We’ll Always Have Airport Village

Leaving a mixed legacy (1 Train 1 Stop!), Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff announces his departure:

Daniel L. Doctoroff was to have been the Robert Moses of the Bloomberg era, a bold visionary who would guide a sweeping revitalization of New York and put to rest the notion that the age of building big had ended.

But now, as Mr. Doctoroff ends his tenure as the longest-serving deputy mayor for economic development, much of his agenda remains unrealized, despite his many achievements.

Mr. Doctoroff, 49, announced yesterday that he would resign at the end of the year and become president of Bloomberg L.P. in February.

There is no question that he brought a brash new imagination and relentless determination to City Hall, but those very qualities sometimes alienated, rather than motivated, the people who could help him achieve his goals.

The announcement, which again blurs the lines between Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s public and private spheres, could signal the twilight of an administration still bursting with grand visions but running out of time, raising questions about what Mr. Doctoroff’s, and by extension Mr. Bloomberg’s, final legacy will be.

. . .

Chosen by the mayor as an outsider with a new vision for City Hall, Mr. Doctoroff brought a curly-haired, whiz-kid energy to the job and favored colorful PowerPoint presentations packed with history, statistics and renderings of what could be. He was often charming in public, but could be forceful and even threatening in private. He rode his bicycle from his Upper West Side home for 7 a.m. meetings and surrounded himself with a coterie of whip-smart young people, nicknamed the Kids, several of whom have gone on to important posts in the public and private sectors.

“He brought the private sector voice into City Hall, as opposed to government telling the private sector what to do,” said Marc V. Shaw, who served as first deputy mayor during Mr. Bloomberg’s first term.

Mr. Doctoroff’s impatience with bureaucracy and his disdain for what he regarded as the corrupt politics of Albany led him to attempt the unconventional, like using city money for the extension of the No. 7 subway line, rather than waiting for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to do it.