The Powers of New York Clockwise from top left: the officials Patricia E. Harris, Raymond W. Kelly and Merryl H. Tisch; and the newer faces Masamichi Udagawa, Sigi Moeslinger and Hakeem Jeffries. The countdown clock on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's wall is running, so he can tell you exactly how many days are left in this, his third and final term: 604 on Monday. Whoever holds the mayor's office next will chart New York's direction. But succeeding Mr. Bloomberg is not the same as replacing him. His enormous wealth has enhanced his influence to a degree that no other political figure on the horizon can equal. Still, it is worth understanding where else in the city power lies, the subject of this special issue of Metropolitan. Entire classes of influence-mongers - religious leaders, representatives of ethnic and racial groups - are less formidable than they were in the past. A positive spin on that fact would be that we are now more democratic. But the diffusion of power also means that major projects often take years, even decades, to be completed, if they are built at all. Political bosses? The very phrase seems as quaint as smoke-filled rooms and spittoons. Who replaced Carmine De Sapio as the boss of the Tammany Hall political machine? No one. For that matter, a young New Yorker might well ask, What's Tammany Hall? Among labor leaders there is no one like the United Federation of Teachers" Albert Shanker to inspire a good New York inside joke like the one in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" about how life on earth changed forever when Mr. Shanker "got hold of a nuclear warhead." The diffused influence has been accelerated by the Internet, and especially by social media: forces that made possible a phenomenon like the Occupy Wall Street movement, which got us all talking about the 99 percent. But does making your presence felt in a street protest qualify as true power? The Occupy movement committed itself to shutting down the city on May Day last week. It didn't come close. If there is a single dominant force in public life, it was, is and will likely always be money. This city, remember, was founded by a trading company. If anything, the superwealthy are more powerful than ever in this age of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Still, many important levers of power remain in the hands of people who are relatively less moneyed. Attention must eternally be paid to Albany: to the governor and to legislative leaders like Sheldon Silver, speaker of the State Assembly perhaps for life. No local legislation will get far unless Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and mayoral aspirant, says it can. In "The Power Broker," his classic study of Robert Moses, Robert A. Caro wrote that power "is a drug that creates in the user a need for larger and larger dosages." That is something, perhaps, Mr. Bloomberg understands - and others on this list may soon learn. Michael R. BloombergMayor of New York City He may be a lame-duck leader whose name will likely never appear on a ballot again. And he may be remembered, ultimately, as a political anomaly whose staggering wealth and maverick streak often put him at odds with the labor and lobbying forces that have typically dominated New York City government. But don't think for a second that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg won't be the most powerful person in New York City politics even after he leaves office. After all, Mr. Bloomberg has demonstrated an unparalleled ability to change the conversation, whether through his checkbook or his policies. Sometimes, he has done this instantly, like the time he donated $250,000 to Planned Parenthood during the recent controversy involving the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. Sometimes, he has done this through dogged persistence, as when he wrested control of the city's schools from the Board of Education. Mr. Bloomberg has not given any indication of what he will do next, but he is unlikely to simply walk away from the public sphere. Maybe he will continue to exert influence and shape policies through his foundation. Maybe he will focus more attention on his media company. Or maybe he will work behind the scenes to ensure that his preferred successor wins in 2013 - and, therefore, owes him a substantial political debt. Post a Comment Graphic: Mayor Bloomberg's Circles of Power Michael R. Bloomberg's main realms of power and his key aides and allies. Chris ChristieGovernor of New Jersey Chris Christie became the governor of New Jersey at a propitious moment for a conservative Republican in a blue state. The economy was in such bad shape that even Democrats, who controlled the Legislature, were pushing for austerity measures. But Mr. Christie has also worked the power structure to get what he wants - making alliances with conservative Democrats to force teachers, police officers and firefighters to pay more of their pension and health care costs. Using a strategy his advisers refer to as "governing on the offensive," Mr. Christie keeps the Legislature guessing about what he will do next. He shows contempt for those who disagree with him (calling a former Navy Seal who disagreed with his plan to merge a Rutgers campus with another university "an idiot," for instance). But he has also shown a willingness to compromise with lawmakers to win agenda items like a cap on property taxes. His tough budgeting and tough talk ("Get the hell off the beach," he told residents of the Jersey Shore before Hurricane Irene) have made him a national star in his party and on television, and a sought-after endorsement for aspiring office holders. And that attention cements his lock on power. For while the governor does not lack for critics in New Jersey, he leaves them sputtering at home while he takes his case to a national audience, with regular appearances on weekday morning and Sunday television gabfests - not to mention a sit-down with Oprah. Democrats insist he can be beaten next year - rating agencies have said that his revenue projections are too optimistic and that his budget is "structurally unbalanced." But deal-making with the governor has left the state's Democrats divided, and they have yet to coalesce around a candidate to take him on. Andrew M. CuomoGovernor of New York When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo proclaimed, "I am the government" during a recent radio interview, he wasn't translating the utterances of Louis XIV. He was talking about himself. And perhaps New York's 56th governor has reason to feel monarchical. His poll numbers are sky high, and he is clearly the dominant politician in New York. He controls the Democratic Party and has a truce of sorts with the Republicans, content to let the party carve up the state's Senate districts to help it maintain control of the Legislature's upper house this fall. His résumé of accomplishments balances a largely centrist fiscal agenda with a signature progressive achievement - making New York the largest state to legalize same-sex marriage. He has also had a knack for deftly splitting the difference. After he declined to extend the so-called millionaires" tax, he appeared unnerved by the Occupy Wall Street movement and restructured the tax code to keep about half of the revenue that the tax would have brought in. The Washington Post recently declared him the winner of a Sweet 2016 contest of front-runners for the 2016 presidential race, though the governor has demurred. Going national could be a challenge for a politician who places a premium on secrecy and bristles at opposition. As the governor's former top aide, Steven M. Cohen, recently described the Cuomo philosophy, "We operate at two speeds here: get along and kill." Raymond W. KellyPolice Commissioner Most police commissioners derive their clout from the mayor they serve, but Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has spent a lifetime moving through New York's corridors of power - and it shows. The only man who has held the job two times, for Democratic and Republican mayors, he has now run the department longer than any of his predecessors. The forces aligned with him are reflected in the names in his Rolodex: prosecutors, authors, bankers, government officials in the United States and abroad, real estate executives, lawyers, politicians and law enforcement leaders, as well as Howard J. Rubenstein, the public relations guru, and a former president, Bill Clinton. "That's just a sampling," said Paul J. Browne, the aide who provided the list and serves as the department's chief spokesman. I didn't want to overwhelm you with any more. Polls reflect Mr. Kelly's continuing popularity, ratings that are the envy of politicians, even as he endured waves of turmoil last year over corruption scandals, the department's street-stop and surveillance methods, and a level of budget-cutting that has shrunk the force to 35,000 officers from more than 40,000 in 2000. On April 20, President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, came to 1 Police Plaza and expressed support for Mr. Kelly, saying the "N.Y.P.D. does tremendous work, day in and day out." As he was in 2008, Mr. Kelly has been suggested as a mayoral contender for next year's run for City Hall, though he has not publicly expressed interest in the office. Antenna DesignDesign Sigi Moeslinger, left, and Masamichi Udagawa. In a square, one-room office on West 23rd Street, two rarely seen faces wield untold influence over the daily lives of millions of New Yorkers. They are Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger, and if you ride the subways, chances are that their work influences the quality of this most intimate human encounter. Mr. Udagawa, 47, and Ms. Moeslinger, 44, are the principals of Antenna Design, the company behind the last major changes to New York's subway cars, in 2000 and 2006. Of the city's 6,374 subway cars, 3,504 bear the pair's interior and exterior designs, as do MetroCard vending machines and other accouterments of underground life. These are people who obsess about the effects of steel dust on MetroCard readers or the ways light and color can influence riders" moods. "We subscribe to the idea of City Beautiful," Mr. Udagawa said, referring to an architectural and urban-planning movement from the 1890s and 1900s that sought to use attractive design to make people better citizens. It promotes the idea that a nice environment creates nice behavior. Doing that underground, in a crowded, smelly subway system, presents challenges. "A simple trick can go a long way," Mr. Udagawa said. The new trains have a glossy black floor and light ceilings and walls, which make the space feel bigger than it is. The two designed cars with digital station listings to help passengers track their progress, and with diagonal metal bars by the doors because, Ms. Moeslinger said, if the bars were horizontal, riders would climb them. "We're trying to lead people to behavior," she said. But there are limits to how much design can control the situation. Then you have to come in with rules and regulations. Preet BhararaFederal Court In the past year, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, has done more than anyone to affect New York's political landscape - and he has never held elected office. As Manhattan's chief federal prosecutor, Mr. Bharara, 43, is best known for his aggressive prosecution of Wall Street crime, but he has also won corruption convictions against State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, once the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; the lobbyist Richard J. Lipsky, a ubiquitous presence in Albany and City Hall; and four other defendants in a political bribery scandal. The mayoral aspirations of Comptroller John C. Liu have been hampered as Mr. Bharara investigates his campaign finances. Mr. Liu has not been accused of wrongdoing; his former campaign treasurer was indicted last month. And in March, a former Yonkers councilwoman was convicted in another corruption case. Mr. Bharara also announced in March that a city contractor, Science Applications International Corporation, which ran the troubled CityTime automated payroll project, had agreed to pay $500 million as a penalty and restitution for what Mr. Bharara called one of the "largest and most brazen frauds ever committed against the city of New York." The city plans to use its share, $466 million, to help fill its budget shortfall. Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the city's Department of Investigation, which referred the CityTime case to Mr. Bharara and regularly sends corruption matters his way, said: "He reaches out: "Let's meet." Let's talk. I think he understands that there are significant cases being generated by D.O.I., and he wants to do them. Alison CohenTransportation When it comes to transportation, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's legacy is riding on two wheels - and Alison Cohen will largely determine how the mayor is judged. Since 2008, Mr. Bloomberg has been trying to roll out a bike-share program. Ms. Cohen, 37, is president of Alta Bicycle Share, the third-party vendor selected last year to create the oft-delayed system, which will eventually bring 10,000 bikes to 600 stations in the city, starting this summer. With no city financing, Ms. Cohen has been scrambling to find $50 million in sponsorships. She has also been trying to persuade community boards and local groups to embrace her plans to devote precious street and sidewalk space to bike stations, with an avalanche of planning meetings and open houses in the city. "She has established a lot of trust with a lot of very skeptical New Yorkers," said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a bicycling and public-transit advocacy organization. She earns points by biking to meetings. Ms. Cohen has drive. She held her Pennsylvania high school's scoring record in basketball - until it was broken by Kobe Bryant. She played tennis professionally and worked for Goldman Sachs before starting bike-share programs in Boston, Washington and Melbourne, Australia. The program "will cement the importance of the mayor's vision that New York should be a city not just where people come to work, but where families and residents, tourists, visitors can enjoy the city together," said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business group. The Dream ActivistsImmigration Among the residents of New York, there may be no population with less power than illegal immigrants. Most live in the shadows of society, trying to avoid the kind of scrutiny that might lead to their deportation. But some illegal immigrants have cast off their anonymity: the Dream activists. The name comes from proposed federal legislation known as the Dream Act, which would create a path to legal status for young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military. The legislation has surfaced in various forms over the past decade and has been repeatedly defeated, but some states have passed or, like New York, are considering versions that would make young illegal immigrants eligible for financial aid at public colleges and universities. Hundreds of Dream activists, working individually and under the banner of youth-led groups like the New York State Youth Leadership Council and United We Dream, have become the face of the campaign, organizing demonstrations, lobbying politicians and sharing their personal stories in the news media. They include the scores of people who, at their own peril, rallied in March outside Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office in support of the legislation; the group that walked last month to Albany from New York City to raise awareness of their cause; and the 10 City University of New York students, all illegal immigrants, who came forward in March to accept Dream Fellowships. Mr. Cuomo has been noncommittal on the legislation so far. But regardless of whether it passes, supporters say the Dream activists have irrevocably changed the complexion of the immigration debate in New York. Carl E. HeastieThe Bronx Yellow-cab drivers may not like Carl E. Heastie, the six-term assemblyman from the Bronx who has helped to lead efforts to expand livery pickups in northern Manhattan and the other boroughs. But political insiders say Mr. Heastie's power lies in his ability to unite the famously fractious Bronx, where rival political families have taken grudge-holding to new levels (Example A: the Díaz versus Espada saga). Now, for the first time in years, there is a truce in the borough, with political leaders not just on speaking terms but also actively working toward common goals like economic development. Mr. Heastie, 44, a native son of the Bronx, was part of a 2008 coalition of politicians that cut across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. Called the "Rainbow Rebels" by the news media, they took control of the Bronx Democratic County Committee from the forces of the longtime party leader, José Rivera. Mr. Heastie took over as county leader, and he is said to be a consensus-builder. "There are two ways that political leaders try to accomplish their goals," said Jeffrey Dinowitz, a state assemblyman from the Bronx who works closely with Mr. Heastie. One way is to yell and scream, and that's not his way. The other way is to try to bring people together. Steve IsraelThe Congressional Delegation Not all that long ago, Steve Israel was just another Democratic House member from New York. But with the 2012 elections just six months away, Mr. Israel, 52, has become the chief architect of the party's efforts to retake control of the House, where Republicans have held the majority since the 2010 midterm elections. As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Mr. Israel has a role in tailoring his party's national message, controls millions of dollars in campaign money and is turning grateful candidates across the nation into potential allies. But the job is not without risk. Come November, Mr. Israel will be judged, fairly or not, on whether Democrats pick up the 25 seats they need to reclaim the majority in the House. In some respects, Mr. Israel is an odd choice for such a partisan job. Over six terms in Congress, he has earned a reputation as a centrist representing a modest district of bedroom communities on Long Island. But he is also ambitious and energetic. Two years ago, he was ready to defy his party's leadership and stage a primary challenge against Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who had been appointed to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. He backed down only after President Obama intervened. Mr. Israel has another important qualification: He is a fierce fund-raiser. Since taking the helm of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee 16 months ago, the committee has raised about $83.6 million - about $10 million more than the House Republicans" campaign organization. Hakeem JeffriesBrooklyn Hakeem Jeffries, a state assemblyman, is the front-runner in the race for the Brooklyn Congressional seat held for 15 terms by Representative Edolphus Towns, with a $400,000 campaign chest. Winning would make him the representative of a heavily black district in a borough where blacks are the largest reliably Democratic ethnic group, and would give him a grip on federal dollars for housing and jobs. Mr. Jeffries, 41, a former lawyer at the Paul Weiss firm, is politically moderate and untouched by scandal, and can talk to the gentrifiers in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene and to the Hasidim in Crown Heights. "He has the potential to swing a much larger bat in the power game than any of the black leaders in Brooklyn," said Norman Adler, a Democratic political consultant. In the State Assembly, Mr. Jeffries sponsored a bill, passed in 2010, that prohibited the police from collecting data on people stopped and frisked but not charged with a crime, a major issue for minority voters. He lives in Prospect Heights with his wife and two sons, and he may have higher political ambitions, judging by his observation in an interview that the city's black power center had shifted from Harlem. "This is an opportunity for a new generation of African-American leaders to emerge who can advance the interests of our community but appeal to a broader group of individuals," he said. Michael MulgrewLabor When a city politician speaks about schools, you can be sure a conversation with Michael Mulgrew happened first. Mr. Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the city's largest union of public school workers, has become one of the most influential figures in New York education, the hot topic of next year's mayoral race. Labor has fallen out of favor in City Hall thanks to a wealthy mayor who does not depend on unions" donations or their formidable get-out-the-vote efforts, but that will change in 2013, when the race could be decided in a Democratic primary with heavy turnout from the left-leaning teachers" union, which has 200,000 active and retired members. Mr. Mulgrew, 46, a Staten Island native, has already started running television advertisements, and he is training his guidance counselors and secretaries in the electoral arts of leafleting and phone banking. Recently, he drew headlines by attacking Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, for employing consultants who also work for a nonprofit group supportive of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's school policies. He plans to endorse a mayoral candidate, unlike in 2009, when the union declined to pick a favorite. And polls show that voters trust the union over the mayor to protect students" interests. Seth W. PinskyEconomic Development Slightly built, soft-spoken and unfailingly courteous, Seth W. Pinsky, 40, seems ill suited to drag New York City's economy back from the brink of financial crisis. But for the past four years, that has been his task as president of the Economic Development Corporation, and the biggest idea he has championed has been to build an engineering school from scratch on some underused city property. After the Lehman Brothers investment bank failed in 2008, persuading a world-class university to invest heavily in New York seemed far-fetched. But Mr. Pinsky's persistence resulted in an offer that brought Stanford University, among others, calling, and the city regained some of its luster. Who could turn down the chance to claim Stanford's first degree-granting campus this side of Silicon Valley? It turned out that Mr. Pinsky could. Not swayed by Stanford's cachet, he and his negotiating team insisted on stiff penalties if the university did not meet its promises in setting up shop on Roosevelt Island. Stanford balked, and now, Cornell University plans to build a $2 billion campus in the same spot. Mr. Pinsky said he was "100 percent satisfied with where the process ended up." In April, he had the bonus of standing beside Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to announce that the city had gotten "two for one," because New York University plans to open an "urban science" school in Downtown Brooklyn. Tech CompaniesEconomic Sector A prime example of the rise of New York's tech companies from economic engine to civic presence is the board of the New York City Investment Fund. When the fund was founded 16 years ago to funnel city elites" energy and money into public projects, its board was filled with the usual do-gooders from the real estate, financial and legal industries. Now two seats belong to members of the Internet community: Kevin P. Ryan, chief executive of the online retailer Gilt Groupe, and Fred Wilson, a founding partner of the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures. "What's happening is that as tech in New York becomes bigger and more mature, some people are getting more successful and more plugged in," Mr. Ryan said. And so the sector as a whole has more seats at the table. Sometimes this involves mayoral candidates like Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, or Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, dropping by the Gilt Groupe offices for the "you're on our radar" conversations commonly conducted with more traditionally deep-pocketed industries. Other times it means nationally known politicians like Charles E. Schumer, New York's senior senator, checking in on net neutrality or other digital issues. While the tech industry has spawned a few influential (and donation-ready) fortunes, smaller companies believe they have a different kind of clout. In November, for example, when Congress held a hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act, Tumblr, a micro-blogging site based in New York, put an icon on its home page that allowed users, with a single click, to call their elected representatives directly to complain. In one day, 90,000 users did so. Andrew McLaughlin, former deputy chief technology officer for President Obama and now a vice president at Tumblr, said the "start-uppy, more nimble" parts of the sector were starting to practice what he called "civic hacking." To capitalize on tech's newfound muscle, Brad Burnham, Mr. Wilson's partner at Union Square Ventures, recently recruited an advocate - he avoided the word "lobbyist" - to represent the industry's concerns. The advocate, Nick Grossman, will be based at and partly financed by Union Square Ventures. His mandate, Mr. Burnham said, will be "to alert people to issues and to organize opposition to ones detrimental" to the tech sector. Mr. Burnham added, "We want to use the Internet to save the Internet." The Rev. A. R. BernardReligion The Rev. A. R. Bernard, pastor of the 36,000-member Christian Cultural Center in southeast Brooklyn, can identify, it seems, with half the city. He is Panamanian by birth, but a New Yorker since age 4. African-American, but also of white and Latino heritage. Republican, but he voted for Barack Obama. A born-again Christian, but once a member of the Nation of Islam. He spreads the Gospel, but is close with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is Jewish, and speaks with him roughly every other week. "We clicked," Mr. Bernard said. Mr. Bernard, 59, is an adept political force in New York City, a preacher who would rather guide public policy behind the scenes than shout about it in front of the cameras. His discretion and his willingness to work with people with whom he disagrees on some matters - like, he said, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker who is a lesbian - have made him a moderate in the evangelical Christian world, and a sought-after bridge between liberal politicians and more conservative constituencies. His church is the largest in the region. Mr. Bernard lives in Smithtown, on Long Island, and cannot vote in the city, but he endorsed Mr. Bloomberg in all three of his campaigns. He has not yet decided if he will back anyone in the coming mayoral race, but the hopefuls have come courting. What is he looking for? "Competence and passion," he said. Dr. Thomas A. FarleyHealth Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city's health commissioner, is the man behind those graphic anti-obesity ads on the subway, the crackdown on smoking at parks and beaches, and arguably the demise of the communal cheese pot at Sardi's. Dr. Farley and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a calorie-conscious ex-smoker, may not always be the first to carry out initiatives like posting letter grades for restaurants (Los Angeles, for example, had already done that), but with New York as their testing ground, they have an outsize influence on the public health policy conversation around the globe. And laugh all you want, but since 2000, two years before Mr. Bloomberg took office, the life expectancy for New Yorkers at birth has risen by nearly three years, compared with about 1.5 years nationwide. At meetings, Dr. Farley said, his staff is often approached by health officials from other places, "and they'll say, "What's the next big idea?" " Dr. Farley, 56, an infectious-disease specialist, came to New York from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine three years ago, as the swine-flu pandemic was spreading. He is an avid biker, swimmer and runner, with a marathon time of 3 hours 25 minutes. His approach to public health has its share of critics, including smokers and anti-hunger advocates, who say that in his zeal to fight obesity with proposals like banning the use of food stamps to buy soda (that one failed), he runs the risk of stigmatizing poor people. The decision to remove the free cheese at Sardi's ended with a "did not, did too" argument over whether the health department's intricate rules about temperature and sharing food were to blame. His next target? "Prescription painkillers," he said. Really a national epidemic. Patricia E. HarrisParks While the city parks department's budget for maintenance and operations has been slashed by $54 million in the past four years, capital spending on parks - the purview of the first deputy mayor, Patricia E. Harris - has gone emphatically in the other direction. Over the past decade, the city has spent $112 million on the first two sections of the High Line, allotted $208 million for Brooklyn Bridge Park and disbursed $60 million to Governors Island while committing $306 million through 2021. The parks department is only part of Ms. Harris's portfolio; she also oversees the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Consumer Affairs, the Cultural Affairs and the Design and Construction Departments. Just as outside observers point to Ms. Harris, 56, she points to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "Parks were always a very important part of the city for him," she said. "When he became mayor, he said, "This is a priority for our administration." " The parks agenda was laid out in PlaNYC, a 2007 manifesto that spawned, among other things, initiatives to plant a million trees, convert schoolyards to playgrounds and pour $291 million into eight regional parks in underserved areas. Total parkland has increased by 725 acres under the Bloomberg administration. Holly M. Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, a nonprofit group, called Ms. Harris "a tremendous advocate for parks," saying she had been "vital to keeping the administration's signature projects on track in this time of drastic budget cuts." Jonathan LippmanNew York Courts The job of the state's chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, who leads not only New York's highest court but also its vast judicial bureaucracy, by definition comes with clout. But in Judge Lippman's 11 years as the top administrator under the last chief judge, Judith S. Kaye, he learned his way around the halls of power. Three years into his tenure as Judge Kaye's successor, Judge Lippman, 66, has used that savvy to become, in the eyes of many, a bigger player than she was outside the courtroom on policy, budgetary, administrative and legislative issues. Some judges and lawyers fear Judge Lippman because he knows the administrative machinery that court officials can use to punish and reward. New York's liberal establishment has been largely neutralized as a source of criticism because he has staked out a progressive role, not only in individual cases, but also on causes like increasing state financing for lawyers who represent poor people. He is also a schmoozer who has had lunch with Donald Trump and breakfast with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. "He has a political sense to know where to push and what to push for," said Vincent E. Doyle III, president of the State Bar Association. And when he calls, Mr. Doyle said, "he calls me Vinnie." Stephen M. RossReal Estate The developer Stephen M. Ross is not afraid of a fight. Mr. Ross, 72, the chairman and chief executive of Related Companies, has clashed with fellow developers like Donald Trump and Joseph Moinian, and has wrestled with New York's powerful construction unions over wages and work rules. Now, at the planned $15 billion, 26-acre Hudson Yards development on the West Side of Manhattan, he is trying to overhaul the way projects are built in the city by getting more concessions from the unions and by eliminating subcontractors, cutting a traditional layer of costs. It is unclear if he will win, but it is hard to bet against him. Mr. Ross and his partners at Related built the $1.7 billion Time Warner Center - twin 80-story towers at Columbus Circle with shops, a hotel and luxury apartments - after a 16-year battle over the site, and he is trying to revive the long-stalled transformation of the James A. Farley Post Office into Moynihan Station. In his latest scheme, he has offered to build Borough of Manhattan Community College a larger campus inside the post office in exchange for the school's land downtown. In fact, Related is juggling six projects in the city right now, including the first phase of Hunters Point South, the largest affordable-housing complex built in New York since the 1970s. On the weekends, Mr. Ross has been trying to turn the Miami Dolphins, the N.F.L. franchise he bought for $1.1 billion, into a championship team. Merryl H. TischEducation A friend of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's and an advocate of many of his education reforms, Merryl H. Tisch is also the highest-ranking thorn in the mayor's side from her post as chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents. Take school improvement grants: federal money given to failing schools by the Obama administration. While visiting one city recipient, Ms. Tisch, 56, called schools like it "warehouses" for struggling students, who were put there after the city closed the schools they used to attend. She admitted to regretting her choice of words as they came out of her mouth, but said she did not regret the ensuing debate. "The ultimate result was to have a much better conversation," she said. She said that the differences between her and the mayor were often smaller than people thought, and that they arose because the Bloomberg administration was so goal-oriented. "I think they believe that policy gets in the way of the choices they would like to make," she said. In our judgment, those choices are sometimes superb, and sometimes we question those choices. One of those choices has been Mr. Bloomberg's expansion of charter schools. "Creating choice has been an invaluable tool in improving school results," Ms. Tisch said, but she wondered aloud about the unintended consequences of the policy. "In addition to choice is more focus on the good work in public schools and supporting them," she said. Ms. Tisch will be around to prod the next mayor, too: her term on the Board of Regents does not expire until 2016. Orthodox JewsRising It is not as if the Jews of Brooklyn suddenly had opinions. But in recent years, they have discovered a forum to share them - the Internet - and a place to express them: the polls. When Bob Turner, a Republican, defeated David I. Weprin, a Jewish Democratic candidate, in a special election for Anthony D. Weiner's Congressional seat in September, with heavy Orthodox support, it was seen as a vote on President Obama's position on Israel. When Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, a Democrat from south Brooklyn, failed to win outright a seat in a special State Senate election in March (the vote count is still held up in court proceedings), it was partly because David Storobin, the Republican candidate, criticized his opponent's support of same-sex marriage, and a vocal group of rabbis supported him. Both races were covered extensively on the Web sites of Voz Iz Neias ("What Is News," in Yiddish) and Yeshiva World News, and debated on Twitter and Facebook. Amid the special circumstances of the elections, one outcome was clear: "The Orthodox community has emerged as a stand-alone force that needs to be reckoned with," said Ezra Friedlander, who runs a public-affairs consulting company. Though Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn are registered mostly as Democrats, their recent history, and their support of Michael R. Bloomberg in the 2009 mayoral race, "really makes the Orthodox Jewish vote the last true swing vote in the city," said Councilman David G. Greenfield, who represents Borough Park, Midwood and Bensonhurst. The Orthodox community, led by younger social media-aware voters, tends to focus on social services like tuition assistance for yeshivas, busing and housing, but votes socially conservative on issues like same-sex marriage. Their numbers are growing. According to the census, since the previous count, Borough Park was the one neighborhood in the city with more than 100,000 people that grew, by 5.2 percent. The Orthodox influence will likely be diluted on the state level, at least, by redistricting, which has concentrated the Orthodox of south Brooklyn into a "Super Jewish" district. But in the city, the group's impact on the 2013 mayoral election could be significant in the Democratic primary, and perhaps more so if Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly decides to enter the race on the Republican side. "I don't think the Orthodox community has made up its mind who it will support," Mr. Friedlander said. No candidate should take the Orthodox community for granted. Catholic ChurchFalling Nobody calls the cardinal's residence on Madison Avenue "the Powerhouse" anymore. Mayors no longer consult regularly with the church about appointments to the health and Education Departments, police promotions or Family Court vacancies. Nor has any recent leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York been called "the American Pope," as one predecessor was. But while decades of demographic changes have cost the archdiocese much of its political clout, it does have the newly appointed Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan to its credit. He is personable, persuasive and politically astute, and has an even bigger bully pulpit as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has been battling the Obama administration, with some success, over whether religiously affiliated hospitals and universities should have to provide free birth control for employees. Still, the church has learned to pick its fights. Last year, it largely sat out the politicking that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage by the State Legislature. But, aligned with other religious groups, Catholic leaders again defeated a bill that would have temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases - a threat to budgets more than to theology. "Loss of the statute of limitations literally could have put the church out of business," said James F. Gill, a Manhattan lawyer who has formed Friends of the Catholic Church, a coalition of former public officials and other power brokers, to lobby for legislation that the church favors, including tax credits for businesses that award scholarships to the thousands of students in parochial schools. Cardinal Dolan recently told Catholics that with the church's fighting the government on several fronts, "we are called to be very active, very informed and very involved in politics." But will Catholics vote the church line? Does the archdiocese still wield power? "Not as much as they think they do," said Assemblywoman Margaret M. Markey, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the sex abuse bill, which died in the State Senate. I have a heavy Catholic population in my district, and I would not be in elected office if the Catholics in my district didn't approve of what I was doing. James T. Fisher, a theology professor at Fordham University, offered a broader explanation. "Dolan's talking a lot about getting Catholics politically involved," Dr. Fisher said, "but what they really mean is politically involved on the church's agenda, which is a very tall order because the current teaching agenda doesn't correspond to the will of the majority of Catholics."