Photo courtesy New York Shitty. Congestion pricing is toast, and so is Bloomberg’s “legacy,” so let’s start talking about the city’s next mayor. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says he’s not yet made up his mind about running, but, judging from this peculiar photo, eliminating mayoral term limits must be at the top of his agenda. Or is "Marty for Life" just an innocent campaign slogan? If so, it’s a lot catchier than the one......

On the heels of Governor Paterson’s endorsement of Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan comes a new Quinnipiac poll showing that New York State voters oppose it 50 – 33 percent. Most of the opposition has to do with a pervasive doubt that the revenue from the plan would actually go to improve mass transit, as promised. Echoing the results of a poll in January, voters statewide say they would support the plan 60% to 30% if......

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama march into tonight's Ohio debate with their arms swinging over a 2006 photograph of Obama visiting Kenya. The Obama campaign blamed the Clinton campaign for "shameful" tactics, while the Clinton campaign denied responsibility and said the Obama campaign should be "ashamed" of thinking the photo would be controversial. Yesterday, the Drudge Report claimed the photograph of Obama, wearing Somali dress while on a visit to Kenya, was allegedly circulated by......

Photo of Eli Manning by AP/Bill Kostroun; Photo of Tom Brady by AP/Stephan Savoia When Super Sunday rolls around, there will be a lot of questions that will be answered. Will the Giants stop the undefeated season of the Patriots? How will Eli Manning perform in the biggest game of his career? And how Tom Brady's foot be? While there are clearly lots of other questions, one question that isn't so obvious is...who's the......

Photo via Frank Lynch's Flickr. Earlier this month we tried to look at the Triborough Bridge as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge when Governor Spitzer brought the name change up for consideration. While RFK supporters toss around the obvious "he built bridges" metaphor, The NY Times would like to point out that he also burned them. They suggest that the city stop looking for big names to attach to their structures and streets, and......

Late night television is back, with two hosts not crossing the picket line (David Letterman and Craig Ferguson), and three still getting WGA picketers outside of their studios (Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel). Only two hosts were willing to grow, and keep, their strike beards -- and we want to know whose you like best! We added a Photoshop-bearded Leno (because we wanted to know what it would look like), so your......

The NY Post warns the women of New York that their bag habits may be bad for them. Some women sling up to 11 lbs over their shoulder on a daily basis, and doctors warn that "Any time there's an unequal weight distribution on the shoulders or upper back, it's going to affect alignment of the spine." While we think it's more about living in New York and carrying around what you need to get......

Former New York City Mayor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is finding that his campaign for highest office is foundering in Florida--the state that his campaign has identified as a crucial crucible. The primary vote in the Sunshine State will occur on Jan. 29, and with approximately six weeks to go, Rudy's trailing competitors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. According to a survey conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen, Romney is tallying 27% support, followed by......

The Siena College Research Institute released information on how New Yorkers feel about Governor Spitzer, and the news is bad. Thirteen months after Spitzer was elected overwhelmingly to office, he now has a rating of 36% favorable/51% unfavorable (sliding from 64-22 in June, 41-46 in November) and a job performance rating of 27% positive=70 negative (55-37 in June, 33-64 in November). Not only that, but Siena Poll spokesman Steven Greenberg said, "A majority of voters,......

Tim Russert has invited all the presidential candidates to appear on Meet the Press, and yesterday former Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared. We imagine many New Yorkers watching the program gnashed their teeth and/or swore at the TV (we happened to do both), as Giuliani tried to answer questions ranging from the straightforward (Giuliani's Iowa poll numbers, Russert asked, "Fifth place, is that a problem?") to the interesting (Russert on Giuliani's consulting business: "A Las......

"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.......

Last week, a CNN/WMUR poll with "likely Republican voters in New Hampshire" gave a snapshot of what they were thinking and Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign got the bad news that not only had his poll numbers slid from 24% to 16%, he was now in third place after former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (33%, up from 25%) and Arizona Senator John McCain (18%). Third after McCain! So, Giuliani hustled to New Hampshire to make......

Remember when all anyone could talk about was congestion pricing? Well, now that the city is officially in holiday gridlock mode, Quinnipiac University released a new poll showing growing opposition to congestion pricing, with 61% of New Yorkers against the plan. Back in July, 52% of voters were against congestion pricing, and then that grew to 57% in August. Most notably, the number of Manhattan voters opposing congestion pricing has risen 11%, from 36%......

When Governor Spitzer announced he was dropping his controversial plan to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants yesterday, he was praised by his fellow Democrats. The NY Times notes that the decision won Spitzer "the kind of wide acclaim from elected officials that he could not win for the proposal itself." And that's gotta sting a little. Spitzer had first introduced a broad plan to allow illegal immigrants to get licenses, which caused outcry from......

After heated debate and almost universal dislike from both parties and many NY residents for his controversial driver's license plan, Governor Spitzer has decided to shelve the idea. He is expected to announce the news today during a meeting with the Democratic congressional delegation, whose recently elected members have criticized the Governor for putting their positions in jeopardy with voters. The Governor spoke to the NY Times, "You have perhaps seen me struggle with it......

Governor Spitzer's revised plan to offer driver's licenses to all New York State residents - including illegal immigrants - is still not a hit with constituents. NY1 conducted a poll which found 55% of voters are opposed to the "three-tier plan" Spitzer revealed last week. Spitzer's original plan, which would have given illegal immigrants broad access to a regular driver's license, was hailed by immigrants' rights advocates and damned by county clerks and figures such......

Brushing aside the Staten Island Borough President's repeated criticism and endorsement of his opponent, Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan won re-election in a landslide over Democratic challenger Michael Ryan. Donovan, whose 51st birthday was also yesterday, said during the celebration, "Tonight, you guys made me real happy." The SI DA's race became unexpectedly contentious when SI Borough President James Molinaro, who Donovan worked under as a Deputy Beep and considered a friend, attacked Donovan's......

The Associated Press and Ipsos asked Americans to pick which candidates would make the scariest Halloween costumes. Naturally, frontrunners Senator Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani won in their respective political parties (there were separate polls for the two parties). Clinton led Democrats with 37% while Giuliani had 14%, and no other candidates broke 6%, giving them resounding wins. And we found this interesting: "While a predictable two-thirds of Republicans picked [Clinton], she......

Gov. Spitzer made an abrupt shift from his stance of pushing forward with his plan to issue drivers license to illegal immigrants. He will be appearing with Dept. of Homeland Security officials in DC today to announce a compromise that involves two tiers of drivers licenses. The more secure version will comply with new federal Real ID standards that will be fully instituted in coming years. By 2013, US residents will be required to produce......

Oh, Catholic League - it isn't even Halloween and you're getting ready for Christmas already! The Sun reports that the Catholic League sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein questioning why nativity scenes cannot be displayed in schools. Christmas trees are allowed, as are menorahs and symbols for Ramadan. But the Department of Education does not allow actual images of "religious figures or deities." The DOE e-mail to the Sun read, "Our holiday policy......

Rensselaer County Clerk Frank J. Merola is unhappy with Gov. Spitzer's plan to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. As an employee of the State, he has no legal discretion over whether he can ignore the plan once it's enacted, so he's filed a lawsuit to block the initiative in state Supreme Court in Albany. In a statement explaining his lawsuit. County Clerk Frank Merola alluded to a recent public opinion poll that showed......

Matthew Jones of Brooklyn pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct after he was arrested in Times Square last June for blocking a sidewalk in Times Square. Now he's appealing his case all the way to the state's highest court. Jones wasn't protesting anything or lying down on the sidewalk, he was simply standing on the corner of 42nd St. and 7th Ave. with a group of friends who were talking. Pedestrian traffic......

In what can only be described as a shock, Joe Torre has decided not to return to the Bronx in 2008. Torre was offered a one-year deal at a base of $5-million with an additional $1-million guaranteed for each round of the playoffs that the Yankees reached. So, he could have made $8-million for getting to the World Series. The deal also included a team option for 2009 that would have vested at $8-million......

It's either an unfortunate choice of words or a pointed dig. When asked about a Siena College poll that showed Mayor Bloomberg would win a gubernatorial match-up against Governor Spitzer 50-37, Bloomberg gave his thoughts on the Steamroller's difficulties: "I think that Eliot Spitzer will turn out to be a very good governor of this state. He's had his teething problems as everybody does when they come into office." We knew there was a reason......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on 11th Ave. and West 43rd St. in Manhattan, a shooting on 21st St. in Queens, and a shooting on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Veteran political reporter Gabe Pressman weighs in on the wave of mortgage foreclosures sweeping New York and finds overwhelming evidence of racism. A privately funded program to encourage lower income and minority students to take Advanced Placement courses will pay cash for......

The Supreme Court essentially upheld an Appeals Court ruling that said New York City must pay the private education of disabled students. The twist is that the students and their parents don't even need to try to see if the public school programs are adequate for them. Actually, there's another twist: The lawsuit against the city was filed by former Viacom CEO and co-founder of MTV, multimillionaire Tom Freston. Freston's son Gilbert has learning disabilities,......

The video of City Councilman James Oddo letting the f-bombs drop on a Norwegian TV comedian is getting mixed reactions - and a fair number of chuckles - from New Yorkers, but now it turns out that he wasn't meant to be a poor sap duped into answering stupid questions about whether Barack Obama is an American citizen and "Hillary Clinton's incident with a cigar." A spokesman for the Norwegian program "Rikers Rost" tells the......

Welcome to the first day of the Yankees’ offseason, buckle your seatbelts this is going to be a wild ride. While it is 99.9% certain that the Yankees are going to have a new manager for 2008, his identity remains a mystery. Joe Girardi, Don Mattingly and Tony LaRussa are the top names you hear, but remember in 1995 the Yankees shocked a lot of people when they chose Torre, so don’t be surprised if......

It's turns out that a dirty tricks campaign - even if it's not quite criminal - can be pretty damaging. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Governor Spitzer's approval rating has dropped to a new low of 47%. Of course, that's the low after nine months in office, so there's still room for improvement - or to find a new low. Most intriguingly, more than three-quarters of voters want Spitzer to testify about the scheme......

With the jury for the sexual harassment trial of Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas and the rest of the Knicks organization continuing its deliberations for a third day, an interesting workplace question has been raised. Is swearing at the office okay? Former Knicks marketing vice president Anucha Browne Sanders claims, amongst other things, that Thomas swore at her frequently, including statements like "Bitch, I don't give a f--- about ticket sales" Thomas said he......