Bloomberg and the Mayoralty: Money, Power and Politics

Doug Muzzio

Professor, Baruch College School of Public Affairs

Joyce Purnick

Joyce Purnick resumed writing the Metro Matters column for The New York Times in the fall of 1999, after she spent two years in editing positions. Ms. Purnick had previously written the column from 1994 until 1997, and returned to it after deciding she preferred writing to managing. The twice-weekly Metro Matters column covers the government, politics and people of New York.

Ms. Purnick has had a distinguished career as a Times correspondent and columnist. After being named deputy editor of the Metro department, the largest news department of The Times, at the start of 1997, she became the first woman to head the section that same June.

Prior to this, she wrote the Metro Matters column from 1994 until becoming deputy editor of Metro. Previously, from 1989 until 1994, Ms. Purnick served on the paper's editorial board, writing opinion essays on urban affairs. She joined the paper in 1979 and has covered the state government in Albany, the New York City school system and New York's City Hall.

Ms. Purnick's Metro Matters column has won several awards, including the 1996-97 Mike Berger Award from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Columns she wrote about the fatal neglect of abused children by the city's welfare system were among The Times's writings that won a George Polk Award for metropolitan reporting in 1996.

Glenn Thrush

Senior Congressional Reporter, Politico.com

Andrew White

Andrew White is Director of the Center for New York City Affairs at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. He is a writer on New York City politics, government, neighborhoods and grassroots movements.