Yes, residents around the park were irked by the noise, crowds, and traffic, but they didn’t make a big issue out of it -- after all, the concerts were only once a week during July and August, they were free, and they added clear enjoyment to the summer.

But for reasons known only to himself, Markowitz has stubbornly persisted – against a torrent of opposition, against an array of quality-of-life concerns, and amid a local and national economic crisis – with plans for a massive, $64 million amphitheater that would bring in all kinds of shows much more frequently than once a week, not just in the summer, and not for free.

He is now in very serious jeopardy of causing the demise of the concert series itself, because as opponents have turned over rocks in their battle against the amphitheater, quite a few worms have crawled out.

Some examples:

A little-known – and apparently not widely enforced – city law was discovered that prohibits the use of amplified sound above a specified decibel level within 500 feet of a synagogue, school, or certain other facilities in session at the time. There are not one, but two synagogues well within 500 feet of the park. With the help of Mayor Bloomberg and City Councilman Lew Fidler, Markowitz was able to push through a law in the City Council to temporarily exempt the concert series from the regulation. Amphitheater opponents who took their own decibel readings report that the sound level of the concerts has exceeded even the temporary regs.

It came to light that Markowitz for years has been using prisoners from Rikers Island, paid about 40 cents an hour by the Department of Corrections, to set up the paid chairs at the concerts – while these jobs would have fit in perfectly with the Bloomberg administration’s very own Department of Youth and Community Development programs to give local teens summer jobs, keeping them off the streets and out of jail. Markowitz’ director of the concerts, Debra Garcia – sounding more like a Walmart executive than a public servant – told Bay Currents that if she were to hire locals, “then I’d have to pay people… I have to cut costs wherever I can.”

Only after this became public, the D.O.C. announced that it would no longer provide the cheap labor for Markowitz’ concerts.

It’s likely only a matter of time – and not very much time – before other revelations surface.

To use the Yiddish word for “shame” that Markowitz employed to describe the actions of the amphitheater opponents, it’s a shonda.