While we huff and puff over whether term limits should stay at three or go back to two, Chicago got the shocking news that its mayor, Richard Daley, will step down next year. Daley, who was first elected in 1989, and his father have been mayor of Chicago for 42 of the past 55 years. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has expressed interest in the job, saying earlier this year, "I hope Mayor Daley seeks reelection. I will work and support him if he seeks reelection. But if Mayor Daley doesn't, one day I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago. That's always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives." more ›

Today, there's a fascinating Op-Ed by Robert Sullivan about the state of NYC streets. Titled, "The City That Never Walks," Sullivan describes how NYC has "lost [its] golden pedestrian touch."

...yet, here in New York, we even have the debate over bicycle traffic backwards. We focus on drivers’ complaints about the bicycle commuter who races through red lights, rather than on the concerns of the mother biking her child around organic-food delivery trucks that idle in bike-only lanes. In December, the police say, a bicyclist was killed on the Hudson River Greenway by a drunken driver speeding along a bike lane that was completely separated from the road. Asked what was being done to improve safety in light of the biker’s death, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that bikers “pay attention.” more ›

Robert Leuci, the undercover cop who exposed the corruption in police ranks and was the basis of the book, Prince of the City, is mentioned in the Times. The film, Prince of the City, was based on the Richard Daley book, and stars Treat Williams as the Leuci-type cop, but more importantly, it stars Jerry Orbach, Gothamist's favorite actor this side of Hugh Jackman. And J.K. Simmons. According to Amazon, Prince and the City is for Law & Order and Homicide addicts, which Gothamist definitely is. more ›