It's no secret that Mike Lupica has scrawled his name and Ray Kelly's into a heart onto the ole' sycamore on the Daily News' playground, and today the columnist tells us all why Kelly would make such a fantastic mayor of New York City. "Some of the people polled say Kelly doesn’t know enough about issues beyond crime or terrorism," Lupica writes, "But there happens to be a good reason for that: Kelly has spent the last decade fighting crime and terrorism in his current job." So, that means we should give him a pass on the whole, "no other experience other than fighting crime or terrorism" thing? more ›

Speaking to his BFF Mike Lupica about the shooting of four police officers in Brooklyn on Sunday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly expressed frustration that illegal weapons like the ones used by the perpetrator in the incident continued to pour into the city. “These are the guns that are turning our city into a shooting gallery. We had three cops shot last year. This year we’ve had eight shot already, and it’s only Easter," Kelly said. "I’m tired of this!” more ›

According to Daily News sports columnist and political writer Mike Lupica, Attorney General and probable gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo hasn't become the state's top Democrat because of his hard work, but because he's "the last man standing." Since 2006, former Comptroller Alan Hevesi resigned after pleading guilty to fraud, Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after being outed in a prostitution scandal, and Gov. David Paterson has become embroiled in a ballooning ethics investigation. That leaves Cuomo at the top of the pile, which could turn out being enough to get him into higher office. "[N]obody is looking for white knights. Sometimes just being in the room 10 minutes longer than anybody else is enough." more ›

If Governor Paterson wasn't happy with the media's depiction of his job performance before a radio interview Friday connecting it to an "orchestrated" attack from the press related to race, he certainly can't be thrilled that he ended up inviting a whole new round of onslaught from voices throughout the state questioning his competence. more ›

The sorry state of the Mets isn't just a local issue at this point. Last night on The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien got in on the fun showing just how deep dysfunction runs within the organization right now. more ›

Andrea Peyser isn't the only tabloid columnist with a deep disdain for the new car-free sections of Broadway; Mike Lupica at the Daily News is now pouring out the Haterade with an article dismissing what he calls "Bloomberg Beach" as "Bloomberg's revenge." In his eyes, the whole thing is just Bloomberg's petulant way of bending New York's traffic patterns to his will after his congestion pricing plan got sandbagged by Albany. Which, yeah, Bloomberg's a little prince who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way, but Lupica's determined to toss the baby out with the bath water. more ›

A day after the NY Post served up a Thanksgiving day front page cover of Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas as a turkey, the embattled Thomas proclaimed he would stay in his job, saying, "I don't foresee there being any changes this year." Which the Post calls "LOAD OF BULL?" But really, if there's one thing that the Post and Daily News must have been thankful for, it's having such a spectacularly poorly managed... more ›

Governor Eliot Spitzer announced that he would ask the MTA to keep the base subway and bus fare at $2 yesterday morning, earning praise from elected officials and Mike Lupica, but it's hard for riders to truly weigh in, as the cost of unlimited Metrocards will probably be going up. About 85% of riders use the unlimited cards, and the director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, Bill Henderson, told the Post... more ›

Anucha Browne Sanders gets the cover treatment from the Post and Daily News after a jury believed that Knicks coach and president Isiah Thomas and that Madison Square Garden (the owner of the Knicks) were liable for sexual harassment. amNY, though, chose to put Isiah Thomas on its cover, with an inset of Knicks owner James Dolan, next to the headline "Rotten to the Court" - oh snap! more ›

Ah, to be a highly paid and gifted athlete with a purported affection for strippers. Either Yankees manager Joe is thrilled that the attention is on A-Rod or he's pissed that there's another reason to talk about the beleaguered team, but what's for sure is that Alex Rodriguez's off the playing field antics are tabloid gold. more ›

Hours after CBS decided to fire Don Imus yesterday afternoon for his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team, Imus, joined by his wife, and the basketball team and coach, joined by university officials and others, met at the NJ Governor's mansion . This afternoon, Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said :

We, the Rutgers University Scarlet Knight basketball team, accept -- accept -- Mr. Imus' apology, and we are in the process of forgiving. We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget.

During a press conference with reporters in Arizona, former Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson complained about the New York City media treatment he had to endure. Acknowledging that the media was a problem, Johnson said, "'Oooh, he's surly and all that'; well you're damn right. If you're going to use me as a floor mat there ... write your own stories and not come to get to know me, then I don't want to sit there and give you my time." Here's more from the Daily News:

"The thing I got ticked about the most," Johnson said, "is a lot of times in New York there were people who wrote (stuff) that never ever bothered to come in and introduce themselves. more ›

Antonio Davis is at home in Illinois serving his suspension for entering the stands Wednesday night. Yesterday he angrily refused calls to apologize and appealed his suspension while reasserting his original story that an intoxicated fan attacked his wife, Kendra. more ›

We hear Kansas City is quite nice, but since when is a move there an upgrade? All things considered, for Jets head coach Herman Edwards, it might be. Several sources are reporting that Edwards, the Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs were nearing a deal that will allow him to bolt with two seasons still remaining on his contract. He would replace his friend and onetime coach, Dick Vermeil. By all accounts, he'd be walking into a better scenario in KC, with better pay, less of a pressure-filled fishbowl and a team only a hair from being a force. Those aspects have worked out pretty well for Edwards' close friend Tony Dungy in Indianapolis. more ›

As the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and the NYC 2012 bid committee lick their wounds and the rest of the city breathes a sigh of relief, as after being dinged in the second round of Olympic voting for a 2012 site, the Mayor admits that the NYC bid "was a long shot," as the NY Times puts it. Mayor Bloomberg also called the bid "a unique opportunity" that helped NYC in many ways, from getting people to realize how wonderful the city is and to encourage development. Except for the West Side! And it seems that the West Side Stadium problems helped doom the NYC bid, though the implications that NYC's bid was about "power and money" and September 11 sympathies probably didn't help (London's bid emphasized bringing sports to youth, especially disadvantaged youth in the East End). The BBC, which has had great coverage, shows the vote tallies after each round, and NYC had a very low number of votes. Honestly, Gothamist never knew how much we cared about the NYC 2012 bid until we were rejected in the second round; we thought we could make it to the third round! Perhaps the Daily News' Mike Lupica sums things up best:

At least we will never again have to hear about how Dollar-a-Year Dan Doctoroff, the deputy mayor of New York City who should start moving toward the door now, sat at the Meadowlands in 1994 and watched a World Cup soccer game between Italy and Bulgaria and began dreaming of bringing the Olympics to New York.

Mayor Bloomberg is lucky that New York City has a ton of sports teams in the area, because now the Mets are part of the city's plan to win the 2012 Olympics, with a new Shea Stadium as the centerpiece of the plan. And Mets fans and Queens residents, don't worry: The Mayor is still lukewarm about your team and borough, saying, "This was not our first choice. But when you don't get your first choice, you find what you do have and fight harder to win with that one." Nice one, Bloomby, especially since you have to convince Queens residents and Mets fans to vote for you this fall. Anyway, the details: The Mets will pay for a new 45,000 seat Shea Stadium to be built for the 2009 baseball season, about $600 million, and the city and state will kick in $180 million in infrastructure support; if NYC wins the Olympics, the stadium will be temporarily expanded to be an Olympic stadium serving 80,000 people, with $250 million added to the pot (and old Shea will be an "auxillary" stadium, torn down after the games); and the Mets would play at the new Yankee Stadium if the Olympics come to town in 2012. And Sheldon Silver actually likes this plan. Wow, it's amazing that the Mayor and his aides didn't think of this before. Actually, even though Mike Lupica's panties are in a bunch, Gothamist can understand why Queens was not the first choice: Think tourism, hotels, and just the ability to get to Queens. Still, the Mayor said this was a great thing to happen to Queens and that "New Yorkers are not quitters." No indeed, especially the Mets. To be the underdogs next to the Yankees, to only get this deal after the Jets bow out, oy! more ›

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Yesterday, Bob Murphy, the longtime voice of the Mets passed away at the age of 79. Murphy was with the Mets since their inaugural season in 1962, missing only two years while he was in Baltimore, and retired last year after more than 6000 games with the organization. more ›

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The New York City Blackout Edition
The city's true grit showed during its literally darkest hours and Gothamist has the evidence.
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