After the NY Times reported that Mayor Bloomberg had commissioned a poll which included questions about how voters felt about term limits, Bloomberg admitted he's interested in public service. At City Hall, during a news conference, he said, "I plan to, I think, stay on in public service in some ways or other — I don’t know how. The Times noted he seemed reflective, stopping himself at one point and "looking off in the distance."......

Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg speaking at the State of the City address by Mary Altaffer/AP Mayor Bloomberg sounded some broad themes in his seventh State of the City address. Held at the new ice skating rink at Flushing-Meadows Corona Park in Queens, his speech outlined initiatives the city and various city agencies will undertake (digital 911 so you can send the NYPD photos from cell phones by this summer! reforming the Board of Elections!......

The Gotham Gazette has a fairly comprehensive overview of the unpleasant byproducts associated with densely populated living: garbage. The details are illuminating, 64,000 tons of weekly garbage that amounts to 7 billion pounds every year. The feature is an examination of the accumulation of daily decisions that New Yorkers make every day about the things they consume and dispose of. Paper, plastic, food waste, electronics, and other things we throw in the trash add up......

While no one is questioning the fiscal stability of New York City the way they were during the 1970s, municipal spending has nonetheless exploded during Mayor Bloomberg's five years in office, far in excess of anything his predecessors accomplished over the last three decades. Thanks to swelling city revenues from the booming stock and real estate markets, New York remains on firm budgetary footing. The New York Times reports, however, that Mayor Bloomberg has overseen......

Yesterday, the city announced that cigarette smoking by construction workers most likely caused the seven-alarm fire at the under-demolition Deutsche Bank building that claimed the lives of two firefighters on August 18. FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said, "Smoking was engaged in throughout the building, and particularly on the 17th floor, where the fire originated." However, the FDNY was not entirely blameless in the incident. It was revealed that the FDNY did not keep up with......

The Office of Emergency Management would like to remind you that for the next three days, New York City will be grosser than usual, with the heat index tipping 90 every day. But the professionals at OEM are on the case with such well-researched tips as,"Wear loose-fitting, light-colored clothing" and "Use an air conditioner if you have one." What would we do without our City government? But seriously, asthmatics should be extra cautious as......

The saga of the issuance of Official New York license plates to people, businesses, and groups that are not a part of the government continues. Yesterday, the Daily News followed up with a story about how the New York Public Library received several sets of the plates for its vehicles. In case you didn't know, the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Borough Public Library are not a part of the city......

The city's Water Board approved to raise the water and sewer rates starting in July. The rate hike, which AMNY calls the biggest increase in 15 years, means that an average household's water bill will go from $623 to $700 annually. The water board says that the new $700 average water rate is still below the national average (apparently Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Atlanta have average rates of over $1000 a year) and that......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a residential hi-rise fire on 10th Ave. in Manhattan, a double shooting on Beach Channel Drive in Queens, and a transformer fire at Barbey St. and Pitkin Ave. in Brooklyn. Entergy was fined $130,000 for not installing a warning siren system at its Indian Point facility by a required deadline. That would be the nuclear power plant that just had its safety rating downgraded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.......

In yet another sign that the state and city government want big business at the redeveloping area near the World Trade Center, the NY Times reports that JPMorgan Chase is "in negotiations...to build a 1.3 million-square foot skyscraper." And not only would thousands of employees move from Midtown (277 Park Ave.; the bank would keep 270 Park), the skyscraper would be at 130 Liberty St. - where the toxic Deutsche Building is being dismantled.Chase wants......

Business must be rough for Karl Kemp Antiques if Karl Kemp is suing four homeless people for $1 million. Kemp claims that "John Smith," "John Doe," "Bob Doe," and "Jane Doe" are sullying his stretch of Madison Avenue (his store is 833 Madison Avenue, at 69th) and scaring off customers." His lawsuit claims the group has been "consuming alcoholic beverages from open bottles, performing various bodily functions such as urinating or spitting on the sidewalk,......

-- Holy bajesus-- if you thought the Atlantic Yards plans were bad, you need to check out the documents on the Williamsburg Edge project. Or screw it-- just move to Philly. -- The prosecutor who got demoted for saying Brooklyn has "more dead bodies per square inch than anybody else" sued and got damages! -- Even a priest on his way to performing last rites gets a parking ticket, raising concerns about the NYPD's......

Congress is all about fraud stemming from September 11 relief efforts this week. A House oversight subcommittee has been discussing a number of programs which people not eligible for relief were able to apply for - and get relief. Sound familiar? Yes, it's just like what happened this past year after Hurricane Katrina. One notable example would be a program that gave people the option to buy new air conditioners, since their old ones would......

Monitoring the city's job postings can pay off! Luckily, Streetsblog has been doing just that and pieces together how the city is serious about developing "comprehensive transportation and land use strategy for New York City."The first signal came at the beginning of Mayor Bloomberg's second term when DOT Commissioner Iris Weinhall was knocked one rung down the Administration's org chart. She is now reporting directly to Doctoroff. Next, DOT's creative, competent Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner,......

The Post reports that the Lover Manhattan website is all zinged up for "morale-boosting" and "updates" on Ground Zero-area construction. Those "This is 2010. It's Happening Now" posters are all part of the a campaign "aimed at giving residents and workers in lower Manhattan real-time information about the $20 billion in construction projects that will be ramping up this summer." So for four years, you can get served up the government's spin on what's......

But a schedule does not mean things will happen the right way. NY State officials and the private developers have agreed to project's schedule, which means construction will start this fall, in anticipation of a 2012 opening. However, not all the i's are dotted, as there still needs to be formal approval from Albany. And then there's that whole thing about whether or not Madison Square Garden will move in the Farley Post Office space......

In all the excitement of a three-day weekend we plum forgot that this past Friday was the last Friday of the month. And you know what that means don't you? Time for the police to go out and give tickets willy-nilly to every other person they see on a bicycle. Mike over at Bike Blog wasn't able to attend this months Critical Mass either, but he still managed to pull together a report on......

City government has never been sexier, as Standard & Poor's have given NYC an A+ to the city's debt rating, which is its best ever! So what does that mean? Public finance expert Dall W. Forsythe explains to the Times that the city can borrow at lower interest rates, more people will be willing to city bonds. And the Independent Budget Office points out to the NY Sun, "The lower your debt service costs, the......

Who knew that people were designing guns that look like cellphones? The NY Post compares it to a James Bond gadget, as the NYPD issued an alert to for police officers to be careful when people go through security at city government buildings. We found a website that has photos of the cellphone gun, and the digital touchpad buttons are the trigger and the antenna is where the gun barrel! The phones are apparently heavier......

Tacky city government! Tacky! Over this past weekend 24 families who lost kin in 9/11 received Priority Mail envelopes from the city regarding the last moments of their loved ones' lives. Because of a lawsuit in place the city this week is set to release a number of 911 phone transcripts that had previously not been seen by the public (actually, they are just releasing the operators' side of the converstations...). Because of this......

This past weekend saw a tradition that involves the Mayor dressing up in chainmail and belittling his various policies and efforts: The annual press corps spoofing of the city government. Last year, the Mayor skipped the follies because of Pope John Paul's death, but this year, he donned an outfit from Monty Python's Spamalot to sing "Spendalot," an ode to his super expensive campaign, and according to Newsday, he was "shimmying and kicking like a......

This morning's NY Times article about some very high-ranking city officials who get a salary AND pension at the same time from the city's payroll is fascinating. For a mayor who wants to limit pensions and benefits for other unions, Mayor Bloomberg has made a point of requesting special waivers for certain retired city workers to draw pensions as they return to the city workforce, and the Times's opening is hilarious:One of Mayor Michael R.......

"New York might need an extra million or so slices of cake for its 400th birthday party in 2025." Or at least that is what city planners are thinking. Despite already having a record population (8.2 million people, baby!) New York City, unlike most other cities in the Northeast or Midwest, is most definitely getting bigger. And that's a bit of an issue for our city government, see. Not because we can't handle more......

Mayor Bloomberg and the new City Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined forces to announce a five point plan for lobbying reform. The message is that the city government want to stop lobbying from, as the Mayor put it, "the next Jack Abramoff" (zing, zing, Republican party!). The five-point plan (1) bans gifts from lobbyist to government officials; (2) strengthens enforcement of the lobbying law and double the maximum penalties for violations; (3) mandates that lobbyist......

Yesterday we mentioned the big Times Up memorial rally that was going on yesterday-- JibbaJabba already has some pictures up on Flickr. BikeBlog wrote: We ride to HONOR those who have been injured or killed. We ride to RAISE AWARENESS that we are here. We ride to ask that we all SHARE THE ROAD. In the US, cars kill more children and young adults than anything else. 10 cyclists per day are reported hit......

This afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg updated everyone on how New York City is coping with the transit strike. 1010 WINS has a nice summary of it on their site. Developments today include: - NYPD working 12 hour shifts (hello overtime!) and the traffic is being handled by the police cadets - LIRR handled an extra 45,000 riders this morning - There is now shuttle service at Kew Gardens, Forrest Hills and Woodside (lots of love for......

- Is the NYC planning department so desperate for World Trade Center planners that they're using craiglist to look for potential candidates? Like, isn't this the kind of job that requires a headhunter? Nevermind...we'll never figure out city government - Take a look at Keep a Child Alive and consider donating to children and families in need of AIDS medicines - Shootout in the Bronx: State troopers hit, suspect killed - Men who beat a......

Jonathan Mandell & Mark Berkey-Gerard, Gotham Gazette...

The Campaign Finance Board's records show that Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields has not reimbursed her government drivers for driving her to campaign events. Newsday points out that Fields hasn't "paid for gas or parking used during those appearances" and that in the past week, only two of her many events were job-related. Fields' campaign manager, Chung Seto, claims that the drivers/city will be reimbursed, but she doesn't know why it's taking so long.......

Right now, the legal party for Marc Ecko's Getting Up video game is getting underway on West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Animal magazine's Bucky Turco sent a photograph that shows the subway car replicas up ready to be vandalized...just kidding, City Government alarmists - the subway car facades are ready to be decorated by many graffiti artists. We're sending someone to check out the scene, but if you happen to head......