New Yorkers are reminded often these days that their city will add another million or so people in the next 25 years, bringing the total to more than 9 million. That prospect may seem too distant to inspire any sense of urgency. But consider how difficult it is to find affordable housing, good schools, uncrowded subway cars and reasonably passable streets. Then imagine having to compete for these same services in a city that will have added a population equivalent to the city of San Francisco.... continue

"When you do things with public money, you really are required to do things that have some proven track record and to focus on more conventional approaches," [Michael Bloomberg] told a news conference. "But conventional approaches, as we know, have kept us in this vicious cycle" -- that phrase again -- "of too many people not being able to work themselves out of poverty."... continue

Today a bipartisan commission of high-profile academic, government, business and labor leaders selected by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) will release a report that provides a sobering assessment of our nation's education system: Only 18 out of 100 high-school freshmen will graduate on time, enroll directly in college and earn a two-year degree in three years or a four-year degree in six.... continue

A million more people will populate Gotham by 2030, Mike declaimed at the Queens Museum of Art yesterday - even as the city's roads, sewers, subways and electrical grid continue to rot under their own weight. It's vital, he said, for the city to start tackling those issues now.... continue

No one ever accused Mayor Bloomberg of thinking small, and yesterday he proposed big ideas for a big city that's growing even bigger. He sees New York adding 200,000 people in the next four years - and on a march toward breaking the 9 million barrier in a quarter-century.... continue

Mayor Bloomberg is suing 12 more out-of-state gun dealers as major sources of illegal weapons in the city, and he has pushed six others into accepting a court-appointed monitor to oversee how they do business.... continue

The Bloomberg-for-president scenario starts with the mayor’s growing sense of himself as a man of destiny. Throw in the country’s disgust with the two parties, add a half-a-billion bucks, and you’ve got yourself a race.... continue

Wealthy philanthropists and donors of average means today have unprecedented opportunities to improve the lives of poor people in the United States and around the world, Bill Clinton, the former president, told a conference held here last week to honor the donors who appear on The Chronicle's annual list of the most-generous contributors in America.... continue

On Election Day voters said something that might have moved a less sensible billionaire to succumb to the siren song of those urging him to spend, say, $500 million of his money on an independent presidential candidacy. But over lunch three days later, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who does not do coyness, dismissed the idea as a "pipe dream."... continue

The city's unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.1%, the lowest it has ever been since recordkeeping began three decades ago. Since this comes at a time when the number of people working in the city is more than 3.6 million, also an all-time high, we know that the good old days were never this good.... continue