The New York Times takes a look at Rafael Martínez Alequin, who is the publisher of a small independent newspaper and recent evictee from the Blue Room, the room where press conferences are held in City Hall. According to the Times, Martinez Alequin has been antagonizing public officials for years with his questions: Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani once called him a “jerk” and an “embarrassment,” and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller asked him in 2005,......

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: Nixzmary Brown and the Problem with the Administration for......

A business card may be a reminder for others about how to contact you, but when you're a City Council staffer, watch out! According to the Daily News, back in 2004, when he was deputy chief of staff to City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Michael Nieves gave his card with "his cell phone number and the name and city phone number of another Council employee" to a tenant that a landlord had a dispute with.......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continued to show how different she is from former Speaker Gifford Miller by backing part of the Mayor's garbage plan. The plan includes creating a recycling plant at pier 52 (near Gansevoort - and right in Hudson River Park, where the trucks are parked), converting the recycling plant at 59th Street and Hudson into a commercial waster station, and then putting a residential waste station at East 91st and the......

It was the Democratic mayoral hopefuls' second-to-last-debate-gasp to get in some good punches, but it was actually kind of boring because the answers were 25 seconds. Former Bronx Borough President and frontrunner Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Congressman Anthony Weiner mainly tried to attack the Mayor whose popularity with Democrats is confounding their campaigns. And with Hurricane Katrina very much the top story of the news,......

The NYC public schools start this week and the Daily News looks at how they need to open smoothly in order for Mayor Bloomberg to prove that he's fixing the school system. There are 73 new small schools opening, but teachers have been without a contract for 2 years. Columbia professor Jeff Henig says, "You can put your money on the fact that the Democrats will have their antennae up," as in, if anything......

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......

Gothamist loves stories about the eating habits of political candidates, because even if we disagree about the issues, at least we know we all like food. But the NY Times published a somewhat controversial story over the weekend about Mayor Bloomberg's new election year diet. He has cut out the following: Wine; bacon and eggs (or is he trying to woo more Orthodox Jewish votes?); saltines with cream cheese and salt; and his "favorite lunchtime......

Recent news on our favorite local reality show, The Race for City Hall: - The NY Times thinks Fernando Ferrer's new ad campaign effectively "tell his life story and hit his main campaign themes." Basically, Ferrer is a man of the people, having worked his way through school, and is committed to making the lives of New Yorkers (notably whites, black and Latinos, as seen in the ads). The ads apparently feature photographs of him......

Democratic front runner and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer will start his advertising campaign tomorrow, according to the NY Times. This would make Ferrer the first of the Democratic hopefuls to compete with TV and radio, with what his campaign calls a "substantial" ad buy while his rivals' campaigns say the ad buy is "modest" (tens of thousands of dollars). Well, everything is modest compared to what Mayor Bloomberg is spending! But the Daily......

The MTA's newfound riches of $833 million (from unexpected tax revenues) met a chorus of different ideas, from no fare hike in 2007, more security, improving reliability. The Daily News say Mayor Bloomberg would like the MTA not to hike fares in 2007, however Newsday says that City Council Speaker Gifford Miller explicitly said 2007 fare hikes should be avoided and Mayor Bloomberg "stopped short" of saying the MTA shouldn't raise 2007 fares. Okay, we......

The housing rights group Housing Here and Now just announced a list of the city's top ten worst landlords, as well as the corresponding website, NYC's Worst Landlords. You can read a PDF of the report which details how the apartments are rife with vermin, building problems, and more, as well as let Housing Here and Now know if your landlord is a slumlord. While many people have landlord horror stories, the ones in the......

Last night, Gothamist headed to the mayoral forum held by Parks 1, the non-profit that is working to make NYC's parks the number one in the nation by trying to get the city goverment to commit 1% of the city's budget to the parks. (You can sign the pledge here.) Four of the potential candidates appeared: Former Bronx Borough President Ferando Ferrer, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, and former......

The nomination of Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court has struck a sour note with New Yorkers who are not David Brooks, especially New York politicians in search of female voters. Mayor Bloomberg received an endorsement from Naral Pro-Choice in New York. Bloomberg, who has consistently been pro-choice, in spite of his inconsistent political party sides, even made remarks saying that he'd only support Roberts if Roberts didn't overturn Roe v. Wade. Bloomberg's......

Just a few days after agreeing with the Mayor on a budget, the City Council will work on their own budget. And the speculation is that because some City Council members essentially voted against City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who was attempting to stop the Mayor's trash plan, Speaker Miller will give them the cold budget shoulder. One City Council member, Tony Avella, tells Newsday, "I had heard that Miller was threatening members if they......

Much to the delight of gay and straight New Yorkers, yesterday's steamy weather meant that there was more reason for marchers in the Gay Pride Parade to go shirtless. If you were downtown, everywhere people would turn there was bound to be a fairly naked, glistening body. New Yorkers enjoyed themselves, and some noted how the parade has become "mainstreamed." The parade was started as to mark the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and some who......

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......

As the Mayor vetoed the City Council's rejection of his trash plan, Gothamist is getting excited because when the political garbage flies, it's gold. City Council Speaker Gifford Miller is at the frontline of the City Council's disdain for the plan, since one of the proposed waste transfer stations is in his district on East 91st in Manhattan. Miller's staff accuse the Mayor of stonewalling, versus really wanting to negotiate, while the Mayor is accusing......

It's not the best week for Mayor Bloomberg. His West Side stadium gets poo-pooed, and now the City Council doesn't like his plan for trash! The City Council, led by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, voted against the mayor's trash plan. The Bloomberg administration's plan was to ship the city's garbage via barges, in order to cut sanitation truck traffic, by creating/renovating marine transfer stations in the city. One was in Miller's Upper East......

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 got good news and bad news from the City Council yesterday. Good news: The City Council approved the city's plan to revelop Brooklyn's Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront. The one lone opposing vote came from Councilman Charles Barron, who said, "There has to be a day in this City Council where we don't settle for less than 50 percent affordable housing" - the current plan has a provision requiring new apartment buildings to have one-third affordable......

With the election two hundred days away (or just about that, depending on how you count), the mayoral race is starting to get into get kicked into high gear. Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone of Queens endorsed City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. NY1 points out the scary thing about the Vallone-Miller connection, aside from both having Speaker experience: "Miller finds himself in a similar position as Vallone did four years ago. In 2001, Vallone......

The big news rocking the world of Democratic mayoral hopefuls is that Reverend Al Sharpton won't endorse a candidate this year. In other words, the Reverend Al is just like Gothamist and many other voters: Wondering if there are any strong messages in the Democratic candidates. He noted that this will be the first time in 20 years he will not be involved in a Democratic primary, but, of course, Sharpton did leave himself an......

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......

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......

Some notes about various candidates vying to be Hizzoner (or could we someday get Herroner?): - Mayor Bloomberg's reelection staff sought advice from a range of influencers and politicians on how to shed the mayor's billionaire image. It seems the number one thing to do is remind people he wasn't born a billionaire, he just worked his way to that. Both former Mayor Ed Koch and former Representative Herman Badillo say that the mayor......

Democratic mayoral hopefuls will be doing their a Q&A at Hunter College this Wednesday, except for front runner Fernando Ferrer. According to the NY Post, who spoke to the head of a Hunter students' government group, Ferrer seemed "very, very concerned and then extremely reluctant to participate." City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Representative Anthony Weiner, and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields will all be attending. The head of the student group added, "There are......

An interesting look at Mayor Bloomberg's New York Region > Higher Costs Could Upset Trash Plan Mayor Favors" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/nyregion/25sanit.html">struggles with developing a good waste plan in the NY Times. One of the main complaints about the current waste plan is that the streets are congested with trucks carrying garbage. The Mayor would like garbage to be carried by barge and train, and wants to reopen certainly garbage transfer stations, but his proposed plan seems......

While the Mayor and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller may seem similar - they are white...they live on the Upper East Side...uh... - they actually aren't, and the NY Times examined their extremely political spitting match. Gothamist liked how Mayor Bloomberg views Miller as unaccomplished and unambitious, because next to him, who can be (this does not bode well for prospective suitors for Emma and Georgina), but there was another quote that got us thinking:City......

Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx Borough President and Democratic frontrunner for the mayoral race, has raised $3.1 million so far, which prompted his aides to tell the media that Ferrer is a "force." While City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has already raised the $5.7 million allowed by campaign finance law (candidates get $4 for every $1 they raise) for the primary, it seems like Ferrer will definitely be able to raise that much. Of course,......