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The soaring interior of the Park Slope Armory was a fitting setting for what has become an annual extravaganza under Brooklyn’s ebullient Borough President, Marty Markowitz – the yearly State of the Borough address.

Taking a Janus-eyed view of Brooklyn – looking forward and backward simultaneously – Markowitz celebrated recent achievements and also sketched out, in broad brush strokes, his goals for the borough moving forward.

From the news that an operator has stepped forward to renovate and utilize the long-neglected Loew’s Kings movie palace on Flatbush Avenue, to the kick-off of the effort to revitalize the borough’s two underutilized armories – one in Bed-Stuy and the other in Crown Heights -- to a compelling vision for Fourth Avenue, a new “Brooklyn Boulevard,” Markowitz evoked the borough’s best and brightest during the speech delivered to an audience of over 1,000 people.

The impending $65 million renovation of the Kings by Arts Center Enterprises will transform the empty theater into a vibrant cultural center, Markowitz said, telling the crowd that, “What was once just a dream is now a reality,” with the theater poised to become, “An Apollo and Beacon Theater all in one, and an economic engine for Flatbush Avenue and all of Brooklyn.”

The borough president is putting his money where his mouth is, allotting over $30 million in capital funds to the Kings project.

The Sumner Avenue Armory and the Bedford-Atlantic Armory are both now in use as homeless shelters, Markowitz told the group.

But, beginning with a $1 million allocation to each from Borough Hall funds, plus a promise of $10 million from the city’s Department of Homeless Services for the Bedford-Atlantic Armory, the goal is to convert each of the historic structures into lively community centers like the one in Park Slope, that meet the neighborhood’s specific needs – “The perfect reuse of the Armories,” Markowitz attested.

As for the re-creation of Fourth Avenue, Markowitz waxed poetic about its potential transformation into a regal thoroughfare worthy of the County of Kings, linking Atlantic Avenue with the Atlantic Ocean.

To that end, he said, Borough Hall will be working with graduate students in urban planning at New York University’s Wagner School to develop a community-based plan for the strip.

“This is great opportunity to make this one of our great avenues,” Markowitz remarked during an interview with this paper. “We have Ocean Parkway and Eastern Parkway. There’s no reason why Fourth Avenue can’t be as gorgeous for the 21st century.”

Markowitz also delivered a passionate invocation of the importance of the Census – which will be conducted later this year..

“This Census year, it’s critical that every Brooklynite be counted, both documented and undocumented,” Markowitz emphasized. “We are proud of our diversity, and we need to proudly put those numbers on the board. Everything from our government funding to congressional representation depends on it.”

Another focus was job creation, with Markowitz noting, during an interview, that Borough Hall is “Going to be quite aggressive in attempting to attract major corporate entities into Brooklyn, with an eye to building the borough’s manufacturing base as well as encouraging financial institutions to open up services centers in the borough, rather than overseas.

“It seems to me we ought to think about the people here,” Markowitz asserted.

Brooklyn’s deep resilience – even in hard times – is a reflection of its myriad ethnic groups, Markowitz stressed. “In Brooklyn,” he told the crowd, “our diversity is our strength.”

But, some of the borough’s strength, he added, comes from the ability of the borough president and local advocates – such as community board members – to impact city policy, a subject that has been under discussion lately as advocates and elected officials wonder whether a Charter Revision Commission might centralize power in the city, and reduce the influence of locally-based agencies.

For this reason, Markowitz contended that any potential revisions to the New York City must not simply keep intact but even strengthen the power of the borough president, community boards and also the city’s public advocate.

“This time around, we want to get it right,” he told this paper. “We want to make sure the role of the borough presidents is beefed up, as well as preserve the role of community boards and the public advocate. We are going to be very supportive with our recommendations and aggressive outreach.”

“Brooklyn deserves a strong voice,” Markowitz urged during the speech. “We must strengthen these offices, demand budgets determined by formula and not by whim, so that those you elected to fight for your interests can do so.”

It’s been over 100 years since Brooklyn was a city on its own, Markowitz added, noting that even the Board of Estimate – which gave borough presidents an important role in determining the city’s budget -- had been abolished more than 20 years ago. “We will not let them make us merely a bureau in the bureaucracy,” he promised his listeners.

©2010 Community Newspaper Group