Is Peter Vallone Jr's favorite daredevil, Jeb Corliss, back at it? While he's facing misdemeanor charges from his 2006 attempt to jump off the Empire State Building (the Daily News notes that he's still fighting to get the charges tossed due to missing evidence), Corliss may already be planning his next move. He told The NY Post that he would "absolutely" take advantage of the new law passed that allows urban stunts like parachuting off......

On Monday Mayor Bloomberg announced a lawsuit against the Poospatuck Indian reservation on Long Island, in an attempt to stop the untaxed sale of 11.3 million cartons of cigarettes on the reservation per year. Today the Times has a great, long article about how the smokes travel from the wholesaler through the reservation and to the streets of New York, where "$5 Men" like "Paco" stand on corners and whisper, "Newports. Loosies. Shorts. Longs." Reporters......

After spending years of his life and over four million of his dollars to impose term limits on NYC politicians, cosmetics heir Ron Lauder has had a sudden change of heart, giving a major boost to Bloomberg's plans to run for a third term as mayor. As late as last Friday, Lauder's organization, New Yorkers for Term Limits, was fighting any change to the city's term limit laws. Now Lauder says the financial crisis convinced......

If you watch just one Community Board Meeting video this summer, make it this one. Willets Point property owners who've been passionately protesting Mayor Bloomberg's controversial $3 billion plan to rezone the area (to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices and retail stores) have put together this video showing how the sausage gets made over at Community Board 7. Their gripping featurette focuses in on a contentious committee meeting that yielded a yes......

The Mayor and City Council have been talking about maybe attempting to extend term limits, but both sides seem to be waiting for the other to make the first move. And that is frustrating other politicians who are running for office. City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., who is running for mayor next year, said, "It is time that the mayor clearly state his position and not continue this charade." And City Councilman John Liu said,......

Yesterday we noted that the Highbridge Park path was unveiled after undergoing a $4.2 million makeover. The High Bridge, which the has been closed for around 30 years, will undergo a $60 million renovation and will reopen as a pedestrian bridge. The bridge connects Manhattan and the Bronx and is located at 174th and Amsterdam Ave in Highbridge Park in Manhattan and at West 170th, University Avenue & Highbridge in the Bronx. Besides the access......

Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons, rumored to be one of big business’s top hopes to run for mayor in 2009, has definitively denied that he will be throwing his hat into the ring, reports NY Magazine. 'I’ve never woken up a day in my life and said, ‘What I really want to be is mayor,’ ” Parsons said. Among those in favor of a Parsons candidacy was Bloomberg himself. While the mayor has said repeatedly that......

President, governor, a third term as mayor, and now add Secretary of the Treasury to the list of jobs that Mayor Bloomberg is not interested in. Amidst speculation that Bloomberg might be considered to head the nation's treasury, Bloomberg said he had no interest in the position and suggested that any recent ones from Robert Reich to current Secretary Henry Paulson would make more fitting choices. Bloomberg also responded to John McCain's comments from earlier......

Photograph of open store doors from the NRDC The City Council voted by an overwhelming margin to pass the bill requiring chain stores to shut their doors when their air conditioners are running, leaving many small business unhappy. Cookie Falack, the owner of six Cookie's clothing stores called it "anti-business" and claimed that when they closed their doors earlier this summer, business went down almost 25 percent. But Mayor Bloomberg is expected to sign......

Photo of David Byrne, Mayor Bloomberg, and Creative Time's Anne Pasternak by Sam Horine. Mayor Mike looks like he was concentrating pretty hard on the David Byrne/Creative Time collaborative installation, Playing the Building, earlier today. Many city residents have come and played it before him, and you can tickle the ivories, too, up until August 24th. Creative Time tells us David Byrne, Mayor Bloomberg, Creative Time president Anne Pasternak, and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs......

Photo courtesy Atomische. Angry opponents to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to develop 62 acres of poorly-maintained land in Willets Point, Queens disrupted a press conference yesterday held by city officials in Washington Square Park to tout the proposal. Councilman Hiram Monserrate, whose district includes Willets Point, led over two dozen protesters to the press conference, where they drowned out advocates for the plan, chanting “Justice for Willets Point!” According to the Times, the police refused......

Photo of Adidas store downtown via Paolo Mastrangelo's Flickr. Last year City Councilwoman Gale Brewer proposed a bill that would fine establishments $200 per open door/window in air conditioned spaces (as well as heated spaces in the winter), the bill wasn't fully backed by the Bloomberg administration and never saw the light of day...until now! The NY Post reports that the environmentally friendly bill is now supported by Bloomberg and "is expected to win......

Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg headed announced the city's new online dog licensing system, which serves to make it easier for pet owners to protect their pups while they comply with the law. Currently only 20% of the city's estimated 500,000 dogs are currently licensed (you can use the new system here!). Meanwhile, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe declared to the humans on hand: "You and your dog are welcome in New York City parks, so......

The NY Post reports on the Landmarks Preservation Commission pushing for the approval of over 1,000 historic designations while Bloomberg is still in office. "The number of proposed designations includes a planned new historic district in Prospect Heights with 860 of the buildings," and there are also buildings and homes in Chelsea, Ridgewood and Bed-Stuy (Alice and Agate Courts) seeking a longer lease on life. Bloomberg has 18 months left, but to put the 1K......

New York business leaders have been scrambling recently to find a mayoral candidate for 2009 who would be as business-friendly as billionaire Michael Bloomberg has for the last seven years. Today the NY Post reports that they may have found their man for '09: Mayor Bloomberg. The city term-limits law, which was created in 1993 and currently restricts elected officials to eight years in office, can be changed through City Council legislation, a charter referendum......

Mayor Bloomberg kept himself in the middle of national political scene by speaking at an Independent Party fund raising breakfast in Minnesota. While he was expected to tout John McCain a little, Bloomberg had spent equal time praising both McCain and Barack Obama to the Independents, noting the candidates' willingness to buck party lines. Once considered to be on the short list as a potential running mate for both candidates, the mayor has refused to......

That mayor Bloomberg has an answer for everything. Cabbies want a fuel surcharge to help cover gas costs? Let them drive hybrids. The MTA is promising another fare increase? Let the smokers pay for it. Hizzoner said yesterday that the cost of subway and bus rides won’t have to go up much at all if the state collects taxes on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations. "That just alone would replace one of those fare increases,"......

Yesterday, weather apparently prevented Mayor Bloomberg from giving a speech at the NAACP convention in Cleveland yesterday, but, in his place, Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said the city found 23% of NYC residents are living in poverty, above the 19% the U.S. Census Bureau found. The city's numbers are higher because the Bloomberg administration opted to use a different measure taking into account NYC's high living expenses. For instance, the federal formula doesn't include things......

Could Bloomberg’s nanny state be loosening up? The Daily News has it that the mayor is considering relaxing the city’s Prohibition-era “Cabaret laws,” which make it illegal for three or more people to dance in a bar or restaurant unless the owner gets a costly and difficult-to-obtain permit. "We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different license so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing," says an......

It's no surprise that ticket prices for the Bon Jovi concert being held in Central Park this Saturday went from free to $1500 in no time. As we mentioned yesterday, Spitzer had signed a legislation making online scalping legal, and Bloomberg agrees that there's not much that can be done. The mayor declared to the NY Post:"The scalping is just a way of life. I can't tell you it's not worth that kind of money.......

Photo via Wally G. Forget about living there for a second, right now Mayor Bloomberg just wants you to think of Staten Island as a nice place to visit (baby steps). With all the sudden hype around the borough (a music festival, anti-gentrification graffiti), could 2008 be the year it sheds the bad stigma (and stench) it's known for? The NY Sun reports on the Mayor's initiative to encourage New Yorkers to take a......

Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious congestion pricing plan may be toast (or Governor Paterson may bring it back from the dead) but it seems that skyrocketing gas prices are succeeded where Hizzoner failed. The Times is reporting that traffic on the city’s bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent in June, compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, subway, bus, bicycle and commuter rail ridership has surged. A transportaion consultant predicts that “if we start eclipsing $5......

What's a Mayor to do? When he's not trying to quiet rumors that he has a bad relationship with Albany, Mayor Bloomberg is still getting shafted by Albany. The NY Times describes the latest indignity: How a city proposal for bus-only traffic lane enforcement was shot down. The bill, which would have put cameras on the new rapid transit buses (the whole bus rapid transit system will be complete by 2011) to catch cars the......

It seemed like Gov. Paterson had managed to cobble together a deal for the State to take over NYC OTB yesterday afternoon and prevent its closing. A state takeover would require a vote by the legislature Monday, but Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno both seemed amenable to the idea. Mayor Bloomber, however, is holding fast on his insistence that he is going to close all of the city's OTB parlors tomorrow. Gov. Paterson said......

According to various sources, Governor Paterson has reached a deal to take over Off Track Betting (OTB) parlors from New York City, in order to prevent its total shutdown Despite handling more than $1 billion in wagers annually, the company lost $13 million last year. When asked if about the possibility of an arrangement to could keep OTB open, Mayor Bloomberg was very brusque in his dismissal of the idea earlier this week. He answered,......

The Tony Awards are happening Sunday night, people! Who’s excited? Pretty much nobody, right? No surprise there, especially considering that a phenomenal show like Passing Strange has been playing to half-full houses. But what’s really ridiculous is that even the people who are tasked with voting for the Tony winners can’t be bothered to sit through these shows! As Jeremy Gerard reports on Bloomberg.com, a spectacular number of the 797 voters will cast votes without......

According to a recently released international survey, quality of life in New York City has been slipping compared to other cities around the world. New York ranked 46th in 2006, 48th in 2007 and now 49th. That’s twelve places behind Boston! Washington, D.C., Chicago and Portland are also ranked higher for “quality” living in the survey, which was conducted by a global consulting and investment firm, Mercer. At least we solidly defeated Baghdad, which came......

Image taken from rant, by rdcapasso at flickr The MTA's favorite tune is unfortunately recorded on a broken record that keeps repeating itself: commuters need to pay more, but don't expect to see much in the way of improvements for it. The agency is saying that given the huge budget shortfall projected for next year, it's already contemplating another fare hike just three months after the last one went into effect. It would be......

Last night the fashion world gathered behind the New York Public Library for the 26th annual CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Awards, which honors the top designers. The Daily News reports back, saying the night also gave the group a chance to celebrate the life of one of their own, Yves Saint Laurent, who died this past Sunday at the age of 71. Diane von Furstenberg held back tears as she announced that......

When the Bloomberg administration successfully rezoned large parts of Williamsburg and Brooklyn three years ago to facilitate the construction of massive housing condos, the deal came with a promise to deliver lots of new park space. But while the luxury residential buildings are going up, the parks have remained a pipe dream. And local City Councilman David Yassky tells the Post he’s “sickened” that the Bloomberg administration has made “almost zero progress on the......