A Democrat is struggling to unseat the mayor of the nation’s largest city, but the national party and its top Democratic leaders have been silent.

The Democratic National Committee has said nothing about William Thompson Jr.’s uphill battle to unseat the popular billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

By this point in the last mayoral race in 2005, the DNC had dispatched its then-leader, Howard Dean, to campaign with Bloomberg’s Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer.

Well-known Democrats like John Kerry, John Edwards and Tom Daschle had also crossed state lines to help Ferrer.

That and Obama is being a big pussy, too. What did Bloomberg give these people?

“New instructions have been given to our traffic agents. The way we issue summonses will be different and we ask our agents to be patient,” said Frank Sepulveda, the NYPD’s director of traffic enforcement for the city. “By the end of this month all our agents should have the new training. We will look at how we can handle difficult summons situations differently.”

. . .

On problems, businessman Dan Texeira led the complaint barrage. “I stopped my car to let off my son. Just then a traffic agent cut off in front of my car and gave me a ticket.

“That wasn’t right,” said Sepulveda.

“We don’t discourage it. In actual fact, we encourage it,” a friendly bellhop told a pair of reporters as they checked in yesterday at The Standard, where randy guests cavort with abandon to the dismay — or delight — of parkgoers below.

After the hotel opened late last year, the bellhop said, naked and semidressed staff members were encouraged to pose in front of the windows. The point, he said, was to create a buzz with the unexpected peep show.

“One of the managers even got naked in a room, and filmed it — they were considering a live feed for the Web site,” the staffer said. “She’s an exhibitionist, too.”

Because of course nothing delights a parkgoer more than catching a middle-aged European tourist jacking off in the window . . . so edgy!

Location Scout: High Line.

Transit workers appear poised to win a generous contract with healthy 4% annual raises and lower health care contributions that could blow a huge hole in the MTA’s finances, sources tell the Daily News.

Despite recent fare hikes and the punishing recession, transit union officials argued that they deserve a 12% hike over three years, partly because city employees have received similar increases.

A three-man arbitration panel is expected to announce the terms of the new contract for bus and subway workers as early as Monday or Tuesday. The expected annual raises of about 4%, 4% and 3.5% would increase Metropolitan Transportation Authority costs by more than $400 million.

Again, think about all this when you see the next fifty or sixty Bloomberg commercials about how he is “independent” and makes the “tough choices” or whatever, because basically any one of the candidates currently running for mayor can suck up to the unions — we didn’t need to get rid of term limits for that.

• Senate Bill 3697, which would rename the Battery Park City Authority the “Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority”
• Senate Bill 1764, which would designate August seventh as “Family Day, a day of commemoration”
• Senate Bill 2398, which would permit correction officers to be color blind
• Senate Bill 1036, which would designate as a day of commemoration, February 14th, to be known as “Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day” (that’s got to be a joke, right?)

Democratic candidate William Thompson can opt to pursue this line of argument as need be but maybe it’s safer at this point to rehabilitate Bush than it is to prop up Bloomberg’s juggernautical campaign . . .

[Eduwonk and Education Week links via.]

A coney Island developer Wednesday panned the city’s bid to revive the faded seaside resort and all but shut down negotiations to sell property vital to the project.

Speaking publicly for the first time in more than two years, developer Joe Sitt bashed the city’s plan for Coney Island, saying construction on it won’t even start for more than a decade.

“According to their own mouths, they won’t start development on this site for 10 to 15 years,” said Sitt, president of Thor Equities. “So assuming the mayor doesn’t overturn term limits six more times, we’ll be dealing with three mayors from now that will inherit this property.”

The feisty comments came at a Daily News Editorial Board meeting and nearly a year after Sitt first began negotiating to sell 10.5 acres of property that stand in the way of the city’s vision for Coney Island.

With both parties at an impasse, Sitt yesterday suggested that all deals were off unless the city decides to pony up at least $165 million for the vaunted property.

“It’s certainly not for sale at a price where we’re going to lose a substantial amount of money,” said Sitt. “For the city to think that, we’ve never understood it, and we have no interest in selling.”

City officials yesterday said a longstanding offer of $105 million for the property remains final. City sources also insisted that construction on the site — once it is acquired — would begin as early as 2011, but could take a decade to complete.

The Republican insurrection in Albany could have devastating consequences for city schools and the budget, which both need legislative action by the end of the month.

If lawmakers don’t pass a half-point hike in the city sales tax, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council will have to plug an $887 million budget hole with deep cuts or a property tax hike.

And city schools would technically revert to control by a Board of Education that no longer exists.

“We would be in uncharted waters,” Bloomberg said last night. “We would have to consult with the lawyers. But the city’s going to go on.

“We will find a way to make sure that we can continue to keep essential services going.”

On Monday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was fuming. On Tuesday, he was forgiving, characterizing the actions of a low-level manager who failed to notify him or his superiors of a planned flyover exercise in Lower Manhattan as merely a mistake.

Perhaps it was because the mayor had already punished the manager, Marc Mugnos, with a letter of reprimand (and, presumably, a tongue-lashing). Perhaps it was because of all the apologies the city had received — from Mr. Mugnos, most likely, and also from the White House. (President Obama has ordered a review of the matter.)

“The guy just didn’t do it. He read the thing and just didn’t do it,” Mayor Bloomberg told reporters during a news conference at City Hall, referring to Mr. Mugnos’ inaction after receiving an e-mail last Thursday from the Federal Aviation Administration, notifying him of the plans for a flyover by F-16s and a backup to Air Force One. (The New York Police Department also received the same e-mail.)

That might be all in the past for Mr. Bloomberg, but a lot of people out there are wondering who Mr. Mugnos is and why the F.A.A. would pick him to share information about what turned out to be a nerve-rattling event for those who live and work in Lower Manhattan, particularly those who were there on Sept. 11, 2001.

Additional point: There’s a big difference between a “flyover” and a 747 looping around New York Harbor trailed by F-16s.

Earlier: What Kind Of “Photo Shoot” Involves Air Force One Flying At A Low Altitude Over New York Harbor? Publicity For A Harrison Ford Sequel?

Nearly 200 teaching assistants and other school staffers get their paychecks from the city’s wealthiest PTAs in violation of Department of Education rules.

The PTAs that do the most rogue hiring are on the Upper East and Upper West sides of Manhattan.

Parents at Lower Lab School on Third Avenue pay for 43 extra staff members, the DOE revealed.

The parent groups contend their schools need the extra hands, and some principals encourage staff padding.