The apple sometimes falls farther from the tree than you might expect.
Take the case of Bruce Marks, profiled a few Wednesdays ago on the cover of the Wall Street Journal and beaten up many times since in its letters to the editor. This activist financier who grew up in backcountry Greenwich runs NACA, the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, which advocates for affordable housing for lower-income people. NACA has been very forward in the current financial crisis helping clients win mortgage refinancings and loan modifications so they can keep their homes.
Marks, admittedly a bit of a terrorist, puts the blame squarely on the leaders of big banks and mortgage companies for the subprime crisis and economic meltdown. He recently led a bus tour of executive homes in Greenwich and Westchester County to show off the residences of those he holds responsible. Some of these were probably within bullhorn distance of where he grew up. At the home of one executive, he and demonstrators that NACA bused into town filled the lawn with furniture to show the exec what an eviction looked like.
I’m sure that Dick Fuld and Sandy Weill and Brady Dougan and the other bankers of Greenwich feel somewhat betrayed by Marks, who grew up in their midst. But I met his lovely mom at a backcountry association meeting a year ago, and I know that at least one person in Greenwich read that day’s Wall Street Journal with pride.
