New York business leaders have been scrambling recently to find a mayoral candidate for 2009 who would be as business-friendly as billionaire Michael Bloomberg has for the last seven years. Today the NY Post reports that they may have found their man for '09: Mayor Bloomberg. The city term-limits law, which was created in 1993 and currently restricts elected officials to eight years in office, can be changed through City Council legislation, a charter referendum......

Fleet Week is upon us, but it's smaller (that's what she said!) than past year's events because nuclear-powered craft is not allowed in the harbor. Therefore, many of the Navy's newer aircraft carriers aren't here. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said, "I would love to have big ships and I personally don't see any risk," and suggested the 1990 policy of barring nuclear-powered of nuclear-armed ships should be reconsidered, "I think the understanding of nuclear technology and......

As Senator Hillary Clinton ignores calls to drop out and gets ready for a likely West Virginia primary victory, Politico's Ben Smith reveals one funny suggestion from a NYC politician: Clinton should run for mayor in 2009. The politician's reasoning is that though it's not being leader of freed world, "it's a big executive job, comes with a media spotlight and a mansion." Smith asked Koch for a comment (Koch yelled at Smith for "wasting......

Photograph of former mayor Ed Koch receiving a blessing from the Reverend Al Sharpton by Tim Roske/AP Yesterday Governor David Paterson proclaimed "We're going to work together." And one good example of the high feeling of unity at Paterson's swearing-in was former mayor Ed Koch and the Reverend Al Sharpton's exchange. Sharpton gave Koch a blessing and laughingly told the NY Times, "I was praying for his sins. Times heal some of the emotions.......

Frank Bruni, the Times’s top restaurant critic, awards the new 2nd Avenue Deli one star today, which isn’t bad considering it is, despite all the history, still a deli. We popped in there for food and photos just before it reopened at its East 33rd Street location and found the sandwiches (pictured) as monumental as ever; a second visit turned up no sign of the free bowl of gribenes (chicken skin fried in chicken fat)......

Photograph of a Giants fan in Times Square by Johnia! on Flickr After the stunning Giants' Super Bowl win, people cheered like they hadn't seen a Super Bowl victory in 17 years! Throughout the city, folks were stumbling onto streets, chanting the names of players and even getting arrested. A thousand people flooded Times Square, reportedly jumping on cars and sitting on top of phone kiosks, but the Post says no one was arrested.......

Rudy Giuliani's poor showing in the presidential campaign has plenty of people giving their opinions on why it all went wrong. Bronx residents gave the NY Times an earful about the former mayor ("I was waiting for this moment — he stinks...Giuliani was always for himself, never for the people.") while the Daily News reported on the "hick" comments of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who said, "The New York lifestyle hasn't gone over [in]......

The City Council voted 40-3 to end the tax breaks Madison Square Garden has enjoyed since 1982. It's estimated that the city has lost almost $300 million in potential revenue in subsidies to the "World's Most Famous Arena." Although the City Council wants the tax breaks to end (our favorite quote is from Councilman Lew Fidler: "I have spent my entire life as as Knicks fan, and I doubt if there's anyone who loves the......

Governor Spitzer may have identified himself as a steamroller in his attempts to accomplish certain executive tasks, but he's got nothing on the former federal prosecutor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. The NY Times has a colorful profile of the the former Mayor as a man who used his offices as bludgeons, crushing anyone who crossed him. When a chauffeur called into the Mayor's weekly radio show in 1997, saying that the cops had established......

The Jews of New York (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WLIW; Thursday, 9:00 p.m., Thirteen) Ed Koch, Russ & Daughters Appetizers, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the creative team behind Fiddler on the Roof are profiled in this one hour overview of the history and impact of the Jewish community in New York. The show has some great New York City history content, although it seemed like it should have been a bit longer so they could get......

Mayor Bloomberg continued his whirlwind tour through Asia yesterday with a stop in Bali, Indonesia to talk to United Nations officials about the global effects of climate change. This is after a foray to China, that brought to mind Ed Koch's Beijing inspiration for bike paths in NYC to The New York Times' Clyde Haberman. Like NYC, Bali was the victim of a devastating terrorist attack that killed and injured hundreds of people. True......

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in......

"Sleight of hand," "litany of needless fights," "ugly racial polarization" - just some of the phrases in this week's New York magazine's cover story about Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor turned presidential candidate. Chris Smith's article serves as both refresher to New Yorkers about Giuliani's reign as mayor with some fun tidbits (did you realize that then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik commissioned 30 miniature busts of himself?) as well as a cautionary tale to non-New Yorkers.......

Rudy Giuliani told the American public, via a sit-down with Katie Couric, that the story pointing out expenses for trips to the Hamptons - to see then-mistress Judi Nathan - were billed across a number of obscure city agencies was a "typical political hit job" and a "debate day dirty trick." He even called it a "false story," but Politco, the website that broke the story, pointed out neither Giuilani or his aides "have questioned......

Couples planning their weddings and receptions often face a dilemma with their guest lists. With relatives to consider and budgets to stay within, some send invitations to single friends without a plus one. The NY Times spoke to a few people about the single invite. Some understand that given per-head costs of $200, some guests' feathers will be ruffled. But one single woman says, "if Ms. Bridezilla who is so not a virgin but still......

Brooke Astor's funeral was held yesterday afternoon in midtown Manhattan, at Saint Thomas Church on 5th Ave. and 53rd St. The lineage and personal generosity of Mrs. Astor and the array of famous attendees at her funeral made it a widely covered news event. The New York Times reported that officiants at the funeral requested that all cell phones be turned off at the beginning of the service, although a Gawker correspondent pointed out......

Taking the offensive, Governor Eliot Spitzer said high and low that he's "happy to, going to, look forward to" testify to the State Ethics Commission's investigation, should they want his testimony. The Subdued Steamroller said, "If they call me, I'd love to, and even if they don't, I'd love to send them my statement just because this needs to be clarified and made perfectly clear." Is he taking Ed Koch's advice? But State Senate Majority......

Thirty years ago tonight, New York City lost electricity when a Con Ed substation was hit by lightning strikes and a "cascading effect" caused the system to shut down around 9PM. And NYC, as well as parts of Westchester County, were powerless for over a day in the sweltering heart of the summer. Subways were stuck, mobs set fires and stores were looted. It was also the summer that other dramas gripped the city......

In October 1977, Howard Cosell leaned into his announcer's microphone and intoned to the worldwide audience watching the World Series, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning." He was reporting yet another burning building marring the NYC skyline from his vantage point at Yankee Stadium. His line would eventually become the partial title of a superb book written by Jonathan Mahler: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle......

A Bill Cosby cartoon, Adidas sneakers and even mayor Ed Koch figured into the trial of Laura Albert, aka the author who created the literary sensation JT Leroy. Albert is being sued by a film production company; Antidote Films paid JT Leroy $45,000 for one of his novels, but now the company says that the contract is void because JT Leroy doesn't exist. Last week, Albert's mother gave wrenching testimony that mentioned hospitalizing her daughter......

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,......

A who's who of the Democratic party has been at the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network conference in Midtown this past week. Opening day saw hopeful John Edwards and Democratic party chair Howard Dean, yesterday included former president Bill Clinton, Senator Joe Biden, Senator Christopher Dodd, and Governor Bill Richardson, today has Senator Hillary Clinton and tomorrow Senator Barack Obama and Representative Dennis Kucinich are appearing - which is why it's called the "Sharpton......

That look on the faces of former Mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch comes "Listening to President Bush Speak." The President is in NYC today, speaking at Federal Hall downtown, giving a "State of the Economy" speech, and you can read about it here at the White House website. We'll update later with more of his specific remarks. President Bush is also scheduled to meet with Ceasar Borja, whose police officer father died last......

Carlos Lezama, who founded the West Indian Carnival Parade in Brooklyn back in the 1960s, died yesterday at Kings County Hospital at 83. Lezama was born in Trinidad and had participated in the West Indian Carnival in Harlem when he immigrated to the United States. Then Lezama, along with friend Rufus Goring, brought the parade to Brooklyn. The parade has evolved from a five block affair to being the city's biggest parade. The vibrant gathering,......

Ooh, the NY Times reports that Senator Hillary Clinton had lunch with former Senator Al D'Amato and former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday at the Four Seasons, which Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini likened to "the Second Coming of Christ." And how, as D'Amato is a notable Republican power player. Apparently the trio have lunch at least once a year, and Clinton picked up this meal's check. D'Amato and Koch told the Times' Patrick Healy......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential machinations are getting more serious. He's planning a $2,100 per ticket fundraiser at the Marriott Marquis on December 19 and he's hired Dubya's CFO from his 2004 campaign. Sandra Pack was Bush's treasury director in 2000 and had been working as an assistant secretary in the Treasury Department. The Daily News reports, "Experts surmised that a veteran like Pack would never give up a steady job and dedicate herself to......

The poor Intrepid. Months of planning (not to mention $250,000) were put into planning yesterday's move from Pier 86 on the West Side of Manhattan to Bayonne, NJ, where the aircraft carrier would be repaired and repainted. Former Navy officers who originally served on the Intrepid, as well as Senator Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Ed Koch and David Dinkins, were invited for the farewell ceremony. But the Intrepid only moved 15 feet before......

Ooh - the Daily News reports that the Intrepid is auctioning off a special day for six guests to be on the aircraft carrier when it leaves its Manhattan dock and goes somewhere (more on that later) on November 6. It's a crazy trip that includes breakfast with Senator Clinton, former mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins and other dignitaries and taking a helicopter ride off the deck when it passes the Statue of......

In The Forward, Ed Koch and Rafael Medoff have an article, Will Mel Gibson Get Away With His Antisemitic Tirade? And it's like a greatest hits of famous figures (mostly political) getting their slur on. For instance: - Jesse Jackson called New York City "Hymietown" - James Baker saying, "F— the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway." - Marge Schott's Hitler love and her remarks about blacks - Maybe everything Pat Buchanan has said......

That City Councilman Peter Vallone! Back in 2003, he proposd a bill to study NYC's secession from NY State. But nothing happened. And nothing happened in 2004 (he didn't reintroduce it in 2005, maybe he had graffiti to fight), but no matter, the Queens councilman reintroduced the bill last week. And at the core, the idea of secession makes emotional sense, as the city shoulders a lot of the NY State tax burden (look at......