“In the most symbolically freighted sign of a peacemaking effort, City Hall has invited Mr. Bloomberg to participate in a tree-planting ceremony with Mr. de Blasio this month.” The photograph accompanying this story is really something else.

Mike Bloomberg, the 16th richest human in the world, is no longer the mayor of NYC. He is merely a private citizen who made $6 billion last year. He says he wants to give his fortune away before he dies. Is that enough to make him good?

Today the Bloomberg administration unveiled the outgoing mayor’s official portrait, which was painted by Jon Friedman and depicts Bloomberg wearing two “Big Apple” cufflinks and a Big Apple lapel, and, behind him, at least two Bloomberg LP computer terminals. The city unveiled the portrait three days after Polish artist Ismena Halkiewicz placed on the market her own (uncommissioned) portrait of the mayor, who in Halkiewicz’s version is holding an owl and framed by blood-red raindrops inscribed with the dollar sign.

"I will not criticize" incoming NYC mayor Bill de Blasio, said outgoing NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg today. Remember that, everyone.

Mayor Bloomberg wasted $160,000 of taxpayer money to (unsuccessfully) suppress the publication of internal emails, first requested by former Gawker intern Sergio Hernandez, about the ill-fated appointment of former New York City School Chancellor Cathie Black, who resigned 3 months after taking the job in 2011. Nice work, Mike.

Alert! Lame duck New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has decided not to endorse a candidate in the 2013 mayoral race.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire stop-and-frisk advocate who systemically faked riding the subway, plans to install a $13,300 copper bathtub in his Upper East Side townhouse. Agence France-Presse recently spoke with the coppersmith in northwest France whom Bloomberg personally commissioned to fabricate the metal vessel:

With New York's ambient levels of coolness taking a deep dive thanks to the prevalence of e-cigarettes, Mayor Bloomberg has taken action and is attempting to ban them. Thank you, Mayor Mike, for addressing this pressing public coolness problem.

Having failed to curb soda cup sizes, NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg has a new public health initiative: he is working to convince New Yorkers to take the stairs. This will accomplish nothing.

Decades after the U.S. and British Air Forces firebombed the German city of Dresden to the ground, its citizens have finally taken their revenge by filling New York with so-called "modern firebombs": bicycles.

A couple years ago, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg did a laughably stupid thing and named Cathie Black, a rich lady-about-town who ran a bunch of magazines and newspapers as president of Hearst, as his new schools chancellor. Since Black had no qualifications for the job aside from being a rich friend of Bloomberg's, some folks objected and Black resigned after 95 humiliating days. Back in 2010, former Gawker intern Sergio Hernandez thought it might be fun to read the email traffic between Black and City Hall prior to Black's appointment, so he filed a request under New York's Freedom of Information Law. Because Bloomberg is a secretive, entitled, arrogant prick, it took more than two years and a court battle to get them.

New York City Michael "Mayor Mike" Bloomberg, the 20th richest human in the world, said this yesterday about his administration's policy of requiring single adults "to prove they have no other alternatives when they are seeking access to a homeless shelter," and of barring homeless families and children from city shelters during freezing weather "if officials determine they have an alternative place to sleep:"

In this morning's paper, The New York Times takes a look at the former Mayor of New York and one time Mitt Romney supporter and attacker, Rudy Giuliani. He's back in the news this week for his attempts to be a kingmaker in the upcoming mayoral election in New York.

In New York, you may not be able to drink large quantities of soda but, if Governor Cuomo's new proposed marijuana decriminalization becomes law, you will be able to carry around an ounce of weed without it being a misdemeanor. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart had a little trouble reconciling these two ideas.

Smooth move by thinspirational pro-ana billionaire Mike Bloomberg: he'll ban big huge sodas that poor people drink, sure, but don't worry, people who actually vote and/ or donate money to political campaigns—your precious huge syrupy Starbucks quote sweetened coffee beverages unquote will be safe, because they contain milk.

On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart expressed some concerns over Mayor Mike Bloomberg's soda ban. The problem, as Stewart sees it, is that killing ourselves through terrible diets is basically a New York tradition, and until someone puts a limit on the amount of roast beef we can shovel down our throats, we should at least be able to wash it all down.

The second New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's plan to ban large sodas was announced, you knew that people would use it to declare that America has become a Commu-fascist labor prison. The Atlantic called it classist. Comedy Central's political blog (they have one!) called it ridiculous. Forbes called Bloomberg a Republican Socialist. And Bernie Goldberg basically declared that the ban was a gateway law that will one day lead to the government stealing your kids in the middle of the night and harvest their organs to give to illegal immigrants.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has never been accused of taking a heavy-handed approach to governing. Want to smoke? Go ahead! Want to have a little salt with your deep-fried meat product? All you, baby! Want to camp out for a few weeks in a park to protest? Who's going to stop you? Only his army.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters who had planned to throw a 24-hour drum circle party (a violation of several United Nations human rights treaties) outside NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Manhattan manse didn't quite make it thanks to NYPD officers and barricades. Undaunted, they held their percussive party down the street. A sax player and a cowbell armada showed up to provide ... well, not rhythms. How about sounds? Yes, sounds.

New York City mayor/bank apologist Mike Bloomberg is not our favorite politician by any means, what with his questionable media blackouts and hasty evictions and poor staffing choices. But we still don't believe he deserves to be tortured with—gasp!—a 24-hour drum circle.