extend term limits to three. Second, she wouldn't run, "If term limits are extended to 12 years from 8 years, no, I would not run for mayor." As for other mentioned 2009 hopefuls, City Comptroller Bill Thompson's campaign is still "moving forward" and Representative Anthony Weiner, who narrowly lost the 2005 Democratic primary to Freddy Ferrer, is still interested in running and said there should be a special election for term limits. more ›

Take a good, long look New York: You could be staring into the squinty eyes of your future mayor. (Yes, the white dude on the right.) Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who describes himself as “somewhat comical” [emphasis added] is on the verge of announcing his candidacy for mayor. Fuhgeddaboutit? more ›

Thought Governor Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hilary Clinton appeared at a press conference to discuss health coverage of New York children, they had to answer questions about campaign donations they accepted from fugitive apparel executive Norman Hsu. Clinton received $23,000 from Hsu and announced that she would donate the money to charity after revelations that Hsu has been wanted in California for defrauding California investors since 1991. Hsu has fled to Hong Kong but has been living in New York as a high-profile donor since 2003. Guess when those cases grow cold, they stay cold. more ›

Because September 8, 2009 is 776 days away, let's talk the 2009 mayoral race. more ›

After reviewing a number of bids, the National Park Service ended Circle Line's contract to provide ferry service between lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The new ferry service provider will be Hornblower Yachts of California, which offers service between San Francisco and Alcatraz. Hornblower: Taking you to Liberty and lock-up. more ›

Representative Anthony Weiner, he of 2009 mayoral ambitions, wants to introduce legislation to ban helicopters flying over Manhattan. While the bill would allow "police, medical and other authorized helicopter traffic" (probably news choppers), Weiner said, "We are taking a common-sense step to make New York safer" by restricting all other helicopters to fly over water only. He also said, "I am concerned about helicopters flying over a densely populated city. I think it's dangerous, and I think it poses a threat." more ›

New York City could be considered the Big Green Apple for the rest of the week. Bill Clinton and Mayor Bloomberg are hosting an international climate summit this week, beginning today and running through Thursday. And as part of other environmentally friendly festivities, Matt Dillon was on hand for the issuance of a challenge from Yahoo! to see which U.S. city was the most green. more ›

- Affordable rent and health insurance are big challenges for the middle class

Representative Anthony Weiner released a report, along with City Councilman Michael McMahon of Staten Island, that shows the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost NYC taxpayers over $57 million. How? Weiner's press release explains what many people probably don't realize:

Typically, when city employees are called up for active duty, they forfeit their regular paychecks, and take their new paychecks from the military. Under most circumstances, this amounts to taking a pay cut. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An unusual odor in the Bronx, two pedestrians struck (one in Manhattan, a fatal one in the Bronx), and three alarm fire at a tire yard in Brooklyn
• The Department of Education will reinstate 17 bus routes, finally realizing that giving 5-year-olds MetroCards is a very mean lesson
• We're so with East Village Idiot on this one:
• Weird: In a story about the doctor who police believe was attacked in his Upper East Side triplex, a neighbor tells the Daily News, "There was a suspicious guy who came a few times in the last six months. I told the police about him. They told me not to speak about it."
• New and expecting parents: ModernTots in Dumbo is having a sample sale this weekend!
• Busta Rhymes was busted for driving without his license in TriBeCa; he told the cops, "You hide behind the shield. This is bulls---." Then he told the judge he thought the cops were robbers in disguise.
• Representative Anthony Weiner may run for Mayor in 2009; so far, other suspects include City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Comptroller William Thompson
• And if you're planning ahead, this Sunday is Chinatown's Chinese New Year Parade
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It's not surprising news, but it's a reminder why people don't live in New York City. A report from the Independent Budget Office showed that New York City has the biggest tax burden than eight other big cities. In fact, NYC's tax burden is practically 50% higher than the average of cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego. (We don't know where San Francisco, Boston, or Seattle were during this survey.) For every $100, New York City's state and local taxes "absorbed" $9.02, while other cities average $6.16. more ›

Last month, Representative Anthony Weiner released a report showing that 85% of registered sex offenders live within 5 blocks of NYC schools (here's a PDF of the report). Included in the report was a map illustrating this point; the report says, "Cartographers at the Library of Congress have plotted the location of every school and every sex offender in New York City on a map. Every sex offender is represented by a red dot, every school is a blue building on the following page." more ›

• A cop killer Ronell Wilson goes through his penalty phase, we're learning a lot about him like how he sucked his thumb at 15 and how a kid he robbed 10 years ago (he stole his calculator and bus pass) is doing fine these days.
• Elmhurst residents will not only get new green parkland from a lot where gas tanks are - that boulder from Fort Greene will be added there too!
• A funeral was held for police officer Cesar Borja, who died of a pulmonary illness many believe was caused by working 16 hour shifts at Ground Zero.

After a 13 year old Queens boy running across LIRR tracks was killed by a train, there had been much criticism about the poor state of the fences that surround the tracks. Yesterday, the MTA announced it would try to address track access issues. The MTA will survey tracks and try to "fix the most glaring deficiencies in a system requiring nearly 3,000 miles of fencing to secure," according to Newsday. MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander said, "Unfortunately we can't fence the entire system. It's a massive system. But we're going to be looking for those places that are most sensitive in a way we have not done before." more ›

The Intrepid Air & Space Museum will be moved from its Manhattan pier to Bayonne for repair work tomorrow. Well, it'll head to Jersey if it can even move. The Daily News reports that even though more than "16,000 cubic yards of mud have been dredged from the Hudson and 500 tons of water released from the ballast tanks to lift the ship just 2 feet off the Hudson floor," one part of the aircraft carrier is still stuck in silt. more ›

-- Super-cute: "For school, I wear a uniform. Sometimes people think I’m, like, 40, but I’m 6." more ›

The race for 2009 mayoral is on: The Post reports that City Comptroller William Thompson is holding a big fundraiser on November 15. He apparently already has $2 million on hand, but the "New Yorkers for Thompson" fundraiser at the Waldorf-Astoria won't hurt. Thompson wisely sat out the 2005 election, because it was hard for any Democratic challenger to go up against the Mayor's pretty good record and money (he spent $77.8 million for last year's election!). At this point, we imagine that the other 2009 candidates include Representative Anthony Weiner, who made a compelling showing the Democratic primary, and that the BIG issues will be affordable housing. But by 2009, will the economy and housing market have cooled down? Ah, the fun in store for political forecasters. more ›

Thousands of people (WNBC says 500,000!) lined Fifth Avenue and Greenwich Village streets to enjoy this year's Gay Pride Parade, in spite of a bit of rain. In fact, one performer on the "Carnival in Rio" float told the NY Times, "Today is our day. The rain won't stop us. Mother Nature is a drag queen." One of the stars of the parade was Kevin Aviance, the drag queen who was brutally beaten by some teens in the East Village. A parade parade spectator deemed Aviance, who was wearing red high heels, silver shorts, a white jacket, and sparkly silver top hat, "fabulous." more ›

- $36,200 to block terrorists from raising money in Kentucky bingo halls.If NYC set up more bingo halls... more ›

- With City Council Speaker's firing of 60 council staffers, the comments thread at The Politicker got very interesting more ›

When Gothamist wants fluff pieces in the papers, we prefer them to involve food. So we greeted the Daily News' awesome political fluff piece with glee, as it detailed what kinds of ice creams the mayoral hopefuls like - if you can't be bothered to study the issues, then vote for the candidate whose cold dessert treat views align yours! Mayor Bloomberg like lemon ices from the Lemon Ice King of Corona, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller favors banana (B-A-N-A-N-A) ice cream from Emack and Bolio's, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields enjoys Haagen-Dazs rum raisin, former Bronx Beep Fernando Ferrer crosses boroughs for Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory's French Vanilla and Queens GOPster Thomas Ognibene loves butter pecan from his borough's Eddie's Sweet Shop. But the best explanation came from Representative Anthony Weiner:

Representative Anthony Weiner of Brooklyn frequents Uncle Louie G when he's in the mood for ice cream (the chain has multiple locations in the city), and he always gets mint chocolate chip. Weiner has warm childhood memories of eating the frosty stuff. more ›

The hits keep coming for former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer: City Councilman Charles Barrons says Ferrer should get out of the mayoral race and support Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia's Field mayoral bid. Barron says Ferrer is "free-falling and it's not going to stop." For his part, Ferrer says he has a right to run. And, Gothamist would imagine, a right to lose. But things aren't that cheery for Ferrer, not to mention the other Democratic challengers. There's a NY Times article about NYC Democrats hoping for a stronger candidate to emerge from somewhere else (Al Sharpton! Bill Clinton!), followed by an item on how mustaches aren't taken very seriously:

Indeed, in some political circles, Mr. Ferrer is being compared to Groucho Marx and some consultants are saying that the real lessons that he should absorb from the recent win of the clean-shaven Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles are his grooming habits.

Even though the four main Democratic mayoral hopefuls debated yesterday, the election big news is how Mayor Bloomberg has spent $10 million so far in his re-election campaign. A 10-day ad blitz will begin midweek, and the NY Times reports that the ads will "stress 9/11 and leadership." However, the "mindboggling" thing is millions have been spent to get demographic and psychographic information from a polling firm to delve into the pysches of New Yorkers. The Mayor's opponents had various comments about the Mayor being able to spend like a maniac since he's not privy to campaign finance laws, such as how he's buying the election, he must not be confident if he has to spend so much, that he's totally out of touch with the constituency; the Democratic hopefuls have, at most, raised $500,000 in the past two months while the Mayor put over $6 million into his campaign in the same period. Giving his positive approval numbers these days, we expect the Mayor to attempt to say the course as the frontrunner, with his staff emphasizing though the Mayor is rich, he still rides the subway! more ›

During yesterday's Crain's New York sponsored forum, mayoral candidates tried to stake out their positions in the crowded field people who just wanna beat Mayor Mike. To summarize: Representative Anthony Weiner attacked former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer's plan to tax stock transactions; Ferrer attacked the Mayor's rehaul of the school system; City Council Speaker Gifford Miller talked about transit issues; Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields spoke about education and community-police relations. And all candidates attacked Wal-Mart's intentions to move into NYC. Yeah, it's sadly still sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher. The NY Times' also notes that Fields and Ferrer's jabs show that their "non-aggression pact" has fallen to the wayside, which makes sense for Fields, since she probably wants to try to beat Ferrer. In the next month, Gothamist hopes someone will step up. more ›

Yesterday, the seven mayoral candidates for Mayor converged in Queens to speak at the Northeast Queens Jewish Community Council. Mayor Bloomberg left after giving opening remarks, giving some of the other attendees (Democrats Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Representative Anthony Weiner; Republicans investment banker Scott Shaw and Thomas Ognibene of Queens) opportunity to slam him. Weiner ragged on how Bloomberg was there for such a short period (Bloomberg says he had other activities; this ">Post picture proves he needed to be in a Greek parade with some youngin's) while others sounded the usual things against him: The West Side Stadium, education reform that hasn't quite jelled, being a billionaire, bad housing policy, and being Manhattan-centric. more ›

And the NY Times looks at the campaign of Fields, and the state of women in NYC politics. Gothamist would like to know where the heck is Fields' campaign website - all we can find is her website as Manhattan Borough President.
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Mayor Bloomberg happened to endorse Senator Schumer's reelection this past November. more ›