Where's Howard Wolfson When You Need Him?

On Monday, Bloomberg shill Howard Wolfson tweeted the following:

No murders in NYC last week. Murders down 26% this year off last year's record low.
— howard wolfson (@howiewolf) October 14, 2013

The NY Times today:

After a seven-day stretch in which no homicides were recorded in New York City, five occurred in 10 hours on Friday and Saturday. 

Three killings occurred in the Bronx, and two in Brooklyn. As of Saturday evening, no arrests had been made.

The Bloomberg administration claims New York City is on track to have the lowest number of murders in over fifty years.

But given how they play funny with the emergency response time stats, the crime stats, the graduation rates and the test scores, there are some skeptics out there:

"@howiewolf MT: No NYC murder last week. Murders down 26% this year.” @azi Serious Question: murder being defined/determined same way?
— Rebecca G (@WZora) October 14, 2013

Guarantee you, they're playing funny with the murder stats too. 

"Accidents" and "suicides" abound in this city...

Bloomberg Administration: We Went A Whole Week Without A Murder!

No murders in NYC last week. Murders down 26% this year off last year's record low.
— howard wolfson (@howiewolf) October 14, 2013

That tweet got some interesting reactions:

@azi @nycmayorsoffice First time I've seen a mayor's office call attention to 6 days without a reported murder.
— BinghamtonNow (@BinghamtonNow) October 14, 2013

And this:

"@howiewolf MT: No NYC murder last week. Murders down 26% this year.” @azi Serious Question: murder being defined/determined same way?
— Rebecca G (@WZora) October 14, 2013

Only in Bloomberg's New York does someone actually ask the mayor's minion, after he brags that there have been no murders in the city in a week, if they've changed the definition of "murder."

And that's because the data they hawk here in Bloombergville is often hard to be believe.

The test scores, the graduation rates, the crime stats, the emergency response times, etc. - all phonied up.

"Scissors-Wielding Lunatic" Slashes Five People, Including 2 Year Old, On UWS

Gee, doesn't Howard Wolfson live up there?

A scissors-wielding lunatic stabbed and slashed five victims in a Riverside Park rampage before he was subdued Tuesday morning by a brave passerby, police said.

An 18-month-old boy and his father were among those targeted as they strolled through the Manhattan park before the unprovoked 7:58 a.m. attack by a homeless man, police said.

Crazed assailant Julius James Graham, 43, who was living at a Harlem shelter, unleashed his rage without warning on a bright October morning. He was taken down by a passing good Samaritan and held until police arrived.

New York City - safest it's been since the 1940's!

So says Howard Wolfson.

Except for the motorcycle gangs taking over the West Side Highway, the lunatics slashing people in Riverside Park, the crazed men punching people into comas in Union Square and the gay bashing gangs stomping people in Brooklyn.

Other than that, it's safe as hell.

Bloomberg Tells Walcott: Drinks Are On Me!

Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Walcott took what the New York Daily News termed a "victory lap" yesterday over the Common Core test scores:

Cheers to us!

Under relentless criticism from his would-be successors, Mayor Bloomberg took a victory lap Monday over the fact that 22 of the 25 top-ranked schools on new state tests are in the city.

The mayor even suggested that his teetotaling Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott toast the results.

“You can have an extra drink tonight, it can be cranberry juice or vodka tonic, anything you want, but you deserve it,” Bloomberg said.

Sixteen of the 22 highly ranked schools have selective admissions, so only top students can get in.

Bloomberg said it was cause for celebration that city schools can compete with “wealthy suburbs."

“In ’01, zero out of the 25 best schools in the state were in New York City. Today, 22 out of the 25 schools,” he said. “I don’t know how you could write anything other than, ‘It is just amazing.’”

Actually the test scores have plummeted during Bloomberg's Reign of Error over the city school system - first in 2010 when the state admitted to test score inflation and city scores fell 26 points in reading and 24 points in math (to 42.4% proficiency in reading, 53% in math), then again in 2013 when the state changed the 3rd-8th grade tests to the so-called Common Core and test scores fell to 26% proficiency in reading, 30% in math.

Bloomberg has hawked tests scores throughout his Reign of Error as proof positive his Children First education reforms are working, so he has had to live and die by the test score numbers.

With scores now lower than they have ever been and with this his final year in office, he has been looking for any way he can to fool people into thinking his Reign of Error over the NYCDOE hasn't been a disaster.

Thus the "Hey, we've got 22 out of the top 25 schools!" bit (even though they've manipulated that by using selective admissions to certain schools.)

It's pathetic, really, and I bet even Walcott, who sort of lives in reality, knows that (I've always suspected Walcott's just in this for the money he will make off Bloomberg when his governmental service is done - Bloomberg is notoriously generous to those who stick by him.)

Bloomberg, however, believes his own b.s., so I have no doubt he really thinks he's done a swell job with the schools, despite having to spin the new Common Core test scores as another Bloombergian victory when they are anything but.

The Mayor of Money surrounds himself with yes men and women like Howard Wolfson and Dennis Walcott who never tell him anything he doesn't want to hear, so he's rarely given the opportunity to have to confront reality as it is rather than reality as he wants to see it.

As NYC Educator noted in a comment on another post I wrote about Bloomberg and his beloved statistics:

What I notice is when scores go up, it's great. When they're proven inflated and static, that's also great. And when they introduce new tests and scores plummet, that's great too.

So I guess when you're Wolfson, you just can't lose.

 And indeed, that seems to be the case.

No matter what the stats are, what the test scores are, Bloomberg always wins!

No wonder the drinks are on him.

Ever Notice How All The Stats Are The "Best Ever" Under Bloomberg?

Howard Wolfson responds to criticism of the police shooting two innocent bystanders in Times Square on Saturday with this:

@mattapuzzo @mikiebarb the NYPD is on pace to have appro 70 police shooting incidents this year, which is the lowest since records were kept
— howard wolfson (@howiewolf) September 15, 2013

Highest test scores under Bloomberg - until they were exposed as inflated.

Sky-rocketing graduation rates - except the numbers are inflated by credit recovery programs that give semester credits for tasks like watching movies.

Best crime stats ever - except there is ample evidence the police are manipulating the stats.

Quickest emergency response time ever - except they don't count the time callers spend on the line with 911 operators, thus making the stats look better than they are.

News stories abound of NYPD cops shooting lots of people in the last calendar year - but Wolfson says the approximately 70 police shootings will be "the lowest since records were kept."

So many of the statistics and so much of the data that Bloomberg and his minions hawk to prove Bloomberg is the bestest thing ever are phonied up.

I have a difficult time believing anything Wolfson says in general, but especially when he uses phrases like "the lowest since records were kept."

Too much manipulation and out-and-out fraud perpetrated by this administration (though often ignored by the corporate media) to believe these stats.

Sorry - not every stat in NYC can be the "lowest ever" or the "best ever," the way Bloomberg and his hired henchmen claim.

Howard Dean On What De Blasio's Candidacy Means

There aren't too many Democrats I like or respect these days, but Howard Dean is one.

Here is what Dean did today:

Top Bloomberg aide Howard Wolfson went on NY1 last night and criticized Bill de Blasio's mayoral platform, arguing that the public advocate was inconsistent on term limits and would bring New York City back to the high-crime era of the 1970s. 

This morning, de Blasio appeared with 2004 presidential candidate and former national Democratic chairman Howard Dean at a subway stop at 72nd Street and Broadway.

"Howard does a great job of providing spin for Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn," de Blasio said. Asked if the concerted attacks on him meant he was the front-runner, de Blasio laughed and turned to Dean.

"When you have one of the greatest spinmeisters in the American political scene attacking Bill de Blasio, that's a pretty good indication he has a good chance of being the next mayor," said Dean.

"Well said," said de Blasio.

I asked Dean what de Blasio's campaign meant nationally for progressive Democrats.

He said, "Bill is not some starry-eyed progressive who thinks money grows on trees. He knows that you have to balance budgets. He knows that you have to make tough decisions. But he has a different vision of the world."

He added, "I think Bill would be a great leader to have New York re-put its stamp on the rest of the world."

Let's see - Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg's slimy attack dog, hammering de Blasio on NY 1, Howard Dean defending de Blasio at 72nd Street.

Gee, which Howard do I listen to?

Know A Man By The Enemies He Makes

NYC Educator says if Weingarten, Bloomberg and Wolfson don't like de Blasio, there may be something to him.

I think he makes a good point.

Diane Ravitch made some good points in her endorsement of de Blasio as well.

Let's see - Ravitch for, Weingarten/Wolfson/Bloomberg against.

Hmm, which side am I on...

Bloomberg Sends Howard Wolfson On NY1 To Attack Bill De Blasio

First former UFTer Randi Weingarten attacked de Blasio today, now Howie Wolfson, one of the slimiest people on the face of the planet (and also a former UFT consultant) attacked de Blasio as well:

Just in case it wasn’t already clear from the barbs on his Twitter feed, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson is not a fan of Bill de Blasio’s vision for the city.

During an appearance tonight on NY1, the man who has become the mayor’s chief mouthpiece, continued to dig into the sudden front-runner in the mayor’s race, doubling down on previous criticism and accusing the city’s public advocate of flip-flopping on term limits. The attack comes as various forces are ramping up their efforts to halt Mr. de Blasio’s unexpected gains in the polls with just two weeks to go until the primary.

Mr. Wolfson began by defending a recent tweet that summed up Mr. de Blasio’s agenda as “higher taxes, bigger govt, more biz mandates. A u-turn back to the 70s.” He said that, while Mr. de Blasio might disagree with the “phraseology,” there’s no doubt that Mr. de Blasio wants to reverse course on the Bloomberg years.

“You know, I think we’ve had the best 12 years of the city’s history in the last 12 years and Bill de Blasio wants to undo that,” argued Mr. Wolfson, who has known Mr. de Blasio for years. “He wants to take the city back to a different style of governing, where we had higher taxes, where we had more regulation on business, where we had more permissive policing.”

“I think it would be a mistake,” he concluded. “We tried that in New York … It looked like 1974. And it wasn’t a pretty picture in the 70s and 80s here and I don’t think New Yorkers want to go back to that. I don’t think we want to undo 12 of the best year’s in the city’s history.”

Later, Mr. Wolfson attacked Mr. de Blasio for changing his mind on term limits, saying that he’d been personally confused by Mr. de Blasio’s change of heart since 2005.

“Consistency on the campaign trail is important. I have been confused as a voters, as a citizen, about his position on term limits,” said Mr. Wolfson, echoing a recent talking point used by Mr. de Blasio’s rival, Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s campaign. When Mr. de Blasio ran for speaker in 2005, said Mr. Wolfson, he “was very clear that he wanted to overturn term limits and that he wanted to do it legislatively.”

“So I’m confused as to how somebody who had that position in 2005 now running for mayor has a different position and says what we need to do is criticize others for changing term limits,” he added. “That does not make sense to me and I find it confusing in the context of the campaign that he’s using this as a primary means of attack, mostly against my boss.”

Mr. Wolfson was also asked about today’s New York Times front-page story examining  Mr. de Blasio’s leadership as manager of Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate campaign–on which Mr. Wolfson served as chief spokesman. According to the paper, Mr. de Blasio was “frequently indecisive” and sometimes “agonizingly inefficient in a high-pressure, ever-shifting situation. Mr. de Blasio rejected those claims when asked by Politicker today.

But Mr. Wolfson, all too inclined to rip into Mr. de Blasio on his policy agenda, side-stepped the question.

“You now, I’m not gong to criticize his tenure on the campaign. I enjoyed working with him on that campaign. He and I are friends,” he repeated several times, before concluding that Mr. de Blasio is “a good guy,”

“You know, I don’t think he’s  the right person to be mayor,” he added, “but he’s a good person.”

Howie Wolfson, as hired political gun, will stick the shiv in, but only so far.

What a guy.

You can see the desperation the establishment is feeling over de Blasio's rise in the polls.

It's weird, really, since I'm sure de Blasio can be bought off if he were to get elected mayor.

Yet they're really going at him with guns ablazin' .

Makes you wonder if the internal polls are showing an increased de Blasio lead and they're trying to cut him off at the pass before next week.

Or maybe they're just taking no chances and going extra heavy anyway.

Regardless of the reason, given the firepower they're sending out after him from the press, from the unions, now from the Bloomberg administration, it seems pretty clear they feel threatened by him.

Why Are Wolfson And Bloomberg Attacking Thompson?

Political hack Howard Wolfson has been given three pages in the Daily News to attack the UFT and Bill Thompson while shilling for Bloomberg's education policies and legacy.

I'm going to leave the lies and manipulated data Wolfson spews to sell Bloomberg's policies and agenda for others to knock down.

What I'm interested in is why Wolfson and Bloomberg are feeling the need to attack Thompson.

To be frank, while Thompson is talking some about changing Bloomberg's school policies, a lot of his education agenda is little different from Bloomberg's education agenda.

Thompson is not anti-charter.

Thompson will not charge charter schools rent for stealing space from public schools.

Thompson wants to add more days to the school year and more time to the school day.

Thompson praised Bloomberg for refusing to give teachers the 4%/4% pattern raise every other union in the city got.

Thompson wants to continue mayoral control.

Sure, there are some subtle changes Thompson says he wants to make to Bloomberg's policies, perhaps around the emphasis on testing, but I'll believe those changes will happen when I actually see them happen and not until then.

Plus, with APPR state law forcing both increased state testing and increased local testing, it's hard to see how Thompson can change the insane testing schedules we have these days anyway even if he wanted to (which I doubt he does, in any case.)

So why is Bloomberg having Thompson attacked for his alleged education policy crimes in the pages of the Daily News?

Sure, the UFT endorsed him, but Merryl Tisch is the co-chair of his campaign and Al D'amato is one of his bundlers.

Thompson is hardly some radical bomb thrower looking to wash away the Bloomberg polices and turn the NYC school system into some bastion of progressive education.

So why are they attacking him?

Is this some reverse psychological operation to fool people who want an end to Bloomberg's education policies to vote for Thompson because they think he'll end Bloomberg's education policies while Bloomberg has some secret deal to ensure that Thompson will keep them in place?

As Tom Robbins pointed out in the NY Post today, Bloomberg uses his billions like this all the time, paying people under the table and in the back room to do what he wants.

I can see them attacking Thompson in public for saying he wants to break with Bloomberg's education policies while paying Thompson off behind the scenes to keep those policies in place.

As Norm Scott always says about the UFT, don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.

The same goes for Bloomberg, Thompson, and Wolfson.

The words mean nothing - the actions are what count.

Backlash Against Bloomberg NRA Comment Grows

From the NY Times:

Of all the polarizing things Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said and done over the years, from banning large sugary drinks to supporting congestion pricing, few have generated the sort of viral backlash that has unexpectedly mounted after his weekly radio show on Friday. 

The mayor had embarked on a lengthy stream of consciousness on the need to negotiate a new teacher evaluation plan with the United Federation of Teachers. Toward the end, Mr. Bloomberg, almost as an aside, likened the teachers’ union to groups like the National Rifle Association and others in which he said a few leaders were out of sync with large numbers of rank-and-file members. 

“It’s typical of Congress, it’s typical of unions, it’s typical of companies, I guess, where a small group is really carrying the ball and the others aren’t necessarily in agreement,” Mr. Bloomberg said to the program host, John Gambling. “The N.R.A. is another place where the membership, if you do the polling, doesn’t agree with the leadership.” 

The comparison drew somewhat of a muted response. Michael Mulgrew, the president of the union, issued a one-sentence statement later on Friday saying the remark was “completely inappropriate” and indicative of the continuing difficulty in the union’s relationship with the mayor

But by Sunday, 70 people had signed a letter by the union to the mayor, which said the union was among the first to give counseling and other help to those in Newtown, Conn., after the school shootings there on Dec. 14. 

Among those who signed the letter were most of the presumptive Democratic mayoral candidates. Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, had not signed it as of Sunday evening, but her aides said she intended to. 

And on Monday, the union was scheduled to hold a news conference to underscore its outrage and to demand that the mayor apologize. 

This was not the first time Mr. Bloomberg had invoked the National Rifle Association when registering his frustration with the city teachers’ union and others. He voiced similar opinions at a news conference in 2007, in the face of resistance to part of his educational agenda at the time. 

“As the mayor has said before, the union is a special-interest group focused on advancing its agenda, whether it’s in the public interest or not,” Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said in a statement on Sunday. “Their refusal to agree to a fair evaluation deal is just the latest example of this.”

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers and the former president of its New York City affiliate, wrote a separate letter to the mayor, noting that two of the adults killed in Connecticut were members of her union. She said that despite Mr. Bloomberg’s “great work” on gun safety, he owed the city teachers and its union leaders an apology “for making such incendiary and insensitive remarks — especially coming on the heels of the tragedy in Newtown.”

Couple of things here:

Howard Wolfson is one of the slimiest people in the planet.

Do you know how you know when Wolfson is bullshitting you?

He's talking or issuing a statement, that's how.

So Wolfson can take his "Teachers are a 'special interest' group looking to promote their own agenda even though it hurts the kids!" comment and shove it deep.

If anybody pursues an agenda contrary to the public interest, it's scum like Wolfson - a political consultant without morals or scruples, a man whose sole political agenda is furthering his employer's agenda and thus furthering his own political career.

In fact, if anybody ought to be compared to an NRA member, it's political gun for hire Wolfson.

Next, Bloomberg won't apologize for this because he's too rich to have to apologize for anything.

He's like the Fonz on Happy Days - he just can't say when he's w-r-r-r-r-rong...

That neither Bloomberg nor Wolfson have the capacity to apologize for the slur comparing teachers to NRA members, especially after Newtown, just goes to show you what awful people they are.

NY Post: Marathon Generators Desperately Needed By Sandy Victims Sit Idle In NJ

For Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it's Children First.  Always - so long as those children are the children of marathon runners:

This is one heck of a power trip.

Much-needed generators sat idle all day yesterday in a rental company’s New Jersey parking lot after they were moved from the Staten Island staging area of the New York City Marathon — less than two miles from some of superstorm Sandy’s hardest-hit victims.

A truck carrying 19 generators pulled out early yesterday from Fort Wadsworth and drove to Linden, NJ, where they sat unused for five hours before being hauled to National Grid’s Far Rockaway power station.

The time-wasting move came the day after Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson claimed that all assets from the canceled marathon “will be redeployed to people who need it.”

A massive marathon generator — big enough to power dozens of homes — was still sitting in the lot late yesterday, with a “Road Runners” sign taped to its side. Another unit was trucked yesterday morning from the borough over the Goethals Bridge to New Jersey and parts unknown.

Even after The Post revealed last week how NYC Marathon organizers and the city were allowing precious generators to stand in Central Park while millions of city residents suffered without heat or light, 14 of the massive electrical units remained in the park last night. Only two were actually being used.

Meanwhile, 10 heaters were hooked up in the canceled race’s medical tent, even though they’re no longer needed.

One 200-kilowatt generator in the park was finally moved yesterday morning to the city-run Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility on Roosevelt Island, where frail, elderly residents had gone without heat in their rooms for nearly a week, according to an insider. Yet, inexplicably, the generator was still not plugged in last night.

The two 300-kilowatt generators featured on the front page of Friday’s Post were wastefully running for days in Central Park until yesterday afternoon, when they were finally hauled off, supposedly to storm-ravaged regions.

Another 100-kilowatt generator was also hauled out after sitting idle for days.

The generator roulette enraged New Yorkers suffering with a crippling lack of power, fresh water, food and shelter after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the region last week.

“Staten Island needed those generators,” said Matt Naporko, 30, whose home was completely leveled by the storm. “Even if they helped power one or two more houses, it’s better than nothing. Why waste them by putting them away?”

“It’s like the end of the world here,” said Nick Moudataos, 55, of the devastated Midland Beach section of the island. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime disaster. We don’t have time to guess or play games. You’re playing with people’s lives . . . Give the people what they need.”

“Those generators were a lot of people’s last hopes,” said Brian Kelly, 38, of Midland Beach.
The generators were among at least 45 set aside by the New York Road Runners for the marathon, a race finally scrapped Friday by Mayor Bloomberg after thousands of runners, storm victims and politicians clamored for its cancellation.

Staten Island was still starving for juice, as officials yesterday announced that they were actually bringing in generators from out of state, according to a report.
Marathon officials on Friday had pledged to send marathon resources to help the storm’s victims.

“We have tents set up, we have a lot of Port-a-Johns, we have a lot of things that can be helpful,” said Mary Wittenberg, president of the NYRR. “Whatever we can do to help we’ll be doing helping, including generators and otherwise.”

But many generators have sat idle.

The Coler-Goldwater hospital became a shadowy house of horrors for hundreds of disabled and elderly patients “left to rot,” an insider told The Post — and a generator from the New York City Marathon sat unused at the hospital yesterday.

“The patients are freezing. There’s still no heat,” said a tipster at the home.

A Post reporter who visited Thursday night found one of two buildings lit and the other dark, with some small generators providing meager light in the halls.

One large generator was running yesterday, but a second, 200-kilowatt power source — which came from the marathon’s Central Park finish line and was brought in after The Post inquired about the miserable conditions — was not even turned on.

During the blackout, meals consisted of white bread with cheese or tuna, the insider said. Breakfast on Friday was just grits, with no juice or fruit.

Some in need of medical equipment were evacuated after the storm.

There was a skeleton crew and no batteries for radios, the tipster said.

“They’re letting people sit and rot,” the insider said.

And there is a simple for reason for that.

It's because Mayor Bloomberg and the merry men and women around him do not care about these people.

At all.

In so many ways, this really has turned into our Katrina.

When Bloomberg finally canceled the NYC Marathon on Friday, he said the resources that were being saved for the race would go to storm victims.

He certainly didn't work all that hard to keep that promise, did he?

There are two New Yorks as there are two Americas - and Bloomberg and the city government serve the one with the power (both literally and figuratively), the connections and the money.

Bloomberg Vows To Do Layoffs Anyway

From the NY Observer, we learn that the Mayor of Money is NOT happy with the Cuomo bill, will not support it if he does not get a repeal of teacher LIFO protections by Thursday, and signaled plans to lay off 4,666 teachers no matter what

Mayor Bloomberg further distanced himself from Governor Andrew Cuomo today, telling reporters "the length of time that you have worked is irrelevant" to evaluating teachers.

Unnamed Bloomberg aides were quoted in the Daily News saying Cuomo's legislation to revise teacher seniority rules were a "sham" and, possibly, the created by the teacher's union.

Cuomo's proposal would take seniority into account, along with a as-yet-to-be created evaluation system.

Speaking at Pier 92 for the start of their annual art show, Bloomberg said "the length of time that you have worked is irrelevant to whether or not you can do what our children need." When asked about comments attributed to his unnamed aides, Bloomberg would only say he hasn't seen the governor's bill.

While the mayor didn't attack the governor as harshly as his anonymous aides did, Bloomberg did make clear exactly what he wanted the governor to do.

"There is a simple test that we're going to apply to anything that he does," said Bloomberg. "Does it repeal 'Last in First Out,' that law, and allow the city to lay off teachers based on merit this year? Anything short of that will harm our students and jeopardize the [progress] that we made to the schools."

"The governor still has two days to put the senate bill in his budget," Bloomberg said. "If it doesn't repeal LIFO, it simply kicks the can down the road and it will kick some of our best teachers to the curb and I think that would be a travesty."

Many around the ed blogosphere are convinced that he won't actually go through with layoffs if he's forced to get rid of his precious newbies.

They may be right.

But as of now, he's still acting as if he's ready to do that.

Albeit, less vociferously than his "anonymous" aides (i.e., Howard Wolfson and Stu Loesser.)

Bonfire of the Bloombergs

Tell me this doesn't sound like a scene out of Bonfire of the Vanities:

The doormen at 941 Park Avenue, where Cathleen P. Black occupies a penthouse apartment, have quickly transformed her morning ritual into an art form.

Determined to help Ms. Black elude the reporters who waited outside her building starting at 5:15 a.m. Monday, they orchestrated a seamless, starlet-worthy, question-dodging, cab-to-curb handoff of the woman poised to become New York City’s next school’s chancellor.

At 7:05 a.m., a top-hatted valet emerged from the marble lobby, hailed a cab, opened its door and stood sentry by the passenger seat. A moment later, a second attendant appeared, carrying a very undoorman-like Longchamp handbag over his shoulder and deposited it into the car.

Ms. Black, head down, trench coat buckled tightly, followed.

A reporter stood in her path. “Can we ask you a few questions?” he asked.

“No, you can’t,” she said, rushing by.

The cab door slammed shut. The vehicle took off.

(Half an hour before, Ms Black’s husband, Thomas E. Harvey, had made a much friendlier exit, with the family Labrador, Madison. He had explained, good-naturedly, that Ms. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, would be happy to speak with reporters. “Cathie has been in the media all of her career,” Mr. Harvey said. “She appreciates what you do in the media.”)

(“Talk to her,” he said. “She’s very approachable. I am sure she won’t. …”)

(Mind? She had certainly seemed to. But the reporters decided to take him at his word and press on.)

Ten minutes later, they tried again, with the help of a heavily incentivized taxi driver, beating Ms. Black to the front of the Hearst Tower on 57th Street.

The journalists, however, were not the only ones waiting for her there. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, the mayor’s top political adviser, stood in front of the building, sipping a Coke Zero, and looking surprised — and not especially thrilled — to see the reporters.

Soon enough, two of Mr. Wolfson’s City Hall colleagues arrived: Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott, who specializes in education, and Micah C. Lasher, the city’s top lobbyist in Albany (where Ms. Black must obtain a waiver to take the chancellor’s job, given her slight background in education).

What were the three men doing there at such a tender hour? “I live around the corner,” Mr. Lasher said, mischievously, as they walked into the building to await Ms. Black so they could continue briefing her on all things education.

At 7:30 a.m. or so, Ms. Black, stone faced, marched toward the entrance. A reporter ventured another question, explaining she had been waiting to speak with Ms. Black since 5:15 am.

Ms. Black looked unmoved. “That’s great,” she said, stepping into the revolving door.

She did not respond to several inquires, turning her back as she hopped onto one of the building’s distinctive diagonal escalators.

“Are you excited for your new job?” one of the reporters asked. Without turning, midway up the escalator, Ms. Black finally answered a question.

“Very,” she said.

They're doing anything they can to keep members of the media from talking to her.

Gotta give Bloomberg and Company credit for one thing: they've learned from the mistakes made by both Harriet Miers and Sarah Palin.

But what does it say about the incoming chancellor that these are the kinds of desperate measures they're taking to keep her away from the press?