Whether you thought they were art of the highest form, or just a bunch of tall orange things with curtains hanging from them, chances are you were talking about The Gates three years ago when it came to Central Park as one of the biggest public art installations in history. Commemorating the three-year anniversary of Read More
"Welcome to my house." That's how the ever-affable Senator Malcolm Smith greeted some people who arrived at Gracie Mansion last night for Mayor Bloomberg's annual party with state Senators, according to one attendee. It was a bi-partisan affair, with guests including senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, Manhattan senators Tom Duane, Liz Kruger, Deputy Mayor Kevin Read More
So here, for the record, are the complete, unabridged lyrics to the song that "Mike Bloomsteen and the Bullpen Band" of deputy mayors performed for mayoral staffers at their Gracie Mansion party last night. Born to Run I was born a long, long time ago-and became an Eagle Scout. And then John Hopkins accepted him Read More
A reader sends word that Mike Bloomberg is throwing a holiday party for City Hall staffers tomorrow night at Gracie Mansion, complete with live karaoke and, I'm guessing, an open bar. (Because who does that sober?) Extra credit for the first correct prediction of the song the mayor chooses to perform. -- Azi Paybarah
The Mayor hosted his annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion this morning. There were plenty of round and ruddy faces in attendance, sipping creamy Irish coffees as waitresses passed around mini shepherd pies and Irish sausage garnished with green paisley mustard. Next to green-dyed carnations, police officers named O'Reilly smiled for cameras. City Read More
Come and get your hot permanent links to the sexy items of this week's column: Harlem preservationist Michael Henry Adams turned 50, but is still ready to storm Gracie Mansion or anywhere else. Yesterday, critics crawled through the Whitney Biennial. For many of them, its as if they were speaking a separate language: Read More
The complicated, fascinating circumcision conflict between the Health Commissioner and elements of Brooklyn's chasidic community broke through to A1 of the Times today, 11 months after it first bubbled to the surface in the Daily News. I'd add just one political footnote: A subtext here is that chasidic leaders are still suffering from the Read More
A Politicker spy reports with some amusement that Virginia Fields turned up, unexpectedly, at the Mayor's announcement of money for a Bronx High School today, and stood behind him at the event. (Fields later sent out a release headed "Thank God for Election Years.") Meanwhile, our sister site, The Real Estate, has an exclusive Read More
Just in time for election day, Rizzoli is publishing the "first-ever tribute to Gracie Mansion." Ironically, Mayor Bloomberg--who famously chose to reside in his five-story, Beaux Arts townhouse on 72nd Street instead of at the mayoral mansion--wrote the book's foreword. Indeed, the 206-year old mansion has a rich history beyond housing the city's mayors; Read More
We stopped in at Gracie Mansion this morning for the Mayor's annual, packed Irish-fest, complete with the obligatory awful jokes: "The first Irish-Jewish Mayor, Ed O'Koch" and "Bloomberg" is "actually Gaelic for 'two terms.'" Also there was the non-Irish Bronx District Attorney, Robert Johnson, looking extremely content over his green tie. Perhaps he'd seen Read More
Metropolitan Club, Hot Spot
For Fistfights, Sticky Fingers The tony Metropolitan Club at 1 East 60th Street isn't the first place one would think of as the venue for a good old-fashioned street brawl. But then again, even the most exclusive clubs' admissions policies cease to matter once they open their doors to the hoi polloi-for Read MorePaintball Pinhead Tries
Target Practice at Mayor's Mansion Paintball has become an increasingly popular sport. Nevertheless, as one Upper East Side resident discovered on Feb. 28, it is probably unwise to conduct your target practice near what the police euphemistically describe as "sensitive locations"-such as Gracie Mansion-particularly in this jittery era. At around 4:55 p.m., the Read MoreMayor Michael Bloomberg's Director of Communications, William Cunningham, is not a guy who spends much time fretting over his boss' taste in furniture.
"I hadn't even thought about it until you asked," he said over the phone. "It's a house. It's furnished …. I really don't think that the President or the Governor or anybody else Read MoreThere is no better place on earth to observe–and to mock–the privileged than at the annual Winter Antiques Show. And since P.C. culture has decreed that the rich are the only group we're still allowed to take the piss out of, I say: "Go for it!" Through Jan. 27, you can observe firsthand the descendants Read More
