NYC Leads an American Spring

Like many great things in America, it began right here in NYC. 

A month ago, Wall Street was quiet. The streets of America were quiet. For the American power elite, everything was as it should be. Things were looking up! The political parties they had bought and the government they controlled were duly bending to their will. The hated President Obama's approval ratings were tanking and it seemed like only a matter of time before he would be replaced by their favorite whore, Mitt Romney. The richest 1% and their conservative Tea Party allies -- who only have contempt for the poor, the unemployed, the young, the dispossessed, the unlucky, basically anyone who isn't them -- were on the ascendant and these hated "others" seemed to be withering away. The country was going the power elite's way -- with them owning and controlling everything and the rest of us literally and metaphorically dying. Good times were here again! 

Then the streets of NYC came alive and America soon followed.

And the American power elite is freaking out!

It's impossible to guess what the Occupy Wall Street movement will lead to. The American left has a poor track record of grabbing and holding onto political power for very long and affecting huge change. The American right is better at it since they're better financed, better organized, and, in many ways, better motivated. It's easier to get motivated when your afraid of losing something concrete (namely, huge wealth and a privledged position in society) then it is to get motivated about gaining something abstractly better (namely, closing the gap between the rich and poor and a better job). Machiavelli wrote about how the enemies of reform will attack more fiercely than the advocates of reform will fight for their cause since the enemies have a clearer idea of what they'll lose than the advocates have of what they'll gain. This is largely what the power game throughout time has been all about.

But at the moment the other 99% are striking back. The advocates of reform are on the march! They're organizing, making noise, and drawing attention to the grotesque economic disparities in our country and how our government is owned by and operated by the rich few instead of by and for the regular many. The poor and the middle class have done something that they usually have a huge problem doing -- changing the national dialogue, forcing the media to take notice, and scaring the heck out of our bought and paid for government. Right now it's called Occupy Wall Street but it's turning into an American Spring.

Oh, and is the power elite scared! The right wing/Tea Party/Republican Party/Big Media are having a conniption. They're swinging wildly, saying stupid things, unable to comprehend the power of the sleeping giant that's been awoken. 

For example, the loathsome Republican Congressman Peter King recently said, "It's a ragtag mob." It even reminds him of protests in the 1960s which he didn't like since "it ended up shaping policy. We can't allow that to happen." I guess Peter King thinks civil rights and ending the Vietnam war were bad things! Such stupid, thoughtful statements are pure gold for Occupy Wall Street and makes Mr. King the epitome of a useful idiot. Keep up the good work Congressman!

The right wing counter attack has already began and hopefully Occupy Wall Street will ready the counter-counter attack -- and hang their opponents with their own words. Mr. King's words are a good start. So are those of pathetic presidential hopeful Herman Cain who said that if people are unemployed and not rich then it's "your fault." Yeah, try running for president saying that. See how many votes you get. Also wonderful is scumbag Congressman Eric Cantor who has called these protestors as "growing mobs" -- mobs that hopefully will turn into voters and will throw the likes of Eric Cantor out of office.

Mayor Bloomberg -- that billionaire-best-friend-of-the working stiff -- has called the protests "ridiculous." He thinks that people being upset about how their government and society is screwed up is just pure silliness. Yes, tell an unemployed person that he or she is silly -- and then count yourself lucky to walk away without a bloody nose.

Even worse is Bloomberg's girlfriend, the supremely arrogant Diana Taylor. Oh, this is one screwy broad. She recently said in an interview that President Obama has "a lot to learn," apparently because he doesn't completely (only mostly) sell his soul to business and has the temerity (again, only somewhat) to care about people who aren't multimillionaires like her. And Ms. Taylor says that she would have run against and beaten Senator Gillibrand last year but just didn't feel like it. See, she didn't just want to be one of 100 senators, that wouldn't be any fun. This kind of elititest, arrogant, "I'm rich so I know better," screw everyone else kind of stuff goes on and on in this interview. And in the end, Ms. Taylor thinks that what's wrong with America is that most Americans are morons. As the brilliant Alex Pareene of Salon writes: "Mayor Bloomberg, partner diagnose what's wrong with America: You." 

Yes, you, me, and those Americans outside of the rich elite, those of us without powerful connections, those of us who just want to work for a living and live a nice life without killing our souls, yes -- we're the problem! Someone all of us blew up the economy in 2008 -- not the bankers on Wall Street or their employees in the government who let it happen. And these people wonder why Americans are pissed and what Occupy Wall Street gets bigger and more powerful everyday. 

As I've said, I have no idea how Occupy Wall Street will play out politically or if it will change anything. Sadly, big money has a way of shutting down even the most forceful people powered organizations. But hope springs eternal. 

In June of this year, I wrote about how happy I was that gay marriage was legalized in New York and how unthinkable this was just a few short years ago. But I also wrote about how the next front in the war for social justice, now that the war on gay people in New York was won, was ending the war on the middle class and the poor. I held out hope then that something might happen on this front, I just didn't know what it might be. Sadly, I had no good ideas myself. 

But Occupy Wall Street was just the spark I was looking for, and hopefully it will only continue to get more powerful and, a year from now, affect the elections and government policy. Hopefully something good for the middle class and the poor is coming and enemies of reform will be crushed. The tide is turning on the power elite's war on the rest of us.


Here in the streets of NYC, the battle has been joined.

What Would Sherman McCoy Say?

In the 1980s, the Tom Wolfe novel The Bonfire of the Vanities coined the term Masters of the Universe -- Wall Street wheelers and dealers who moved billions of dollars around the world, making economies and businesses shake, all the while taking home millions for themselves, funding their lavish lifestyles.

For the last three decades, being a Master of the Universe was something that everyone on Wall Street aspired to. Not even the tragic tale of Wolfe's hero, Sherman McCoy, could dissuade a generation of young men and women from flocking to Wall Street, dollar bill signs glowing in their well educated eyes.

But the last few years have been unkind to Wall Street. The economic crises, new regulations, the evaporation of credit, the collapse of the housing market, the Occupy movement -- a perfect storm within a perfect storm has emerged to knock Wall Street down. Bonuses are being slashed, jobs are gone and aren't coming back, and a new ethos that making money off money probably isn't the most stable of business models. 

So what does this mean for NYC?

After all, Wall Street is a core of the city's identity and huge engine of our economy. This big article in New York magazine offers some insights. Among the tidbits:

- The housing boom led to a credit bubble. When it burst, it became harder for banks to get money. Banks make money off money. Go figure out the rest.

- It's a big question whether less pay and smaller bonuses will hammer the NYC economy. Hopefully not but only if the city's economy diversifies. 

- One banker laments that, without Wall Street, NYC will turn into Philadelphia.

On this last point I disagree. NYC has more than Wall Street. We have Broadway, movies and TV,  fashion, publishing, Silicon Alley -- and much, much more. We also have 8 million great, hard working citizens.

Even if Wall Street withers, I think NYC will be just fine.

And so will the Sherman McCoys.

Occupy Wall Street: 1st Anniversary

It's hard to believe but it was only a year ago that Occupy Wall Street -- or OWS, as it became known -- suddenly sprang to life and took over the national psyche.

What OWS was (or is?) is very simple: it was a group of Americans who felt totally shafted by the current economy and wanted to shed light on the enormous income inequality that exists in America today. This was represented by people literally occupying a private/public park in Lower Manhattan day and night. 

They called themselves "the 99%".

Like any social/political movement, OWS immediately caused controversy. Those on the political left praised it as grassroots movement against "the Man." Those on the political right called it basically a movement of, by, and for society's losers. Needless to say, this debate rages on more than a year later.

Yours truly had and has mixed feelings about OWS. The fact that people were able to grab the attention of the public and the media and start a national dialogue on income inequality in this country is a great thing. Before OWS, this issue had never received the widespread attention it deserved and has now gotten. But my problem with OWS, like any "movement", is that its legitimate message can sometimes come off as nothing more than rage, that the messengers themselves don't do themselves any favors by ranting. That's why I've never been a joiner of "movements" -- very often the messengers cannibalize the message. 

Last year, just as OWS was cresting in its public attention, I wrote a blog post about how NYC has become a corporate city and how it doesn't matter who we elect, it is and will probably always be so. Also, one of the things OWS showed is how the "liberal/conservative" schism in this country sort of misses the point: while one side may be socially liberal and the other side socially conservative, both sides are basically corporate and this shafts working and poor Americans no matter what. And how, no matter who we elect, this "corporate state" will only continue to thrive -- here in NYC and everywhere else. 

So I'm pretty sure that, a year from now, no matter if we have a President Romney or still have President Obama, OWS's message will still resonate.  

 

Occupy Wall Street: The Collector's Edition

Ever since the Occupy Wall Street movement sprang to life last September, debates have raged about whether or not this is a passing fad or an historic change in the flow of American politics, economics, and culture. Needless to say, Americans Left and Right have very different ideas about the impact of OWS -- but it's made its mark, nonetheless.

And now it's being collected.

The New-York Historical society has been acquiring kitsch and knickknacks and stuff that has been produced by OWS: posters, news releases, lists of demands, and various odds and ends. So far they have about twelves items that they have indexed and produced here on the Vanity Fair website. It's interesting to look at but what's probably more interesting is whether or not one day there'll be an actual OWS exhibit or whether or not this stuff will put in some box in the bowels of the NYHS, to be forgotten about. 

We shall see (or not).

Occupy Wall Street @ 10

Ten years ago this month the Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park. Here's some of Mr NYC's coverage of it at the time. 

The Corporate City

The media today is obsessed with the Republican/Democrat, Red/Blue, Liberal/Conservative, urban vs. rural socioeconomic/political/cultural divide. The two America's at war with each other, pushing and pulling the country apart -- one America wanting to make us more like Canada (the liberal urban Democrats) and the other wanting to make us more like Mexico (the conservative rural Republicans). This "divide" is at the heart of the current narrative of American politics, with NYC as the capital of Blue America (and I guess the whole state of Texas being the capital of Red America but there are many contenders for that title I suppose).  

But like so many simplistic generalities, this "narrative" is wrong. For NYC isn't really the bastion of liberalism that the media, the conservatives, and the rest of America think it is. And it's not just that we've just elected Republican mayors for the last 20 years (but that's part of it). It's that NYC has become, over the last thirty years, a corporate city, one where corporations and powerful private interests have acquired huge power over our city's government, dictating policies that affect our lives, all while eviscerating public power and crushing the middle while helping the rich.

Let the Free Market rule! 

Ad increasingly, since the age of Ed Koch and Ronald Reagan thirty years ago to the time of Mike Bloomberg and George Bush and Barack Obama today, the Free Market has been ruling NYC and controlling its destiny like never before.

Private money has never been more powerful than it is today in NYC. Same is true in other "hotbeds of liberalism" around the country like Chicago and Washington, DC. I could go on here and give example after example of how NYC today is a Corporate City and how it's "liberalism" isn't quite what it seems. But the always great Matt Taibbi and the brilliant David Sirota have written about it in such perfect language that I will simply re-post some of things they said about it here.

First, Taibbi writes about Mayor Bloomberg, the ultimate corporate mayor, and how this incredibly reactionary mayor has thrived in "liberal" NYC for more than a decade: 

       [Bloomberg] is a billionaire Wall Street creature with an extreme deregulatory bent who has   quietly advanced some nastily regressive police policies… but has won over upper-middle-class liberals with his stances on choice and gay marriage and other social issues.

Bloomberg’s main attraction as a politician has been his ability to stick closely to a holy trinity of basic PR principles: bang heavily on black crime, embrace social issues dear to white progressives, and in the remaining working hours give your pals on Wall Street (who can raise any money you need, if you somehow run out of your own) whatever they want.

He understands that as long as you keep muggers and pimps out of the prime shopping areas in the Upper West Side, and make sure to sound the right notes on abortion, stem-cell research, global warming, and the like, you can believably play the role of the wisecracking, good-guy-billionaire Belle of the Ball…

Second, David Sirota notes what Taibbi wrote and also looks at the corporate city as a wider American phenomenon. Sirota writes about how Chicago has privatized its public infrastructure, selling off highways and parking meters to private interests. The big city Democratic mayors have been trying to destroy public employee unions with the same zeal as Republican governors (Chicago again, and Denver). The charter school movement that has been funded by big private interests -- including Wal Mart! -- has spread in "liberal" cities like LA, New Orleans, and DC (which gave us the odious Michelle Rhee, the schools head who wants to destroy every teachers union in America). Many "liberal" cities have been slashing city budgets and reducing public services while refusing to raise taxes on the rich but offering huge public subsidies for stadiums, office buildings, and public/private ventures (always making the argument that this will "create jobs" and "raise tax revenues" for cities -- but almost never doing that in reality and in fact costing these cities money in the long run).  

These are corporate cities if there ever were any, and NYC is at the forefront of it. But because our media is so obsessed with cultural issues over economic ones, a city is "liberal" if most of its people support abortion or gay rights or gun control -- not if its leaders are selling their people out to private interests and destroying the public sector. Sirota writes:

Though Taibbi was writing about Bloomberg specifically, his words aptly sum up what the American cityscape has become — yet more scorched earth in the successful assault of Limousine Liberals and Crony Corporatists on Lunch-Pail Liberals and Progressive Populists. In political terms, it represents the broader success of the transpartisan moneyed class in fully redefining “liberal” exclusively as “social-issue liberal” — without regard for economic agenda. 

So when you look at Occupy Wall Street you see a movement that is simply angry at money and the corporate state controlling our lives and our destinies -- and it goes beyond any party, any mayor, any city. It goes to the heart of what NYC and America has become -- and it wants to fight back. 

A good fight indeed. 

Classic Mr NYC

Fifteen years ago this week Occupy Wall Street began. I blogged about it extensively at the time -- yes, I've been doing this that long -- and now what was real time coverage has turned into a piece of NYC and American history. You can read the entire Mr NYC OWS Archive if you'd like!

And you call also listen to this interview with the great late-night NYC cable TV host Robin Byrd and also read my own extensive archive of her. 

How the 1% Lives

Much of the Occupy Wall Street protests have focused anger at the richest of the rich Americans -- the so-called 1% -- and how they don't pay their fair share in taxes. Basically, the argument goes, they don't pay enough and the government goes without much needed revenue to do the things that will improve our society.

"But that's not fair!" the 1% and their defenders shout. "The 1% pay the most in taxes!"

Not really. See today's huge article about how one of NYC's richest men -- Ronald Lauder of the Estee Lauder fortune -- cleverly hides his money from the government in legal tax shelters. It's really scummy and depressing. The loopholes and "donations" to various "charities" and foundations dramatically reduce the amount of taxes that so many rich people like Lauder have to pay. 

Like most rich people, the Lauders of the world get to eat their cake and have it to. It's the best of both worlds really: the rich can boast that they are "oh-so generous" buy giving huge amounts of money to "charity" and earn brownie points with the public for how "good" they are. In reality, they're just reducing their tax burden, moving money around from a taxable entity to a non-taxable one. It's gotta be great to reduce your taxes and get free positive publicity instead paying your fair share and getting no glory. 

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Call it vanity unfair.

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Maced/Pepper Sprayed by NYPD

Blogging Again Soon

Sorry for the week long silence -- life has a way of happening to interrupt blogging. However, I'm planning a few new great posts that I hope to get up soon. 

Oh, and I plan to have LOTS to say about Occupy Wall Street and the unintentionally hilarious reaction to it. As it always has, history is happening on the streets of NYC -- and this blog plans to be a part of it.

Scenes from Occupy Wall Street in Exile

So early this AM, Mayor Mike sent the NYPD to break up OWS and sent the protesters a'scatterin' 'round town. The purpose was ostensibly to "clean" the park but it was really just a power play -- the 1% cracking down on the other 99%. Think Bloody Sunday without the bloody.

But OWS regrouped quickly. 

Around 9 AM, several protesters convened at Duarte Square on the corner of Canal and Varick streets. Yours truly was on the scene -- actually several stories above it at the time -- so I snapped some pics before going down observing it in the raw. So these pics are a Mr NYC exclusive!

This re-grouping turned out to be rather anti-climatic. They chanted a bunch and waved signs. The cops turned out en masse (many of them in riot gear) and intimidated the hell out of the protesters. Eventually, by the early afternoon, the protesters left. By 4 PM, it was as though nothing had ever happened and no one was ever there.

But it was a unique moment in NYC history, like being in Times Square on VJ-Day or at the Stonewall Riots or something. And I was lucky enough to gawk (and photograph) it.

Happy Anniversary OWS

What a difference a month makes!

Occupy Wall Street has grown from a curiosity to a media event to a world-wide global phenomenon.

You know it's a real phenomenon when the abbreviation OWS is casually used, since the assumption is that now everyone knows what it is.

And OWS has changed the national debate. shining a huge spotlight on the issues of unemployment, corporate malfeasance, and the gap between rich and poor. OWS has stolen the Tea Party's thunder, with 54% of Americans approving it, and only 24% approving of the tea baggers.

Suck it Republicans!

The most amazing thing: this movement is only a month old. One little month. And considering how big it's become in such a short time, who knows where this could lead? 

Mr NYC Reviews the 20-Teens

Hard as it is to believe but, as the minutes tick down towards the end of the year, the second decade of the 21st century is ending and the third is about to begin. This very blog will also enter its third decade which, if you don't mind me saying, is something of an achievement.

So what happened in NYC during this past decade, the twenty-teens?

A bunch of stuff, some great, some awful. The New York Times has an interesting list of developments in NYC in the 20-teens that includes the following: the growth of ferry service around the city (good), the dramatic decline of retail stores and the preponderance of empty storefronts (bad), the phenomena of Hamilton that made Broadway relevant again (good), the rise of cashless businesses (neither good nor bad, just reality), the growth of massively tall, skyline-ruining "needle" buildings (bad), universal pre-K (great!), and others. 

One thing this list also includes is the sale of the Chrysler Building for $150 million after previously selling for $800 million. It's truly bizarre that a huge NYC iconic building could sell for less than the most expensive apartments in town and lots of other big name buildings. The reason? It's very old and has tons of structural problems, dramatically decreasing the value. This tracks another big-name purchase that was sold for way less money than one would expect -- the radio station WABC, which was sold for only $12.5, much much much much less than most buildings or apartments in this city. The reason? Very low ratings with an ossified, dying listenership, and practically zero growth potential in the age of podcasts and the Internet. The Chrysler Building and WABC, once mighty NYC institutions, were victims of the changes of this decade.

Another big-time radio station in NYC that wasn't just sold but vanished altogether was WPLJ, where I used to intern, another demographic/technology victim.

One thing about NYC in the 20-teens is that TV about this great city was better than ever: Mad Men, 30 Rock, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and many others reflected the wild lifes and times, both past and present, of this town. 

New York City also lost of number of icons, some from death, some from infamy: Ed Koch, Lou Reed, Al Goldstein, and Stan Brooks all died during this decade, representatives, in their very different ways, of this city during the era I call "funky town." Of course, some other NYC icons are still alive but have fallen dramatically from grace: Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner, Louis CK, and Charlie Rose all began the decade in great positions of power NYC only to end it in disgrace and irrelevance. 

The city also saw some physical transformations: Long Island City went from being a real estate desert to a real estate oasis. Hudson Yards opened, creating a brand new neighborhood in the heart of Manhattan. Pedestrian plazas and bike sharing exploded, literally changing the experience of the city streets. 

There were obviously political transformations: Occupy Wall Street (2001), a new mayor (2013), AOC and the Democratic takeover of the State Senate (largely due to elections in NYC in 2018), and naturally, a New Yorker was elected President of the United States but, instead of being a great thing, it was a national tragedy (2016). 

Sports: the Giants won the Superbowl (2012), and anyone remember "Linsanity" (also 2012)?

As always, a lot happened in NYC during the 20-teens -- some things historic, some things just moments in time. I have no doubt that NYC in the 2020s will be equally, if not more, memorable.

P.S. A couple of non end-of-the decade related stories you might find interesting: one is an obituary for an acclaimed activist-artist and another is a long story about how Robert Moses, in a rare feat of true public service, made the Met into the true "people's museum", marrying elite art with the masses, that it is today.

Riot Police Clear Out Occupy Wall Street Camp - Nov. 15th

The Middle Class Dream

Much has been made in the last few years of the divide between rich and poor in NYC and around the country. After all, that was what Occupy Wall Street was all about in 2011 and it's what propelled President Obama to a second term in 2012. 

Now, as we conclude 2013 and go into 2014, Bill De Blasio assumes the mayoralty of this town promising to make NYC an affordable place to live. But how?

A great new article in New York magazine offers some solutions. Some of them are much more achievable than others, but here's a thumbnail:

• Raise taxes on the rich to give the city more revenues
• Build lots more affordable housing, particularly in underdeveloped parts of the outer boroughs
• Increase public transit, including more late-night bus service and new subway lines
• Improve schools: universal Pre-K, longer school days, smaller class size
• Focus on the homeless and starving
• Bring back manufacturing jobs
• Reform property taxes
• More access to health care
• Help people afford college
• Establish an infrastructure trust

Some of these proposals are things De Blasio has promised to pursue, others he hasn't said if he will or not. But these sounds like good ideas to create a more aaffordable city. 
 
 

NYC in 2012

2012 is one of those years -- a Leap Year, a Summer Olympics year, and a presidential election year. It's going to be a busy, busy year in America and around the world (add to the list that this year is Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee or 60th anniversary on the throne for even more interest).

So what about NYC? 

Hard to say. Nothing big -- like a mayoral election or political convention or Superbowl -- scheduled. Anything and everything "big" that might occur (like a World Series or the continuation of Occupy Wall Street) will happen by happenstance. 2011 taught us that A LOT of unexpected stuff can happen and to shape events. Only time will tell.

Talking about time, today is an anniversary of sorts: January 1, 2012 marks the 10th anniversary since Mike Bloomberg became mayor. Yes, that's right, he's been mayor for a whole decade now. It's getting hard to remember a time when he wasn't mayor. (If my kid had been born ten years ago when he became mayor, she'd be in the fourth grade by now. Scary). 

So the Decade of Bloomberg is official. And there's only two years to go! Let's hope for him, and the city, 2012 all goes well. That'll be good for all New Yorkers.

Election Night Live Blog

11:32  PM - Here's the run down thus far:

NYC elected its first Democratic mayor in 20 years. 

NYC elected a new Comptroller and Public Advocate, both Democrats. 

Four new borough presidents were elected in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn (3 Democrats) and Staten Island (1 Republican). The Bronx borough president (1 Democrat) was reelected. 

The City Council still has still competitive races in Howard Beach (Queens), Brighton Beach (Brooklyn), and Bayside (Queens). Otherwise there are 2 safe Republican seats and 46 safe Democratic seats. I'll update these races tomorrow.

The Manhattan DA Cy Vance (Democrat) is a safe bet for reelection. And it looks like Ken Thompson (Democrat) will finally oust Charles Hynes (Democrat turned Republican) as Brooklyn DA. 

That's the conclusion of Mr NYC's first election night live blog. Hope you enjoyed it. See you again in four years. 

11:01 PM - Referendums that has passed thus far: Civil Service Credits, Debt Limit, Land Dispute. 

11:00 PM - Ruben Diaz re-elected as Bronx Borough President. 

10:58 PM - District 32 city council race is back to being a nail-biter. Simon is leading by about 2 points. 

10:57 PM - "We all rise together." De Blasio has concluded his victory speech. 

10:55 PM - De Blasio says that inequality in NYC has been "decades in the making" but "we stand united by a shared optimism ... our toughness is unmatched, our will is unbreakable ... the road ahead will be difficult but it will be traveled."

10:52 PM - De Blasio vows to fight hospitals from becoming luxury condos. 

10:49 PM - De Blasio declares that people's success should be due to their hard work and dreams and not "their zip code."

10:48 PM - Democrat Chaim Deutsch now leading Republican Storobin in District 48. 

10:45 PM - De Blasio gives a shout out to his Italian ancestors and thanks Joe Lhota for a spirited race. Says he wants to earn the trust of those people who didn't vote for him. 

10:43 PM - De Blasio thanks his supporters.  

10:41 PM - De Blasio declares "our work is just beginning ... the people of this city have chosen a progressive path ... together as one city." Then repeats this part in Spanish. 

10:38 PM - Bill De Blasio taking the stage to deliver his victory speech.

10:37 PM - James Oddo elected Staten Island Borough President (first Republican victory of the night).

10:35 PM - Bill De Blasio's wife is introducing her husband at the victory party in Brooklyn. 

10:34 PM - Gale Brewer elected Manhattan Borough President. 

10:23 PM - In the Brighton Beach City Council race (District 48) Republican David Storobin is currently leading his Democratic and Working Families Party opponents. Scary. This will be an interesting one. 

10:18 PM - Exit polls show De Blasio winning Queens by 65%. Along with a Democrat leading an incumbent Republican in a conservative City Council race, this election is bearing out my previous blog post about Queens being "the Ohio of NYC." Looks like Queens went hard for Democrats this year, thus giving De Blasio a huge margin - and a real mandate for his agenda.

10:12 PM - More results in Howard Beach (District 32) race in: Simon is leading 54% to 46%. 

10:06 PM - Kenneth Thompson leading Charles Hynes in Brooklyn DA's race. 

10:01 PM - Some City Council results are coming in: closest race is in Howard Beach, with Republican Eric Ulrich and Lew Simon currently splitting the vote 50/50. This will be an interesting one. 

9:57 PM - Scott Stringer declaring victory as Comptroller-elect. 

9:46 PM - All NYS ballot initiatives are leading. 

9:45 PM - Republican Joe Lhota is conceding the race for mayor. Guess De Blasio is polishing his victory speech. 

9:35 PM - Tish James making her victory speech, declaring herself Public Advocate-Elect. No real results in but she had no Republican opponent. Becomes the first black woman elected to city-wide office. 

9:33 PM - With 1% of vote reporting, De Blasio leads Lhota 72%-27%. 

9:19 PM - On NY1 caller attributes De Blasio victory to Occupy Wall Street movement. 

9:10 PM - Uncontested city council races (in districts 1, 9, 21, 25, 26, 35) all won by Democrats. 

9:02 PM - NY Times publishes exit poll: De Blasio elected mayor. But real results not in yet so it ain't official (obviously).

9:00 PM - Polls have closed across the city. Game on! 

8:40 PM - It's election night in NYC! In 20 minutes the polls will close and results will start pouring in from around the city. This is an experiment: Mr NYC will blog election results as the races are called in real time. I'll try post as many as humanly possible. Off we go!