The Week in Pictures for Nov. 8

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include New York’s next mayor, an all-girls golf team and a racetrack upstate.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in the Sunday newspaper, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s Michael Moss, Michael Powell and Michael Barbaro. Also, Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer and Jeff Greenfield, an author. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured in the main print news section of The Times. You may also read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Big Ticket | A Gramercy Park Key for $15.47 Million

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times 18 Gramercy Park South

The same cachet that worked for the elite team behind 15 Central Park West continues to bring buyers with big wallets to 18 Gramercy Park South, where yet another of the 4,207-square-foot floor-through units with 40 feet of park frontage was the most expensive residential sale of the week, according to city records.

This time it was No. 4, a four-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath residence that sold for $15,477,400 â€" $15.2 million for the apartment and the rest for the transfer tax. The monthly carrying costs are $11,225.31.

Like the other buyers at 18 Gramercy, a 16-unit reinvention of a former Salvation Army lodging house for women that is close to selling out to cosmopolites seeking a home or pied-à-terre with prewar ambience and ultramodern amenities, the new owner will receive a key to Manhattan’s only private park and enjoy views of its quaint tree canopy from their elegant corner living room. All of that plus hand-troweled walls, marble windowsills, an onyx powder room and the bragging rights inherent in acquiring a home created by Zeckendorf Development, Global Holdings and Robert A. M. Stern Architects.

Zeckendorf Marketing handled the transaction on behalf of the sponsors. The buyer, a limited-liability company, 18 Gramercy, was represented by Allison Koffman and Juliette Janssens of Sotheby’s International Realty.

The week’s next-priciest transaction was a nonpublic transfer of a $15 million combination unit that encompasses the entire ninth floor at 1080 Fifth Avenue, a white-brick postwar co-op on the northeast corner of 89th Street. The 5,000-square-foot apartment, No. 9ABC, has 70 feet of Fifth Avenue frontage and direct views of the Central Park reservoir; it was assembled like a jigsaw puzzle over the years by the seller, Jonathan J. Ledecky, an investment manager. The buyer was Dewey Shay, the chief executive of Unison Site Management. Marcy Pedas Sigler of Stribling & Associates, a longtime resident of the co-op, represented the seller. Mr. Shay apparently did not use a broker.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

A Hand for the Stretch Limo Driver

Dear Diary:

I spent 30 years in the limousine industry alternating between management and driving. Whichever was the lesser of the two evils: tolerating my bosses or the traffic.

One evening we had a reservation for a bachelorette party, which I decided to drive. The ladies sounded as though they were a real hoot when they ordered the 10-passenger white stretch limousine months in advance.

For anyone who’s familiar with Little Italy, you know just how narrow and congested the streets are on a Friday night, let alone trying to maneuver a 40-foot stretch limousine around such tight corners.

As luck would have it, there was a spot right in front of the restaurant as I pulled up to drop them off. Seeing just how tight the spot was, several of the women immediately panicked and jumped ship, fearing I was about to destroy this enormous vessel of a vehicle. The few who remained comfortably relaxed in the back had complete and total faith in my parking genes.

Although it was extremely tight, I never once touched either car bumper in front of or behind me â€" leaving me with just barely enough space to squeeze my knees through to get to the rear of the vehicle.

As I exited the car and proceeded to open the door for my remaining passengers, a young lady seated at one of the dozen or so outdoor tables screamed at the tops of her lungs: “OH MY GOD! IT’S A WOMAN!”

With that, the rest of the diners all stood up and gave me what felt like a 10-minute standing ovation. Apparently they had all been watching me, figuring (and/or probably betting) it could and would never fit. I never laughed so hard or turned a deeper shade of red in my entire life.

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New York Today: De Blasio Family Factor

Damon Winter/The New York Times The mayor-elect, his wife and children on election night.

Standing with their parents on Election Night, Dante and Chiara de Blasio seemed the embodiment of a city known for its diversity.

This got us wondering how many young people like them live in New York: children who are part black and part white.

The answer, at least according to the Census, is relatively few.

The 2010 Census found that just under 1 percent of people under 18 in New York City were identified as both black and white.

Still, the numbers are growing.

In 2000, there were about 10,500 children like the de Blasios in the city.

That figure rose to nearly 17,000 in 2010.

Perhaps surprisingly, New York City actually lags the country.

Nationwide, children are about 75 percent more likely to be black and white than they are in New York.

These figures include both Hispanic and non-Hispanic people.

One interesting caveat:

The figures above are for children identified as two races, black and white.

But for children identified as multiple races, including Asian and American Indian, New York’s numbers are higher than the nation’s.

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Crisping up again. Sunny with a high of 51. Windy too, with gusts up to 25 miles an hour.

Lows in the 30s tonight. Tomorrow: same temperature, less wind. A bit warmer on Sunday.

(Rain fans: we got 0.13 inches yesterday. But the drought is not over.)

COMMUTE

Subways: Click for latest status.

Rails: Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect today but will be suspended on Monday for Veterans Day.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor Bloomberg does his weekly radio appearance on WOR-AM (710) at 8:05 a.m.

- The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, all 76 feet of it, will be delivered and installed this morning, starting around 8 a.m.

- More holiday harbingers â€" you cannot stop them: the Radio City Christmas Spectacular opens.

- The weeklong Kids Cinema Fest, bringing movies from around the world to venues in Upper Manhattan, opens with a screening of “Tio Papi” at Columbia University Medical Center. 7 p.m. [Free]

- “Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix,” a retrospective show about the Pulitzer-winning graphic novelist, opens at the Jewish Museum.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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