If you watch just one Community Board Meeting video this summer, make it this one. Willets Point property owners who've been passionately protesting Mayor Bloomberg's controversial $3 billion plan to rezone the area (to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices and retail stores) have put together this video showing how the sausage gets made over at Community Board 7. Their gripping featurette focuses in on a contentious committee meeting that yielded a yes......

Bronx Councilman Oliver Koppell has taken the next (baby) step towards repealing the city's term limit laws, promising to introduce a bill proposing to extend them within weeks. Previously the Council were waiting for Mayor Bloomberg to confirm he would sign such a bill into law. But Koppell is ready to take the lead in extending the eight-year limit to twelve; he tells City Room that limits “cut off people’s careers in politics, which makes......

The Mayor and City Council have been talking about maybe attempting to extend term limits, but both sides seem to be waiting for the other to make the first move. And that is frustrating other politicians who are running for office. City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., who is running for mayor next year, said, "It is time that the mayor clearly state his position and not continue this charade." And City Councilman John Liu said,......

At this point, the next chapter in the saga of whether Mayor Bloomberg and City Council will make a play to extend term limits is waiting to be written by whichever of the two parties will officially pull the trigger and begin the process. Yesterday on his weekly radio show, Bloomberg hinted again that he would sign a proposal to extend the current limits for both him and the Council themselves, but refused to commit......

Mayor Bloomberg is definitely interested in seeing if the CIty City Council can reverse term limits (or at least change them from two terms to three terms) but there may be many legal challenges ahead. The Sun reports NYPIRG would likely "join a fight against such a vote court," with NYPIRG senior attorney Gene Russianoff pointing out that voters approved term limits in both 1993 and 1996. (The same sentiment was echoed by former public......

Instead of courting New York City voters with a ballot initiative or City Council with legislature to overturn term limits, Mayor Bloomberg first pitched the idea to another group: the owners of the three largest newspapers in New York. In what sounds like a storyline from The West Wing, the NY Times reports that Bloomberg has had private discussions with Rupert Murdoch (NY Post), Mortimer Zuckerman (NY Daily News), and Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (NY Times)......

Mayor Mike sure likes to keep people guessing. Yesterday the mayor altered his position on any extension to the term limits law, saying that he would consider a change to the rule that will force him out of office next year if City Council were to send a bill his way. Less than a year ago, the mayor said he thought that the council should be stripped of its ability to extend term limits, which......

Photograph by DeeperSea on Flickr The reaction to Mayor Bloomberg's wind power plan, which proposes wind turbines off the shores and maybe even atop buildings and bridges, is decidedly mixed. In one corner, you have fans like Donald Trump--"It's something we should absolutely be looking at"--and former mayor Ed Koch--"I think it's ingenious. Absolutely ingenious." In the other corner, you have, oh, architects and engineers who think the plan, per the NY Times, "would......

Mayor Bloomberg took another step in introducing green ideas for New York City by announcing the city would start looking at off-shore windfarms. Or maybe those wind turbines could be a lot closer. From his speech at the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas:Perhaps companies will want to put windfarms atop our bridges and skyscrapers, or use the enormous potential of powerful off-shore winds miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, where turbines could generate roughly......

Photo of David Byrne, Mayor Bloomberg, and Creative Time's Anne Pasternak by Sam Horine. Mayor Mike looks like he was concentrating pretty hard on the David Byrne/Creative Time collaborative installation, Playing the Building, earlier today. Many city residents have come and played it before him, and you can tickle the ivories, too, up until August 24th. Creative Time tells us David Byrne, Mayor Bloomberg, Creative Time president Anne Pasternak, and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs......

Photo courtesy Atomische. Angry opponents to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to develop 62 acres of poorly-maintained land in Willets Point, Queens disrupted a press conference yesterday held by city officials in Washington Square Park to tout the proposal. Councilman Hiram Monserrate, whose district includes Willets Point, led over two dozen protesters to the press conference, where they drowned out advocates for the plan, chanting “Justice for Willets Point!” According to the Times, the police refused......

Photograph of Billy Joel and Mayor Bloomberg by Seth Wenig/AP Alongside Billy Joel and record exec Clive Davis, Mayor Bloomberg announced today that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will open its first annex in Soho. The 25,000 square-foot annex will open at 76 Mercer Street where for $26, music fans can see Bruce Springsteen's first car and the phone booth from CBGB's. Both were on display as Bloomberg made the announcement today.......

Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey has come out and said that he is opposed to a third term for Michael Bloomberg as mayor of New York. Sheekey is Bloomberg's top aide and no stranger to the mayor's political ambitions--he was the force behind laying the groundwork for Bloomberg's extended flirtation with a presidential bid earlier this year. Speculation was that Sheekey was also behind the talk that Bloomberg has been considering an attempt to repeal term......

The NY Times posted this map showing just how many big players in New York City politics will be forced out of office next year due to term limits and just where those leaving may end up next. With so many heading out, the Times says that "a record 166 people have declared for city office thus far." The biggest question surrounding those leaving of course is just what direction Mayor Bloomberg will head......

Mayor Bloomberg welcomed new Jets quarterback Brett Favre to New York City at a City Hall press conference yesterday. However, Bloomberg did not give Favre a key to the city--just a keychain, "You win a Super Bowl, and I will make sure you get a key to hang on your Transit Authority key ring." He did give Favre a Broadway sign--"Broadway Brett has a nice ring to it"--plus a $4 Metrocard, some Junior's Cheesecakes and......

What a different five years makes: The NY Times shares some interesting data on how Mayor Bloomberg has convinced low-earning New Yorkers he cares about them. The Times compares data between surveys in 2003, 2004, two in 2005, and 2008 and finds a growing trend that more people earning $30,000 or less believe Mayor Bloomberg "cares about the needs and problems of people like yourself." Back in 2003, only 25% felt like he cared "a......

At a press conference today Mayor Bloomberg showed a surprising command of Jay-Z's music. The pair were on hand to discuss the start of the vehicle-free "Summer Streets" program, per the Observer's Azi Paybarah someone noted how one of the hip-hop mogul's song "describes how his mother taught him to ride a bike at a young age." Bloomberg cut in, "This is from, 'Mother I Made It?'" surprising even Jay-Z, who confirmed the Mayor was......

Last night, Mayor Bloomberg held a reception for Senator Hillary Clinton at Gracie Mansion. He emphasized that he wasn't going to help her relieve campaign debt, saying he wasn't asked for money and added, "Hillary Clinton has been a very good, hard-working senator. I’ve said that every time that I’ve been asked for the last half-a-dozen years. Every time I’ve ever called her she returns the call virtually instantly. And she has worked very hard......

Mayor Bloomberg has been learning Spanish since becoming Mayor, and the NY Times observed one of his lessons with tutor Luis Cardozo. Cardozo had been a lawyer in Colombia, but in NYC (he immigrated in 1999 to flee the violence), he runs a language school. The lessons are casual conversations, with Mayor Bloomberg driving the discussion and Cardozo gently correcting the mayor. The Mayor hopes to be fluent by next year. And back in 2005,......

After word that the MTA will raise fares in 2009 and 2011 due to huge financial shortfalls, many people called for the MTA to be privatized. And with Governor Paterson suggesting that maybe some public properties should be sold because of NY State's budget crisis, perhaps that idea is not too far off. However, Mayor Bloomberg weighed in against the idea of selling the MTA, saying, "It will not save you, necessarily, a lot of......

These two men might have been happy to see each other, but Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg aren't so thrilled about the economy. They were at the State Financial Control Board meeting yesterday, where Bloomberg noted that Wall Street firms "posted $22.8 billion in losses" during the first quarter of 2008. City Comptroller William Thompson also pointed out that, per the Sun, "weak tax revenues and overtime costs will create a $68 million......

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......

Mayor Bloomberg kept himself in the middle of national political scene by speaking at an Independent Party fund raising breakfast in Minnesota. While he was expected to tout John McCain a little, Bloomberg had spent equal time praising both McCain and Barack Obama to the Independents, noting the candidates' willingness to buck party lines. Once considered to be on the short list as a potential running mate for both candidates, the mayor has refused to......

That Mayor Bloomberg! One moment, he's trying to stop the world from smoking. The next, he's talking about presidential candidates. ABC News' Political Radar reports Bloomberg will "talk up" Republican presidential contender John McCain when he addresses the Independence Party of Minnesota tomorrow. Apparently he will "praise McCain's record of bucking his own party while stopping short of making an endorsement." (Earlier this week, he also said McCain's free trade record was better than Barack......

In a blockbuster show of billionaires believing in public health, Bill Gates and Mayor Bloomberg will spend $500 million on anti-smoking initiatives around the world. Five million people die from tobacco-related illnesses each year. Mayor Bloomberg, a former smoker who has helped implement a smoking ban in NYC's restaurants and bars in 2003. The $500 million number comes from the $125 million he gave to the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use in 2005, his......

Like Governor Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg expressed his dismay over the MTA's plans to raise subway and bus fares next year. He gave his usual spirited (and sort of annoyed) thoughts to reporters yesterday, and the Observer's Azi Paybarah took this video, that includes Bloomberg's proclamations the city can't afford to give the MTA any money (the city gives the state $12 billion each year and doesn't get much in return) and that the MTA......

The Post says former mayor Rudy Giuliani is "launching a new fund-raising committee to dole out cash to New York GOP candidates." Which might open the door for him to run for governor in 2010. Sure, there have been Governor Giuliani rumors since Spitzer's resignation and the main purpose of the new committee is raise money to retain Republican control of the Senate. However, some also believe the committee could help "rebuild his political clout......

When questioned about troubled investment brokerage Merrill Lynch deciding not to move to Ground Zero (characterized as a "major setback" for development by the NY Times), Mayor Bloomberg struck an optimistic tone, "The properties that [developer Larry] Silverstein is building are very attractive. He can rent them at lower rents than midtown. He will have to do that to attract business." He added, "I'm assuming - I don't know for sure - their [Merrill's] current......

Yesterday, it was reported that Mayor Michael Bloomberg would buy back 20% of his company, Bloomberg L.P., from Merrill Lynch for $4.5 billion. That figure finally gave the media more of an idea of his wealth. Forbes had estimated Bloomberg's wealth in the neighborhood of $5.2 billion, but now that he'll own closer to 80-90% of Bloomberg L.P, the number is at least ten billion more. The Sun suggests it's "about $20 billion", while the......

New poll numbers from Quinnipiac University show the city likes Mike, as he has a 71% approval rating (back in 2003, he had 31%!). The Sun reports 56% of respondents don't want term limits to be overturned (allowing Bloomberg to run), but Bloomberg's name topped the list of who NYers would want to see as mayor--followed by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz, Representative Anthony Weiner and, tying for the fifth position, City......