Results tagged “mayorb”

For an avowed non-presidential candidate, Mayor Bloomberg certainly gets more attention than some of the actual candidates. Newsweek devotes its cover story to "Mike" Bloomberg, "The Billion Dollar Wild Card," a reference to the billion dollars Mayor B has at his disposal, should be decide to run for president next year. That is so much more flattering than the "Lazy Like a Fox" cover Newsweek had of Fred Thompson! Newsweek editor-in-chief Jon Meacham got to...

Yesterday, the NY Post revealed that the dingy Manhattan Marriage Bureau would be getting a deluxe makeover. First of all, the City Clerk's Office will move from 1 Centre Street at the Municipal Building to 80 Centre Street. Second, Mayor Bloomberg's personal decorator, Jamie Drake, will be overseeing the redesign - at a discount (we doubt the new bureau will have the touches that Mayor B's swank townhouses do), but the budget is still $13 million.

Mayor Bloomberg has been in Sun Valley, Idaho, for the annual Allen & Company conference (it's where media movers and shakers wheel and deal). And Governor Spitzer snarked, "I hear the congestion in Sun Valley is tougher than the congestion in Manhattan right now," referring to the critical juncture the Mayor's congestion pricing program faces in Albany.

We love scurrilous political gossip! The NY Post's Fred Dicker says that Mayor Bloomberg wants to run for Governor in 2010! For some reason, Mayor Mike thinks that Albany might be his kind of town. A "senior" Republican source spills the beans:

"On two occasions in recent weeks, the mayor brought up the possibility of running for governor, of running against Spitzer in 2010.

Continue reading "2010 Matchup: Bloomberg Vs. Spitzer?"

- Edwards tops Romney 59 - 21 percent. Quinnipiac's Polling Institute director Maurice Carroll noted that New York is "still a blue state" and wonders if Clinton and Giuliani will bother coming for the primary in February, since they'll do well. And if you're wondering about former Vice President Al Gore and Law & Order actor (and former Senator) Fred Thompson's chances, Caroll said Gore is tied with Obama while Thompson "is doing almost as well as multi-millionaire Mitt Romney."

We image Mayor Bloomberg had some talking-to with the new governor! A few days ago, Governor Eliot Spitzer dipped his toe into the dispute about how victims' names would be arrange at the World Trade Center Memorial.

In an effort to keep the United Nations in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg may revive an old plan to create more office space that could benefit both the U.N. and other city developers. The NY Sun reports that the plan would involve building "swing space" for the U.N. during the renovation of the Secretariat building. One possible place for the swing space: Long Island City. Picture it, ferries of U.N. employees across the East River!

For Yankee Stadium's last year - before a new park - Major League Baseball will be having the 2008 All Star Game in The House that Babe Built. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said, "One of the biggest factors was George Steinbrenner. He has made wonderful contributions to this city and to the Yankees. Clearly one of the primary factors was to honor the city, the franchise and George Steinbrenner." Man, Selig makes it sound like Steinbrenner's going to die at some point! But we suppose MLB wants to honor Steinbrenner for driving up salaries so much. The Boss, who wasn't at the City Hall press conference, said he was touched.

In the wake of a judge dismissing charges daredevil Jeb Corliss for his attempted jump off the Empire State Building, Mayor Bloomberg is very upset.

"If I understand the ruling, just from reading the headlines, the judge said the guy did nothing wrong and should be able to jump off buildings with a single bound or whatever - I don't know where the judge is coming from. Whether it's legal, that's up to the court system to decide. But we do not need people jumping off of tall buildings in New York City - certainly [not] without a permit."

This morning, Mayor Bloomberg did a meet-and-greet commuters, but it was at a Metro-North train station in Connecticut! He was in Stamford to help Senator Joe Lieberman's re-election campaign. Mayor B said, ''I think the voters of Connecticut understand they need proven independent leadership. Joe Lieberman provides that. I think people of all parties are just tired of the political bickering.''

If you're the Republican mayor of New York City, who do you have breakfast with? Why, the Democratic candidate for Mayor of DC, of course! DC City Council member Adrian Fenty met up with Hizzoner this morning to discuss the Mayor's overhaul of the NYC public school system. Apparently Fenty may be interested in taking over the DC school system when he's elected (Fenty's the presumptive mayor), although Bloomberg's education record is decidedly mixed. Note to Fenty: In order to follow the Mayor's plans, be sure to end social promotion, hire McKinsey consultants to run things, and live and die by tests.

We always knew Mayor Bloomberg was a busy guy, but a NY Times article today makes him seem especially crunched for time. The article's first sentence says it all:

New York City’s bid to land the 2008 Democratic National Convention is in jeopardy because Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is spread so thin with fund-raising commitments that he may not be able to raise the money from private donors needed to pay for it, an official said on Thursday.

Is it any surprise that money speaks to Mayor Bloomberg? During his radio hour with John Gambling on WABC, Mayor B said that in spite of the hassle - and vitriol - that the United Nations generates (diplomats' reckless driving! world leaders calling the President a devil! gridlock!), they do bring a lot of money to the city:"This is a good business for us. What is said in the UN, I find most of it to be despicable. But whether they say it here or in Bonn, Germany, doesn't change that. Why have the Germans make all of the money off it?"Yeah! Don't let those stinkin' Europeans get money we could be hording! The Mayor's remarks come as some who were reeling from Hugo Chavez's dramatic speech question whether the U.N. should stay. The Daily News has a quote from State Senator Martin Golden who says, "We could rent that space out in a heartbeat. I have no problem hosting the UN, but we shouldn't be putting out the red carpet for people to beat up on us - no matter how much business it accounts for." Ooh, the Secretariat as a rental building? That would be sweet - firetrap or not!

Interesting - the Post has a sorta followup to yesterday's Daily News story about Fashion Week being at Bryant Park next February. Though yesterday's Daily News article had Vogue editor Anna Wintour saying that Mayor Bloomberg would support fashion - and tents in Bryant Park - in spite of the park's desire to keep the ice rink up, the Post says Diane Von Furstenberg couldn't convince Bloomberg to keep the tents there. Von Furstenberg, designer and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, made a "personal appeal" to ask Mayor B to prevent the tents' eviction, but "instead he'll work toward finding another suitable location," according to a CFDA executive that told the Post. So, the locations that may see the Spring shows next February: Javits Center, Lincoln Center, and Chelsea Piers.

A week after mentioning the lack of development at the World Trade Center when being questioned about the lack of development in post-Katrina New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin is in New York City to bring attention to his city's redevelopment needs. But first, Nagin had to apologize for his remarks on 60 Minutes (). From the AP:

"I want to say to all New Yorkers that I love New York City and have been here on many occasions," Nagin said. "We as New Orleanians and as New Yorkers understand what tragedy is all about and understand the difficulty of recovering from tragedy." He also said he especially regretted the term he'd used to describe ground zero, where more than 2,700 people died after terrorists piloted two commercial flights into the twin towers, causing the buildings to collapse.

Continue reading "Mayor Nagin: "I love New York City ""

- On being President: Spitzer doesn't want to be, while Suozzi does (to which Spitzer cracked, "Good luck")There was also a supposed freak-out by Spitzer when he saw that Suozzi was going to bring notes on stage during the debate. Notes are not allowed, and Suozzi told reporters that Spitzer got "angrier and angrier and angrier" and accused him of "playing games," but let's face it, if notes weren't even allowed...

If you're going to do an issue about the 100 People Who Shape Our World, you might as well have a big party, right? Time magazine rolled out the red carpet last night for people on its list, their friends, and the press. Gothamist stopped by the party just ahead of Stephen Colbert. We were not wearing a bear costume, so he wasn't that afraid of us. And perennial favorite, Rachael Ray, showed up all glammy, alternating poses with and without her A.C.H.M. (Arm Candy Husband Meat).

Those fancy shirt sleeves were rolled up as officials met over the crazy costs for the World Trade Center Memorial. And if there's anyone to speak about money, it's our billionaire Mayor Bloomberg, who the NY Times says gave the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation a "verbal spanking":

He chastised the foundation, saying the group had become obsessed with the design and construction of the memorial. "The foundation should be focusing on fund-raising," he said. "The agreement fundamentally was that the L.M.D.C. — the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation — would do the design, somebody would build the building and it would be run by the foundation, who would be raising private money."

also reasoned that while Schwarzenegger "hasn't had anything to do with the city, but he doesn't do anything against the city either." Au contraire, Mayor B: Arnold was in Hercules in New York! If that didn't give NYC a good (or bad) name, we don't know what will.

- And contributions to Governor Pataki's presidential aspirational fund have been slowing down

The Mayor finally gets his noise code! Well, sort of. After a year and a half since Mayor B proposed a noise code for Better Quality Of Life, the city council unanimously passed the final version of the code. Now nightclubs and bars must "keep their sound level below 42 decibels instead of the current standard of 45 decibels when measured inside a nearby residence," as explained by the Times. And the NYPD will be getting noise meters to measure the decbiel levels! From the Times:

Continue reading "Hark, The Noise Will Ring (But Just a Little Softer Before the Complaints Come)"

The MTA says their current offer is their "final offer" to the Transit Workers Union. And what's the offer? Three percent each year over a three year contract; the union wants 8% more. And benefits-wise, the MTA would ask new hires to pay 1% of their pay to go towards their health plans (workers do not do this now). Finally, the MTA wants to increase the retirement age from 55 to 62 after 30 years of service, whereas the TWU wants to lower the age to 50 after 20 years of service, for new hires; the TWU says there would be "two tiers" employees, which they don't want. (Here are some more of the union's demands, which include child care and the MTA's excessive challenges to the TWU's arbitration.)

Given that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's victory had been predicted for a few weeks, Gothamist would have thought that the NY Post might have put a little more thought into its post-election cover. But, instead, it's a poorly Photoshopped (as is keeping with the Post's tradition) and terrible that it could be an instant classic - we'll need to sit with this one.

11:24PM: Mayor B is done with his speech - so far, winning by 19%.

Bad news for Fernando Ferrer: He's trailing Mayor Bloomberg by a whopping 31 points according to a Quinnipiac poll. And this poll, unlike earlier ones where Bloomberg enjoyed a 27 point lead, is after fears about the subway terror threat on October 7, which might mean that New Yorkers, despite their grousing, might really love Mayor Bloomberg! The Mayor introduced a new health plan to insure children, which Ferrer's campaign says is the second instance of the Mayor copying Freddy's promises. "Plagiarism," the Ferrer campaign slinged as he campaign with John Kerry on the Lower East Side. More shockingly, it seems that some of the diners at the Harlem International House of Pancakes (where the Mayor previously served diners) when Mayor B got an endorsement from Reverend Calvin Butts were actually Bloomberg volunteers. It's Flapjackgate!

- A case of boysenberry jam and a bucket of Mrs. Knott's chicken from Knott's Berry FarmThis is like a big FU, implying that we have no sun and beachy good times and can't sing have a theme song by Phantom Planet. Gothamist wonders who gets the swimwear and surfboard when NYC will collect the booty - we really don't want to be forced into seeing some Mayor B photo op where he's in swimwear...though wiping out on a surfboard is another matter entirely. And will his staff act from The O.C. script - clearly, Mayor B would be Caleb Nichols.

" The issue for CBGB's is that their landlord, the Bowery Residents' Committee, wants to increase rent over 100%, from $19,000 to $41,000.

- College Humor takes on the Subway Scientologists... you know one day you'll see Tom Cruise there, peddling L. Ron's ware [via City Rag]

The first official Democratic candidate mayoral debate took place last night with all four candidates, including Congressman Anthony Weiner who had been passed a kidney stone earlier in the day. After that, we can only imagine the debate was a walk in the park! The NY Times has a transcript of the debate, but there's nothing like seeing City Council Speaker Gifford Miller get all pissy when asked if he would send his kids to public school (they attend private pre-K now). Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer tried to redirect criticism from himself to the Mayor, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields was the only candidate to eagerly say she wanted the Reverend Al Sharpton's endorsement, and Weiner came away with the best one-liners. All in the all, the debate was kind of boring, like the candidates themselves; the Observer's Ben Smith and Lizzy Ratner explain the problems with all the candiates, including Mayor B, in an article today called the "Aristo-Democrats," with the most frightening cartoon EVER.

Yesterday's building collapse at Broadway and 100th Street is believed to have been caused by the demolition company, which put a backhoe on the structure it was tearing down, causing stress and the building to buckle. The collapse occured at 9:23AM, and many residents and shop owners in the neighborhood rushed to help firefighters and police officers with rescue efforts. Five people (waiting for a bus, walking down the street) and five firefighters were injured, but no one was seriously hurt or killed. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the damage could have been a lot worse, and of course, some New Yorkers were utterly freaked out. Here's an alarmist quote from Raquel Gayle, who told the NY Times, "Boom, I saw rocks falling. I was petrified; I thought it was like London, with the terrorist attacks." Oh, dear.