Local Politics

Breaking: NYC Dept. of Education Chancellor Joel Klein Steps Down, Replaced by Cathie Black, Former Magazine Exec.

​At a press conference today, Joel Klein -- the chancellor of New York City's Department of Education announced that he is stepping down from his position, to be replaced by now-former Hearst chairperson Cathie Black. She is the second chancellor of New York City's Department of Education sinc ... More >>

City Plans to Save $1M By Slashing Spending on...Paper

​In case you were wondering what, exactly, City Hall hemorrhages its money on, the Daily News reports today on an internal memo sent to city workers, announcing that the Bloomberg administration plans to save $1 million by printing double-sided copies and not sending out holiday greeting cards ... More >>

Nobody's Good Enough for Mayor Bloomberg to Serve Three Terms, Except for Mayor Bloomberg

​Remember that time Michael Bloomberg decided he would override the conventional standards in place to avoid politicians usurping too much power by breaking the two term limit on mayors, and run for a third? As it turns out, Mayor Bloomberg thinks the only person good enough to run for three t ... More >>

Investigative Journalism Doesn't Warrant Printing When it Unearths Nothing

​City Council members' requirement to disclose their financial information doesn't mean we need to write about it when nothing is awry. Today the Daily News published an article insinuating that by having outstanding credit card balances, council members are somehow in the wrong, while providi ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg's Interns: Perfect Pictures of "Clubby" Nepotism

​Gotta love that Freedom of Information Act! The New York Times filed one to get the names of Mayor Bloomberg's interns, and when they got them, they wrote about who they are! And who are they?

Mike Bloomberg New 'Mighty Whitey' Title Holder at City Hall

Mayor with pal, Uncle Jr. Soprano​ The Times has taken a long overdue meter-reading of Team Bloomberg's diversity hiring performance and the results are not good. Consider: --Since being elected to a third term last year, of the mayor's nine major appointments -- three deputy mayors and six co ... More >>

NYC Media Stonewalls Council on Hiring Questions

Jumaane Williams​Part of the ritual of every City Council hearing is the "we'll get back to you" response by city officials on the hot seat who are stuck for an answer. That was the steady refrain more than two months ago when the two top officials of NYC Media, the city's TV station (yes, the ... More >>

Vendors, Mayor's Office Voice Their Opposition to Proposed Anti-Food Truck Bill

jasonlam/Flickr​Earlier today, City Council held a hearing to discuss its proposed anti-food truck bill, which if passed would revoke the permit of any food truck driver who racked up three parking tickets during a 12-month period. Miss Softee live-blogged the meeting for Midtown Lunch, and he ... More >>

Ray Kelly, Police Commissioner, and Brooklyn Councilman Al Vann Butt Heads Over 'NYPD Tapes' Series

​Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and City Councilman Al Vann had a tense exchange yesterday at City Hall over the fallout stemming from the Village Voice series, "The NYPD Tapes." New York Times police bureau chief Al Baker reports on the clash here. During a City Council budget meeting, Vann, ... More >>

Political Shockers of the Day -- Mike Bloomberg Opposed to "Living Wage" Bill, Daniel Halloran NOT Running for Congress

Halloran, not yet sounding his charge​Mayor Bloomberg -- surprise, surprise -- is opposed to the latest City Council move to attach a "living wage" to projects that receive $100,000 or more on the dole from the city. And in other shocking developments, the city council's Heathen decides agains ... More >>

The City's TV Station Is All Bloomberg, All The Time

NYC Media, making Mayor Bloomberg's home movies

Mike Bloomberg Wants To Make Sure No One Ever Again Pulls a Mike Bloomberg

​No one wants to read about the city charter. It's too important. Yet, every couple of decades a mayor decides that the city's constitution requires a top-to-bottom rewriting. That's what Mike Bloomberg did in March. He's appointed a 15-member commission and told it to do anything ... More >>

Education Mayor Bloomberg Called Out

NYC's head has a serious setback on his way to closing schools

Bloomberg: The Movie (At Your Expense)

From L.A. to Bali, city workers film mayor touting himself at your expense

Humping The Hump, Santa Monica's Whale-Serving Sushi Bar; Jonathan Gold Connection in the Fracas

discoverlosangeles.com​The Hump is actually located on Santa Monica city property, at the Santa Monica Airport. While Santa Monica's whale-slicing restaurant faces fines of $200,000 for itself, and $100,000 for its sushi chef over its admissions that it violated the Federal Marine Mammal Prot ... More >>

St. Pats For All

The Bloomberg Employment Agency

Amid fiscal woes, jobs for pals (qualified or not)

Quinn-Bloomberg Aide Makes Illegal Campaign Calls, Wins New Six-Figure Job

​There were twin verdicts yesterday in the Dialing-for-Dollars probe of Maura Keaney, the multi-tasking former aide to both Council speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg's reelection campaign. Mayor Bloomberg's verdict was to immediately give Keaney a new six-figure job at his education ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg Beats Norm Siegel, Decrees North Side of 79th Street a 'No Free Speech Zone'

Norm Siegel was not quite where he wanted to be today. On Saturday, when he spoke at the School of the Future to a group of activists planning to protest school closings, the civil rights attorney was riding pretty high. Last month, he'd successfully beaten back Columbia's eminent domain ambitions ... More >>

New Bronx Homeless Shelter Upheld Despite Lack of Community Hearings

Sandi Lusk​A Bronx neighborhood lost the latest round in a legal fight against the city's Department of Homeless Services for quietly putting a homeless shelter in a new apartment building. Bronx State Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey D. Wright dismissed a lawsuit against the city agency lodged ... More >>

Barrett: The Post and Daily News Rush to Defend Bloomberg's FDNY Apartheid

​The Daily News and the Post have rushed to the defense of Fire Department exams that have given us the whitest rank and file of any big-city department in the country, with 303 black firefighters out of 8,998, a percentage that's actually lower than the last time a federal judge ruled the sam ... More >>

Bloomberg Approves of Study Saying That Calorie Postings Are Making Us Order Fewer Fatpants Foods at Starbucks

Apparently, people are actually reading those little signs.​ Calorie posting skeptics, be damned: Mayor Bloomberg's office wants us to know that there's a study, from a bunch of people at Stanford, that says that New York calorie postings have indeed made a difference in how many calories peop ... More >>

Cushy NYPD Gang Deployment Apparently Lost in Bermuda Triangle

​More on Mayor's Bloomberg's curious offer to send veteran police detectives to help out the police in the resort island of Bermuda, where he just happens to own a $10.5 million mansion: Bermuda Public Safety Minister David Burch said on Tuesday that his government "had accepted the offer" fr ... More >>

Barron Snares a Vote for Council Speaker

Brooklyn city councilman Charles Barron launched a long-shot campaign for City Council Speaker this afternoon and it was a one-man, one-vote affair: 48 votes for incumbent speaker Christine Quinn; one vote - Barron's own - for Barron. Still, the Nehru-suited Barron pulled no punches. He was running, ... More >>

Bloomberg and Thompson: The (Really) Odd Couple

Now it can be told: The surprising ties between the billionaire mayor and the poor slob who ran against him

New York's Community-Labor Divide

A nasty split as the Council finally bucks the mayor

Council Gives Veto-Proof Vote to Parking Meter "Grace Period"

Despite threats of a mayoral veto, the city council approved a five-minute parking ticket grace period in some circumstances. As their vote was 47 to 2, it is expected they will override the mayor's veto. Daniel Garodnick of Manhattan and Tony Avella of Queens voted no. Maria Baez, as is her custo ... More >>

The Bloomberg Blowout That Wasn't

History's richest campaign wins by a nose

With Thompson Done, Union People Consider Their Options

Photo (cc) eliotwb. By Steve Patrick Ercolani. As a crowded elevator car ascended to the third floor of the Hilton on Sixth Avenue Tuesday night, a campaign aide informed former Democratic mayoral nominee Fernando Ferrer that WCBS wanted an interview. "It seems like just yesterday I was at the W ... More >>

Ulrich Turns Seven Months of Incumbency to His Advantage

By Amanda Sakuma ​City Council member Eric Ulrich of Queens' 32nd district proved he's no longer "just a kid," reclaiming not only his seat in yesterday's election, but also his title as the council's youngest member. The 24-year-old Republican won even though 60 percent of registered voters ... More >>

Barrett: My Favorite Nugget from Last Night's Debate

​My favorite nugget from last night's mayoral debate was Mike Bloomberg's smug smile as he pronounced Joe Bruno a better majority leader of the state senate than Pedro Espada. Democrat Bill Thompson had already picked the-sometime Democrat Espada as the better of the two. By 3:12 a.m., the Po ... More >>

Barrett: My Favorite Nugget from Last Night's Debate

​My favorite nugget from last night's mayoral debate was Mike Bloomberg's smug smile as he pronounced Joe Bruno a better majority leader of the state senate than Pedro Espada. Democrat Bill Thompson had already picked the-sometime Democrat Espada as the better of the two. By 3:12 a.m., the Po ... More >>

A Bloomberg Score Card: The Mayor's Hits and Misses

Is Mayor Bloomberg Expropriating City Resources to Further His Campaign?

​ NY1 reports this morning that 18-20 sanitation, anti-graffiti, and steam-cleaning trucks recently descended on Inwood in preparation for a campaign appearance by Mayor Bloomberg scheduled for that afternoon. Residents seemed astonished as city personnel removed graffiti, swept up garbage, ... More >>

Tough Thompson at City Hall Rally: "Take a Hike Mike!"

Is public anger over term limits enough to beat Mike Bloomberg? Polls say no, but city comptroller Bill Thompson seems to think so. This morning an energized and upbeat-sounding Thompson led a cheering throng of some 200 union members and representatives on the City Hall steps as he sought to ... More >>

Bloomberg's Term Limits Scheme

How Mayor Mike gamed the system

City Council Representative Yassky's Zigzag Path to the Runoff

A credibility gap for Comptroller wannabes

Tony Avella Throws High and Hard at Debate

Listening to Queens councilman Tony Avella at last night's Democratic mayoral candidates' debate was like watching "Wild Thing" Vaughn, the rookie pitcher played by Charlie Sheen in the old movie, "Major League." Like "Wild Thing," Avella throws a torrid fast ball. Like "Wild Thing," he's also ... More >>

Pol's Challenge Could Mean Trouble for "1st Non-Profit Election Consulting Firm"

​The city's campaign finance laws and matching fund program allow the public to see into a candidate's war chest as if it were made of glass. But as the unfolding story of the blurred line between the non-profit Working Families Party and the for-profit Data and Fields Services shows, those me ... More >>

Thompson Said to Be DC 37's Choice

Looks like Bill Thompson's getting a break in his race of mayor: Liz Benjamin says he's rumored to have the DC 37 endorsement locked up. That's the city's largest municipal workers union, whose name came up last week when the city council, like the Mayor's office, followed their example by raising ... More >>

Stung for His $1.5M, Thompson Wants Investigation of $1.5M (and More) Bloomberg Gave to Non-Profits

Bill Thompson, the Democratic mayoral front-runner, needed to raise a quarter mil to qualify for federal matching funds at a six-to-one ratio. He didn't make it, says the New York City Campaign Finance Board. So he missed out on around $1.5 million. (His people are confident he'll qualify at the nex ... More >>

Bloomberg's D.C. Yak Gets Him Deposed in Local Firefighter Case

Mayor Bloomberg's freewheeling testimony at the Sotomayor hearings seems to have landed him in court. Bloomberg testified, quite unnecessarily, in response to a non-question as to his interest and involvement in the case of black firefighters' group The Vulcan Society versus the city and the FDNY i ... More >>

Times: Mayor's Office Put Felder's Name on $1.5 Million Payout -- But Felder Says He Didn't Request It

It looks like the Mayor's been playing around with city finances. The Times reports today that Bloomberg's office forwarded $1.5 million in discretionary funds to a couple of nice-sounding non-profits -- Agudath Israel of America Community Services and Ohel Children's Home and Family Services . This ... More >>

Giuliani Gets Big Coverage Based on Rare Joke

Today at a Crain's Business Breakfast Forum, former Mayor and unsuccessful Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani told listeners that "the only way I could get elected governor is the way I got elected mayor -- things have to be so bad..." He got a big laugh there, but later said that, if he though ... More >>

Barrett: Bloomberg All Fired Up for Builder Bovis

 By Wayne Barrett and Lucy JordanThe Voice's cover story this week, "Bloomberg's Biggest Scandal--the Deutsche Bank Fire--Should Be His Downfall" -- examined the determination of top city officials, including Bloomberg's longtime top deputy Dan Doctoroff, to ignore the risk of installing Bovis ... More >>

Barrett: Deal for Mayoral Control Close after Bloomberg Gets the Scalp He Wanted

Senate Democrats and negotiators for the mayor have apparently worked out terms to settle the recent deadlock about extending the mayoral school control bill. Sources say the mayor has agreed to an amendment that would provide $1.6 million to the City University to oversee a parent training and exch ... More >>

Bloomberg's Biggest Scandal—The Deutsche Bank Fire—Should Be His Downfall. Why Isn't It?

The Bloomberg Dilemma: Favorite? Or Just No Obvious Alternative?

Being for the mayor while against him

Bloomberg Wants Troopers to Grab Senators and Make Them Pass Mayoral Control

As you may have expected, the state senate failed to pass anything like a reauthorization of mayoral school control before going on summer vacation -- though Democrats did attempt and fail to pass an alternative bill not to the Mayor's liking. This will require the Mayor's packed Board of Ed to do t ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg Goes Party Shopping

Bloomie and Working Families agree only that he's likely to win—which may be enough