This morning, we heard a report of a grey seal spotted on the rocks behind Gracie Mansion, the city's official mayoral residence, so we messaged the NYC Mayor's Office via Twitter, "is there a grey seal on the rocks behind gracie mansion? if yes, can you take a picture?" Ask and ye shall receive, folks—the NYC Mayor's Office just Tweeted, "Meet the new City seal! MT @Gothamist is there a grey seal on the rocks behind gracie mansion? http://yfrog.com/gzgp2laaj" more ›

Yesterday it was reported that Mayor Bloomberg would be spending at least $245,000 of taxpayer money on his three Executive Chefs at Gracie Mansion. People were unsurprisingly not so thrilled with this, but at least one restaurant has an idea to avoid that cost: have all the different city restaurants cater a few pro bono meals for the Mayor. "Teachers are so instrumental in young people's lives. What's more important? Kids getting an education or putting on fancy dinners?", said Salvatore Rappo, manager at East Village restaurant Spina. Mayoral spokesman Jason Post sounded psyched about the idea, or at least the promise of "donated" food, and urged Rappo to follow-through on his offer with a call to City Hall. more ›

Today Vice President Joe Biden met with Mayor Bloomberg for a closed door meeting at Gracie Mansion. The items on the agenda remain a mystery, but judging by this photo, here's how we imagine it ended: more ›

Today is World AIDS Day, and while there are many events planned around the city, there is currently a 24-hour vigil at City Hall, with volunteers reading of the names of people who had been lost to HIV or AIDS at City Hall. And just now, during Mayor Bloomberg annual breakfast at Gracie Mansion in honor World AIDS Day, 10 Housing Works activists were arrested for protesting outside. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a female jogger was attacked while in Carl Schurz Park—right behind Gracie Mansion—at East End and East 88th Street—just before 2 p.m. The NY Times reports that the jogger first thought she was just punched but she was actually "slashed across the forehead by a man who walked away." more ›

Last night, Mayor Bloomberg held a reception for Senator Hillary Clinton at Gracie Mansion. He emphasized that he wasn't going to help her relieve campaign debt, saying he wasn't asked for money and added, "Hillary Clinton has been a very good, hard-working senator. I’ve said that every time that I’ve been asked for the last half-a-dozen years. Every time I’ve ever called her she returns the call virtually instantly. And she has worked very hard on everything that I’ve pointed out is a New York City priority." (Of course, the Sun points out Bloomberg wasn't happy when Clinton wouldn't endorse him for re-election.) more ›

Even though speculation is running high/wistful on a Michael Bloomberg presidential candidacy (maybe because all the other confirmed candidates are boring - or reporters are bored of covering the other candidates), the Post resurrects a rumor from earlier this year: Bloomberg wanting to run for governor against Spitzer in 2010. Back in May, the Post claimed the Mayor had discussed running for governor on two occasions, but the Mayor said the reports were completely made... more ›

John Catsimatidis is hoping to follow in Mayor Bloomberg's footsteps by becoming a Democrat who follows the path of least resistance into Gracie Mansion. The owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain has millions of dollars to burn and would like to become the Mayor of New York City. Even for a lifelong Democrat like Catsimatidis, the easiest road to City Hall is to bypass the scrum of party politics and simply get oneself elected as a Republican in a heavily Democratic city. Green apparently beats both red and blue in the media center of the world, and it's possible for enough cash to overcome many obstacles. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg will walk across the street from City Hall tomorrow morning to report for jury duty at Manhattan Supreme Court. It won't be his first stint in the jurors' box. Bloomberg reportedly has served state jury duty five times since 1981. The Daily News reports that he served in 2001 on his 59th birthday "when he was openly flirting with running for mayor but was not an official candidate." more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at 178th Pl. in Queens, a bank robbery at White Plains Rd. in the Bronx, and a homicide on West 157th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, and a water rescue off 88th St. near Gracie Mansion..
• The suspected killer of FDNY Chief Ray Downey's nephew, who was tracked to California, killed himself yesterday when cornered by cops.
• East River State Park opened today. Be one of the first to visit.
• $1,000 goes a long way: the cash handed to Richard Johnson at the NY Post continues to gain him press at the Times.
• Perhaps in an attempt to take the edge off moving it from Gramercy, Manhattan, to College Point, Queens, the City wants to pour $1 billion into the new Police Academy.
• A Long Island husband was arrested for allegedly murdering his estranged wife in a Long Island bagel shop.
• The original Star Wars was release this weekend 30 years ago.
• Vice President Cheney delivers the commencement address at West Point.

This must be disappointing to the gay couple who let Giuliani crash on their couch after his prior wife threw him out of Gracie Mansion during their divorce. more ›

longevity of Channel 11's yule log tradition. The roaring fire created from a 17-second loop of a Gracie Mansion fireplace in 1966 by Fred Thrower and played every Christmas until 1989. It wasn't until Yule Log fanatic Joe Malzone started a website, The Yule Log, and garnered support from others who missed the Yule Log that WPIX brought the tradition back in 2001.

The 21st-century rendition airs on Christmas morning instead of the night before, and, according to Julie O'Neil, WPIX's programming director, "The coals are darker, the flames are richer. It's about as good as it can get." more ›

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Midtown NYC by Midtown Lunch. more ›

- Tour of city's waterwaysThe Observer notes that DNC is debating whether or not to have a heartland convention or just go to NYC, where most everyone wants to go anyway. New Orleans is the "sentimental choice" for the convention, but it's unclear whether they'll be bidding; the other cities who have bid for the convention are Minneapolis and Denver, cities that haven't seen a Democratic convention in about 100 years. NYC hosted the 1992 convention, aka the start of Biill Clinton's era, so there might be some symmetry if Hillary does decide to run. more ›

- And tomorrow is Mayor Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Menino's "National Summit on Illegal Guns" at Gracie Mansion; mayors from Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle, Trenton, Jersey City and DC are among the attendees more ›

On tonight's Apprentice, the remaining wannabe figurehead Trump employees in the reality show making will have to do something really badly, but less badly than the other team, in order to win a prize of some quality time with Senator Schumer. Now, Senator Schumer probably has some great life and business ("Don't try hire lobbyists") lessons for the group, but it's a pretty boring prize, given that previous winners during this season have been able to cook with Jean Georges and even get $30,000 in diamonds. This reminds of when a meeting with Mayor Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion was a second season prize - boring, but at least he's a self-made billionaire - so we can't imagine some Apprentice candidates working that hard during tonight's challenge. more ›

The fifth "amazing bestest yet ever most ridiculous [insert other stupid and/or hyperbolic descriptor here]" season of the Apprentice premiered last night, and boy, do the contestants get dumber and dumber! Maybe not totally dumber, because Lord knows what Gothamist would be doing if we had to work with other people handpicked by Donald Trump and Mark Burnett, but you'd think that people who apply to be on the show would have seen previous episodes and learn from past fired Apprentices' mistakes. That said, The Donald displayed his usual weaknesses of being a sucker for anything that has to do with the Ivy League, brainiac organizations (Mensa), or accents (two new foreign-born contestants - it really is a global village) - and coming up with lame rewards (we think having a chat with Mayor Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion is better than the Wharton Club prize, but whatever!). The team captains were Tarek "Call Me Mensa" and Allie, a former U. Florida Gators cheerleader and Harvard Business School grad, and give them a Good Year Blimp challenge to drive memberships at a Sam's Club, they'll give you cruciating reality show drama! more ›

The AP got a hold of some federal data to create an interactive database of industrial air pollution in the country, and it turns out that the Giants Stadium is more polluted than Manhattan. The NY Post went through and plugged a couple areas in, finding out that - Fifth Avenue in the 50s is 1.4 times more polluted than the average US neighborhood, whereas Gracie Mansion/Yorkville is 1.2 times more polluted; City Hall is 1.2x, Harlem, 1.1x, and Yankee Stadium 1.3x..and Stuyvesant is 1.7 times higher! Giants Stadium is 6.9 times the national average. However, the pollution in the study is only from industrial sources, not necessarily cars and trucks. more ›

Forbes has a fun nauseating feature on the homes of billionaires, and three of them are in New York (okay, one is in the Hamptons, but to a Billionaire With a Helicopter, that's practically one of the five-boroughs):

When billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg was elected, he declined to live in Gracie Mansion, preferring his own luxury digs nearby. Built in 1889, Bloomberg's townhouse has five floors and totals 7,500 square feet--including the chunk of the building next door, which he bought to enlarge his dining room. He paid $3.5 million in 1986, and today the house is worth many times that. Hizzoner also owns properties in Bermuda, London, Vail, Colo., and North Salem, N.Y. more ›

Negotiations between the MTA and the transit workers union continue to trudge on as today marks the two week mark before the current contract expires on December 15. The main issue seems to be what the role of conductors and token booth clerks will be as trains modernize and the token booths close. There's some interesting dissesion within the Transit Workers Union itself, with one faction rallying for 10% wage increases every year for three years, which TWU president Roger Touissant says is too much (that's the wage the TWU tried to get in 2002 but failed); Touissant says that 10% faction head Martin Goodman actually scheduled vacation for himself after December 15, which means that if the transit workers strike, Goodman wouldn't have to face fines from the Taylor Law. more ›

Paul Simon and Billy Joel's former tour manager was fatally stabbed by his girlfriend in his Upper East Side apartment yesterday. And it was his 57th birthday! Police arrested Kathleen Connors, who was neighbors say was covered in blood from a vicious fight with Danny Harrison, who had been producing shows for the Food Network recently. Harrison lived at 530 East 89th Street, right near Gracie Mansion. A neighbor had called the police to report that there was a "violent dispute," and tells the Times that "it sounded as if Ms. Connors was being assaulted by Mr. Harrison." more ›

Two weeks into June means the wedding season is in full swing, and this past weekend, Mayor Bloomberg's eldest daughter, Emma Bloomberg, married her Princeton sweetheart, Chris Frissora. Emma Bloomberg has been active in her father's election campaign and other city projects, working as an unpaid aide; we imagine she'll be working on his reelection campaign as well. The details about her wedding at her mother's North Salem estate Saturday: Her dress was a Zac Posen dress of lavender, sage and aquamarine lace" - perfect for the casual affair she wanted (that's little sis Georgina on the left of Mayor B, in a bridesmaid outfit of a tanktop and skirt); food was by Daniel Boulud (short ribs, tapas, mashed potatoes) and Nobu (sushi, natch); reggae music by the Easy Star All Stars. The Mayor married the couple on Friday night at Gracie Mansion, because he only has the power to marry people in New York City. And while Gracie Mansion ain't fit for Bloomberg to live it, it's where the rehearsal dinner was held, with ribs from Blue Smoke. more ›

- "When the speaker puts out his public schedule, he makes his whereabouts clear." - City Council Council Speaker Gifford Miller's office.Seriously, every time Gothamist hears something from the Weiner camp, it's not that great. We think that our Mayor should be in town most of the time, but if, as Beep Fields puts it, he needs to go to NJ, DC, or Albany to beg for money, it be okay. This story is just another one of those "How Mayor Bloomberg is very, very different from most politcians," from being a billionaire to being secretive. more ›

Here's a little Mayoral Race 2005 action to tie us over: Congressman and mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner held a protest against the West Side Stadium yesterday, but he was heckled by trade union guys. According to Newsday, the trade unionists were more "amused" than menacing, and called Weiner a "loser." But Gothamist could feel sorry for Weiner, because those union guys could probably take him, it turns out that Weiner heckled back. more ›

Related: A chat with Mayor Bloomberg was the prize for the winning team last night. Granted, Gothamist would love 15 minutes with the Mayor, but next to the prize of playing tennis with John McEnroe and Anna Kournikova, that seems...boring. It wasn't even a meal with the Mayor - just a quick talk at Gracie Mansion. The Mayor told a joke and none of the Apprentice wannabes got it - the man has no skills at comic delivery. more ›