Linda Gibbs

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Shaquille O'Neil appeared together at P.S. 189 in Manhattan this morning to talk about improving nutrition for students.

As the big man and the little man stood side-by-side for a photo op, the mayor's spokesman, Stu Loeser, noticed the smirking reporters and jokingly told them to "shut up, shut up, shut up."

Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs told Loeser not to say "shut up" in front of the audience of elementary school kids. "You're right," he answered.

Twenty-three percent of New York City residents live in poverty, according to a new formula unveiled by Michael Bloomberg yesterday, which he says is more accurate than the one used by the federal government, which puts the poverty number for the city at 18.9 percent.

Bloomberg's new formula is based on recommendations made in 1995 by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) but never put into place. Bloomberg was scheduled to announce the new formula during a speech at the 99th annual NAACP Convention in Cincinnati, where John McCain and Barack Obama will speak later in the week, but due to storm conditions in New York City, Bloomberg's plane was not allowed to depart in time and a speech was delivered instead by deputy mayor for health and human services Linda Gibbs.  read more »

New York City is about to get a new "homeless czar."

The Bloomberg administration has just announced that it has tapped Robert Hess, Deputy Managing director of Philly's Department of Adult Services, to replace Linda Gibbs as commissioner of New York City's Department of Homeless Services. Ms. Gibbs was recently promoted to the post of Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services.

Mr. Hess will inherit some hefty challenges when he arrives at his new Beaver Street office. New York's shelter population is a solid ten times larger than Philadelphia's 3000 shelter residents, as is its street population.

At the same time, cutbacks in federal housing subsidies will make it that much harder for him to reach the mayor's goal of reducing homelessness by two-thirds over five years.

Good luck, Mr. Hess!

- Lizzy Ratner

Mayor Michael Bloomberg resoundingly swept to re-election by accentuating the positives.  read more »

Bloomberg campaign press secretary -- and AIMfight champ (his score of 91,242 puts him in the top 5% of all instant messagers) -- Stu Loeser is moving into Ed Skyler's job as chief Bloomberg press aide, a well-guarded press release just announced.

Interestingly, Linda Gibbs' press guy, James Anderson (who will not be mistaken for Stu) is moving over to City Hall as communications director. It sounds like that's no longer the Bill Cunningham chief political operative job; Anderson will be dealing with editorial boards and columnists. That second move is another sign that Gibbs -- now a deputy Mayor -- is someone to reckon with.  read more »

And as Mike looks around for a successor, is Gibbs '09 a possibility?