In a hectic first full day as New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio introduced himself to a wary police force on Thursday, navigated unfamiliar hallways with a skeletal staff and confronted an imminent winter storm that might have rattled even the most experienced municipal manager,” the New York Times reports.

“As he rushed between tours and televised briefings, the new mayor also had to contend with a growing political headache: lingering questions over the treatment afforded to his predecessor at the inaugural ceremony the day before.”

“Bill de Blasio, whose fiery populism propelled his rise from obscure neighborhood official to the 109th mayor of New York, was sworn into office on Wednesday, pledging that his ambition for a more humane and equal metropolis would remain undimmed,” the New York Times reports.

“In his inaugural address, Mayor de Blasio described social inequality as a ‘quiet crisis’ on a par with the other urban cataclysms of the city’s last half-century, from fiscal collapse to crime waves to terrorist attacks, and said income disparity was a struggle no less urgent to confront.”

“An analysis by the New York Times shows that Mr. Bloomberg has doled out at least $650 million on a wide variety of perks and bonuses, political campaigns and advocacy work, charitable giving and social causes, not to mention travel and lodging, connected to his time and role as mayor.”

“In the process, he has entirely upended the financial dynamics surrounding New York’s top job. In the past, the city paid its mayor; Mr. Bloomberg paid to be the city’s mayor.”

New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s swearing-in event “will feature two of the biggest names in Democratic politics: former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” Politicker reports.

“Mr. Clinton himself will officially swear in Mr. de Blasio next Wednesday afternoon, the mayor-elect’s transition team announced.”

“Brooklyn District Attorney-elect Ken Thompson is happy to be taking Charles Hynes’ seat next week — but he says the veteran lawman can keep his throne,” the New York Post reports.

Said a source close to the outgoing DA: “Thompson wants a new toilet seat installed in the DA’s private bathroom because he doesn’t want to sit on the same toilet seat that Hynes sat on.”

“Let’s not get crazy about this diversity idea.”

— New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio (D), quoted by Politicker, laughing off the idea of appointing Republicans to his administration.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford “admitted repeated statements he has made about an incident involving Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale are inaccurate in a two-page written apology issued Wednesday evening,” the Toronto Star reports.

“In the apology, Ford confirms that many aspects of Dale’s account of that night are true, including that no pictures were taken of the mayor’s home or backyard and that Dale never set foot on the property, nor was he looking over the fence.”

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D) test drove a car as he will soon be driving himself, after 20 years of having a police officer drive him around, the Boston Globe reports.

Said Menino: “There was a button to turn on the engine! A button to call somebody. I kept looking for the clutch!”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “determined to parlay his government experience and vast fortune into a kind of global mayoralty, is creating a high-powered consulting group to help him reshape cities around the world long after he leaves office,” the New York Times reports.

“To build the new organization, paid for out of his own pocket, the billionaire mayor is taking much of his City Hall team with him: He has already hired many of his best-known and longest-serving deputies, promising them a chance to export the policies they developed in New York to far-flung places like Louisville, Ky., and Mexico City.”

Kevyn Orr, “who has never run for political office, finds himself in an extraordinary role. He holds power even more concentrated than that of the emergency control board that intervened when New York City was teetering near bankruptcy, an unelected lawyer chiefly responsible for the reinvention of a major American city in decay. And there’s a deadline — 10 months,” the New York Times reports.

“The assignment is enormous, a peculiar mix of duties, some stated and others not, for a man who by all accounts had been leading a comfortable life as a bankruptcy lawyer. His new job? Urban planner, numbers cruncher, city spokesman, negotiator, politician, good cop, bad cop.”

“If cops are not doing stop-and-frisk, they are not doing their jobs. It
is a basic, fundamental tool of police work in the whole country. If you
do away with stop-and-frisk, this city will go down the chute as fast
as anything you can imagine.”

— New York City police chief designate William Bratton, quoted by the New Yorker in May, expressing very different views than Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio.

Detroit Free Press:
“Today, Detroit has the eye of the Republican Party. This morning, the
state Republican Party will open an African American Engagement Office
as part of a nationwide effort to reach out to black voters. Then, U.S.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. — expected by many to run for president in 2016 —
will outline a plan to the Detroit Economic Club to get the bankrupt
city back on its feet by slashing taxes. Along with a grassroots event
featuring Paul at Grace Bible Chapel on Oakman, the moves are designed
to help support a Republican plan to connect with minority voters who
widely rejected the party in last year’s presidential election.”

New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio (D) named William Bratton to lead the New York Police Department, the New York Times reports.

“The move will return Mr. Bratton to the helm of the nation’s largest force at a time of historically low crime rates and a deepening rift between officers and the public. The appointment has been highly anticipated and will most likely be among the most consequential for Mr. de Blasio, who turned discontent with the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices into a key part of his winning election run.”

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s “habit of doing drugs with gang members led to him being targeted in an apparent extortion plot related to the crack cocaine video and possibly a series of photographs of him in compromising situations, newly released police documents say,” according to the Toronto Star.

“At one point earlier this year, Ford offered $5,000 and a car to a gang member in exchange for the embarrassing video, an offer that was rejected. The same gang member planned to ask for $150,000 from Ford in return for the video of him smoking crack cocaine and making homophobic and racially charged remarks.”

“Whether Ford paid and obtained the original video is not known. A copy was recently recovered by police on a laptop hardrive.”

Al Sanchez, just five months removed from federal prison, filed nominating petitions for a seat on the Cook County Board, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

He is running for “a seat vacated by William Beavers, who ironically reported to prison on the same day.”

“A federal judge has ruled Detroit is eligible to file for the nation’s largest Chapter 9 bankruptcy to help dig out from under $18 billion in debt and that city pension payments can be cut to help make that happen,” the Detroit News reports.

More significantly, the judge “ruled that Detroit pensioners do not have any additional protections outside of normal contract rights to their benefits. He said the city could slash those benefits,” though he warned Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr it should be seen as an extreme measure.

New York Times: “Under the ruling, the vastly diminished city, once the nation’s fourth largest and the cradle of the American auto industry, will be allowed to search for a way to pay off some portion of its debts and to restore essential services to tolerable levels under court supervision.”

Bloomberg: “Twenty years ago, half the 12 largest U.S. municipalities had a Republican mayor. When Bill de Blasio takes office in New York on Jan. 1, none will.”

“To punctuate an impassioned pitch for his signature plan to raise taxes on the wealthy, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio went out of his way during a speech to praise a cherished political mentor and former boss watching from the audience,” the New York Times reports.

“The recipient of his warm words, former Mayor David Dinkins, did not exactly return the favor.”

“In an unscripted and cringe-inducing moment of political candor, Mr. Dinkins opined before a crowd of journalists and academics at Columbia University that Mr. de Blasio should consider a different approach to funding an expansion of prekindergarten programs, throwing a wrench into what was meant to be a carefully choreographed day of municipal theater.”