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They were dancing up in Harlem. Down in Union Square. Can’t forget Fort Greene.

Yes, he’s doing it partly because his rich-guy friends stroked his ego, telling him how the city, in its darkest hours, desperately needs his singular talents and wisdom.

Just as New York and the rest of the country stagger into a profound recession, we’ll be dedicating two new towering, taxpayer-subsidized monuments to excess and misplaced priorities�two of the core impulses that have always animated the city.

The city’s mayors inevitably tend toward the imperial and autocratic. Why did we think this one would be different?

More than 50 years ago, Donnie Walsh was a star guard in the Bronx. Now the blunt, jovial general manager is using his vast network in the city and the NBA to bring peace and�it is hoped�victories to a troubled team.

The mayors�and the crises they had to deal with�were very different. But the challenges of governing New York are remarkably similar over time.

If the mayor wants to change the term-limits law�and go for a three-peat�the Wall Street crisis provides the perfect opportunity.

As the tyrant fades away and his team fades with him, it has now become all too apparent that the Boss was really the straw that stirred the drink.

In the wake of the Mollen Commission, NYPD housecleaners have flushed out bad cops but haven't fixed the system.

Saturday Night Live at twenty�how the show that transformed TV became a grim joke.