the years before it underwent a gentrifying revival, died Wednesday at his home in the Kensington neighborhood in Brooklyn. He was 98.

His death was confirmed by his daughter Michele Golden.

A brash, blunt and smart product of the Brooklyn Democratic machine, Golden, whose clipped and gravelly tone often delivered biting criticism of those who crossed him, also served as leader of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn for seven of his 25 years as borough president.

The party post made him a linchpin in determining who would get the party's support in legislative and judicial primaries in Brooklyn, a heavily Democratic borough where winning the Democratic nomination usually came down to getting elected.

Midway through Mr. Golden's term, a reduction in the powers of city presidents occurred as a result of a municipal reorganization approved by voters in 1989. The change abolished the Board of Estimate, one of the city's two main policymaking bodies. together with the city council, which consisted of the mayor, the chairman of the council, the city controller and the five district presidents.

The board, along with the city council, had the authority to approve the city budget and, without the council, determine the use of city property and enter into contracts on behalf of the city. Having a voice in these important decisions had given the borough presidents most of their governing power.

Mr. Golden was fierce in his opposition to the abolition of the board, which was proposed by a committee appointed to recommend revisions to the city charter.

When the committee held a public hearing in Brooklyn to discuss its proposals, Mr. Golden did not mince his words. “As a courtesy, I welcome you to Brooklyn,” he told the commissioners. “I must say that your visit here today is not helpful.”

However, there was no question that changes needed to be made in the way the city was governed. The United States Supreme Court had ruled that the Board of Estimate's voting structure was unconstitutional because it violated the one-person, one-vote principle by granting one vote to each borough president, even though the boroughs' populations varied strong in size.

Mr. Golden argued unsuccessfully that the solution should be to weight the votes of borough presidents based on the population of the boroughs. Brooklyn had the largest.

Another charter revision banned senior city officials from simultaneously holding party positions, forcing Mr. Golden to choose between his paid job as city president and his unpaid position as party leader. He chose to remain district president.

The abolition of the council reduced the power of the city presidents, but Mr. Golden believed that the office remained important and was not, as some reformers argued, a useless relic that should be abolished.

“We are the spokespersons for the boroughs,” he said in a 1996 interview with The New York Times. “If they were to abolish the position of district chairman, there would be no one to fight for the district as a whole.”

Mr. Golden continued his busy routine of meeting with community and business groups, dedicating buildings and lobbying against some city proposals, such as the construction of a sludge composting plant in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. He also promoted steps to strengthen the borough's economy and its aging downtown commercial center.

The 1980s saw the beginning of a major revitalization of downtown Brooklyn, including the start of construction on the MetroTech Center, a ten-block complex of high-rise office buildings. A 1988 Times editorial said Mayor Edward I. Koch and Mr. Golden deserved credit for “pursuing these developments by orchestrating city capital funds, land depreciation, tax and energy cuts and federal subsidies.”

The revival created a forest of expensive high-rise apartments and hotels and drew young, single professionals and upper-middle-class families to Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and other Brooklyn neighborhoods.

But with that came clashes over gentrification and the efforts, or lack thereof, to deal with the poor and middle-income people who were displaced.

The Koch-Golden relationship, however, was far from blissful. It was also marked by bitter feelings over Mr. Koch's policies on building shelters in Brooklyn for the homeless and his support of a rival of Mr. Golden for Brooklyn's Democratic leader. Mr. Koch complained that Mr. Golden had used personal epithets against him; Mr. Golden accused Mr. Koch of “a lack of leadership.”

In later years, Mr. Golden feuded with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. He accused Mr. Giuliani of favoring Lower Manhattan over Downtown Brooklyn because of economic development incentives, and was particularly incensed by the mayor's plan to bring professional baseball back to Brooklyn in the form of a minor league team. Mr. Golden claimed that such a team was beneath the dignity of the neighborhood where the Dodgers once lived.

Mr. Giuliani, on his weekly radio show, urged listeners to tell Mr. Golden to “get his head examined.” And he prevailed: The team, the Cyclones, a Mets affiliate, began playing in 2001 at a Coney Island ballpark.

Some critics said Mr. Golden was too close to the developers, citing the significant campaign contributions he received from many of them. His supporters spoke of his efforts on behalf of low-income housing and the borough's cultural institutions. He handily won re-election five times, from 1981 to 1997; after that, he was unable to run for office again due to term limits for elected city officials established in the 1990s.

Howard Golden was born on November 6, 1925 in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, where his parents, Jack and Dorothy (Bereso) Golden, both Jewish immigrants, ran a delicatessen.

The family faced tragedy during Howard's childhood: the deli burned down and they moved to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. While working there, Jack Golden fell out of a truck, hit his head and died. Howard was 16. His mother had to start a new career doing administrative work for the city's social services department.

During World War II, Howard was a Navy medic and took part in the D-Day invasion.

After being discharged, he gave up admission to Harvard College to stay in the city and support his family. He enrolled at New York University and sold men's clothing to make money. He became a lawyer after graduating from Brooklyn Law School.

In the late 1950s, he attended a party hosted by Aileen Wolsky in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. They were married within six months, in 1958. In addition to their daughter Michele, his wife survives him, along with another daughter, Dana Golden Moses, and two grandchildren.

Mr. Golden's career in politics developed as he rose in the Democratic clubhouse in Brooklyn. He served as a Borough Park councilor for seven years before being elected to temporarily fill the post of borough president when it became vacant on January 3, 1977. Later that year he won elections for his first full term in office. Its 25-year run ended on December 31, 2001.

Mr. Golden remained a champion of Brooklyn throughout his life and his pride in the borough was unwavering. In a speech in 2000, he said, “There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are from Brooklyn, and those who would like to be.”

Kellina Moore And Alex Traub reporting contributed.