Gracie Mansion

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 The Gates opening on Feb. 12, 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will host a special screening of the forthcoming HBO documentary film that chronicles “the decades-long effort by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to bring their ambitious work of art The Gates, Central Park, New York City 1979-2005, to fruition,” tomorrow.  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 Sheekey, and others in attendance. Unlike some other parties the mayor has held at Gracie Mansion, Bloomberg posed for pictures with nearly every guest (anybody want to send me their copy?).

The timing of this annual party couldn't have been better, coming one day before a pivotal special election for Michael Balboni's seat in Nassau kicks into high gear. While Governor Spitzer, Tom Suozzi, and key Democratic operatives are all heading to Nassau to help Craig Johnson, a local legislator, its not clear how much Bloomberg will get involved to help Republicans and their candidate, Nassau County Clerk, Maureen O'Connell.

-- Azi Paybarah

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 which they're still happy about. Harvard Grad-then Wall Street pro Got fired, opened a company, made big dough (oh!) Two-term Mayor, so serene Then I read...New York Magazine... I say "Next stop-Washington!" 'Cause folks like us...Baby we were Born to Run!

We'll win, you'll see-and beat the G.O.P. and Democrats Unite the country-make more jobs And banish all trans fat! Fix the schools-make profits grow Get the White House painted saffron by Christo (oh!) I know I said this job I'd keep But Sheekey said "Don't be cheap Only cost you half a bil-ion 'Cause folks like us...Baby, we were Born to Run!

Now let's all follow our leader there And find a treasure trove We all will get big cabinet jobs And I can be Karl Rove I'll become Supreme Court Judge I'll get the Olympics for D.C. In 14 years with him, I'll go from Bloomberg L.P....to Bloomberg V.P.!

The City Hall team is so great - that Bullpen is the best With Leg. Affairs and Research, Correspondence, M.I.S. Operations, Fiscal, too Security, the drivers, C.A.U. (Whoo!) I still wonder what I should do Called my mother - to get her view I said, "Please advise your son" And mother said - "Baby, you were Born to Run!" Mother said - "Baby, you were Born to Run!" Mother said - "Baby, you were Born to Run!"

Update: A self-identified conservative Christian from New Jersey called into the mayor's weekly radio program just now to urge Bloomberg to run for president. The mayor said he was flattered, but added, "The bottom line is I'm going to be mayor for the next three years."

-- Azi Paybarah

A reader who attended tonight's holiday party for City Hall staffers at Gracie Mansion sent over the first verse of the song performed by "Mike Bloomsteen and the Bullpen Band," sung to the tune of Born to Run (which these commenters didn't guess).

Here it goes, and notice the not-so-suggestive hints at 2008.

I was born a long long time ago And became an Eagle Scout. And then John Hopkins accepted him Which they're still happy about.

Harvard grad-then Wall Street pro. Got fired, opened a company, made big dough. Two term mayor, so serene Then I read New York magazine.

I say 'Next stop-Washington!' cause folks like us, Baby we were born to run.

More information, and (hopefully) pictures to come later.

-- Azi Paybarah

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 workers wore green ties. (A tie-less Kevin Sheekey wore a green ball cap.) Martina Minihan, a representative of the northern Irish town of Sligo, wore an orange, green and white sash.

"I can't drink this thing any more," said Minihan, putting down her coffee. "It's got half a bottle of booze in it."

"The best part is the Irish coffees for breakfast," disagreed Brian G. Andersson, Commissioner of the Department of Records & Information Services. He also liked how Bloomberg opened his remarks with a bit of Irish trivia: Who was the city's first Irish mayor?

The city's top record keeper claimed he had known the answer (William R. Grace 1881-1882) but Christine Quinn's father had beaten him to it.

Mr. Quinn (whose daughter will sit out today's parade to protest the Ancient Order of Hibernians ban on gay groups) also knew the source of Grace's shipping fortune.

"Guano!" yelled Mr. Quinn.

—Jason Horowitz

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: Blah Blah Artspeak. Wynton Marsalis sure is popular. You know who was at the Asia Society's 50th-anniversary benefit? Really very quite wealthy people. But how are they on Asia-related foreign policy?

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 loss of City Hall power that came with Rudy Giuliani's departure.  read more »

A central question is why the chasidic leaders feel, in the first place, that they can demand that Tom Frieden be removed from the case -- as they did again at yesterday's Gracie Mansion meeting with the Mayor, a person familiar with what went on said. The Mayor -- who once seemed to consider the Orthodox quite alien, but seems to have broadened his views on the topic -- flatly refused.

So why to these community leaders feel so empowered? And as one Jewish community insider -- one with a good deal of sympathy for the Satmar case -- points out, a central reason for their political confidence is that, under Rudy, they would probably have won this fight. Rudy's Jewish liason, Bruce Teitelbaum, had been his campaign manager, and clearly outranked most agency heads. And the Jewish communities that supported the Mayor were well taken care of.

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 on Mike's newest literary venture: the introduction to a book about Gracie Mansion.  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; that practice only began in 1942 with Fiorello LaGuardia.

Since Mr. Bloomberg dubbed it the "People's House," Gracie Mansion has served as a prime spot for visiting dignitaries, summer barbecues, and numerous receptions. In this picture, he's squeezing buns at the August 3rd People's Barbecue. Wait--sorry. That was an invite-only reception for movie and television stars (including Victoria Gotti and Susan Lucci).

With expanded access to family quarters, tourism shot up almost percent in the past year. Tourists can now gawk at the beautifully restored interior or search for Donna Hanover's exercise machine that woke Rudy up early in the morning.  read more »

However, The Real Estate imagines that if someone else is given the chance to occupy the mansion come November, those upstairs bedrooms will be sealed off once again.

- Michael Calderone

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 the morning's papers, in which Freddy took an unprecedented beating from Katidou Diallo, from black politicians and from columnists. (Purnick: "Mr. Ferrer has perfected the art of consistent inconsistency." McManus: "Fernando Ferrer is either one of the most cynical fellows ever to seek Gracie Mansion, or one of the dumbest.")  read more »

Johnson told us that in his unusual, scathing statement that noted Freddy's history of switching positions, he'd been referring to the death penalty, not the Kevin Cedeno shooting, as some had thought. We asked him if he wanted to expand on his statement.

"It said what it said," he told us cheerfully.

Metropolitan Club, Hot SpotFor Fistfights, Sticky Fingers  read more »

Paintball Pinhead TriesTarget Practice at Mayor's Mansion  read more »

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Director of Communications, William Cunningham, is not a guy who spends mu  read more »

There is no better place on earth to observe–and to mock–the privileged than at the annual Winte  read more »

President George Bush's tax cut of $1.3 trillion over 10years has left many Americans feeling queasy  read more »

Can Judith Nathan, First Girlfriend, hang around the Mayor's mansion with his family, or is she de t  read more »