At the same time, a review of the city’s budget since 1980 shows that Mr. Bloomberg has been presiding over one of the greatest expansions of city government since the John V. Lindsay administration, fueled by an extraordinary surge in real estate revenues, both from higher property taxes and transfer taxes from sales.

Since Mr. Bloomberg took office in 2002, the city budget, adjusted for inflation, has swelled faster than it has under any other mayor during the last 27 years, increasing by 23 percent, to $60 billion.

. . .

So what goes on in this cramped little room in the wee small hours? Pillow fights? Endless boy talk?

“No, we don’t talk very much about boys, we have enough problem of our own,” she said.

Political discourse?

“No, we’re girls, we are not talking about politics,” she said. “Sometimes we talk about shows we have done. Every morning, we talk about what clothes to put on.”

Nastya recalled that on this morning, “Maria put on her jeans and a white shirt with a belt. Tanya, a black dress. And me, jeans and this gray shirt.”

“Actually, usually we don’t like each others’ outfits,” she added.

. . .

Nighttime activity centers around the Internet and telephone. They don’t have a TV. If Nastya is not surfing the Web, she’s chatting with friends on instant messenger or talking to her mother.

“She misses me a lot,” Nastya said. “She wants to know all about me, actually. What I’m doing here? What do I eat here as well?”

Nastya said she usually buys her own food at the “little Chinese market” (it’s a bodega) across the street. Mostly apples and strawberry ice cream. “I like ice cream very much,” she said.

On a bed in the living room Alexandra Sandor, 17, of Romania, was engrossed in her laptop and a bottle of Coke. She is rod-skinny, with pouty lips, perfect baby skin and wavy brown hair. She wore Hello Kitty pajamas. She had come down with a lung infection but had been a trooper and suffered through the Lela Rose show.

. . .

She took a swig of Coke. “I love Coke,” she said. On her headboard rested a giant log of Toblerone and a carton of Marboro Lights. There was a Titanic DVD on the floor amongst pairs of high heels. “I could live on chocolate and Coca-Cola only, I think.”

“I found a very good sandwich from Starbucks,” said Maria. “So usually I’m eating that one in the morning, if I have time. If not, I’m just taking something from the shop — like chocolate.”

Why do models like chocolate so much?

“Because it’s good, it has a good taste.”

Over on the couch sat Tanya Chubko, the oldest girl in the house at 20. She wore all black and was chain-smoking while playing solitaire on her laptop. Her red hair was pulled back, exhibiting those big blues Nastya so admires.

. . .

As it turns out, the answer depends on what type of student you are and which crowd you hang with. Here’s what I learned from my decidedly unscientific survey of law student opinions about law firms.

. . .

According to Rob, a 2L at NYU, one firm that’s in demand this season is Davis Polk & Wardwell. Why? “I’ve heard they have good-looking associates.”

Some things never change. When I interviewed a decade ago, Davis was already known as a bastion of beauty on aesthetically challenged Lexington Avenue. It was the firm of choice for the prom queen and king of my law school class — the editor in chief of the law journal, a luminous doll-like beauty with a vast family fortune, and her Abercrombie-handsome future husband. They were joined at Davis by enough comely Asian females to cast Memoirs of a Geisha.

. . .

Lifestyle types also still gravitate toward perennial favorites Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, known for cultivating a quirky, pleasingly academic atmosphere, and Debevoise & Plimpton, which relentlessly works the whole “we’re Big Law but we’re nice” angle. The firm Web site even features MP3 clips recorded by current associates, who gush over Debevoise and use the word “collegial” in every other sentence. (But query whether these testimonials sound a little like tape recordings from hostages to their families.)

. . .

Melissa Broder, 28, senior publicist for Penguin Group books, often gets compliments on her bright pink vintage Columbia Rambler with a matching helmet.

“The whole green thing wasn’t my original intention when I first started, but it’s an added way to feel self-satisfied,” she said, pulling over her bike at the corner of University Place and Ninth Street. “I definitely feel a little snotty about it now.”

She was in a simple cotton black dress with cream-colored embroidery around the collar and snacking on some Soy Crisps while she rode.

Council Member James Oddo of Staten Island is introducing a bill that would give the city’s Department of Transportation a responsibility currently held by the council, calling for the agency to sign off on new street names once they are approved by local community boards.

Council members would, however, still have the authority to call up a street name for a hearing and vote so long as six or more other members support doing so. Mr. Oddo said he likes the tradition of renaming streets in the city, but said, “The council has other pressing matters to handle.”

In 2006, the council approved 127 new street and place names; on May 30, it approved another 50, including naming an intersection after a dancer and choreographer, Alvin Ailey, and a street after an actor, Jerry Orbach.

. . .