Portrait of a Mayor

Damon Winter/The New York Times One of These Mayors Will Never Leave Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hung his official mayoral portrait, painted by the artist Jon R. Friedman, in City Hall on Monday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made one more permanent alteration to City Hall on Monday: hanging his official mayoral portrait.

The painting, by the artist Jon R. Friedman, features Mr. Bloomberg standing in front of the bullpen, his beloved open-format office on the second floor of City Hall. Similar to a Wall Street trading floor, the bullpen is a format he imported from Bloomberg L.P., his company.

Elements of Mr. Bloomberg’s life dot the background of the painting. His daughters, Emma and Georgina, can be seen in a photo on his desk in the bullpen, just to the left of Bloomberg’s left hand.

His tie is purple â€" the color of his political affiliation â€" Independent and bipartisan, the color in the middle.

There are Bloomberg computer terminals all over the room.

At the back of the room is a giant TV with a 311 system update on screen â€" of calls made so far that day (121).

New York Today: Murder Hits Record Low

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

William J. Bratton begins his second stint as police commissioner with the city considerably safer than it was even a year ago.

New York is set to finish 2013 with a 20 percent drop in murders. Most other crimes are falling, too.

There were 332 murders through Dec. 29. In 2012, there were 419.

The number has fallen below the threshold of one per day for the first time since reliable recordkeeping began in 1963.

The city’s murder rate was 75 percent higher back then.

The drop in New York appears to be part of a broader trend in the nation’s biggest cities. Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia all had big declines in murder.

In New York, rapes and robberies (both down 5 percent so far) and burglaries (down 10 percent) are falling, too.

But serious assaults and non-violent thefts have ticked up, by 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The rise in thefts, a pattern that goes back several years, is attributed largely to stolen smartphones and other personal electronics.

The overall drop in crime comes as stop-and-frisk encounters are down 60 percent through September of this year.

This could bolster the plans of Mr. Bratton and his boss, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, to rein in stop-and-frisk further.

Proponents of the stop-and-frisk policy point out, though, that the number of guns seized during stop-and-frisk encounters has fallen, too. Overall gun seizures are down 11 percent this year.

Here’s what else you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

A winter sun fails to warm. Temperatures fall through the day as a cold front moves in like an unwanted holiday guest and stays all week.

By lunchtime it will be about 36 degrees. Tonight, down to 20.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

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

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect today and tomorrow but not Wednesday.

DE BLASIO WATCH

From Javier C. Hernández of The Times:

- At last, white smoke: Mr. de Blasio picks Carmen Fariña, a former city education official, as his schools chancellor. He announces the appointment at his children’s old middle school in Park Slope at 11:30 a.m.

- Zachary W. Carter, who prosecuted the police officers in the Abner Louima case, will be the city’s chief lawyer.

- In an interview in Teen Vogue, Mr. de Blasio’s 19-year-old daughter, Chiara, says she likes heavy metal music and doesn’t use social media much.

- Governor Cuomo is trying to block Melissa Mark-Viverito, Mr. de Blasio’s favored candidate, from becoming City Council speaker. [New York Post]

- Bill Clinton will swear Mr. de Blasio in as mayor on Wednesday.

COMING UP TODAY

- Farewell, trusty pen: Mayor Bloomberg signs his last bills, 22 in all. They include one restricting foam containers and e-cigarettes and another requiring the mayor to submit an annual poverty report.

- Time for your Christmas tree to decorate the curb: municipal tree collection begins.

- If you want to see a national lighthouse museum on Staten Island, better donate today: it’s the deadline for organizers to raise $350,000.

- Videology, a video store in Williamsburg, screens the year’s best DVDs all day, starting at noon. [Free]

- A historic tour of Central Park shows how it was designed and built. Noon outside the park’s Dairy Gift Shop. [$15]

- Crank up the wood chipper and watch “Fargo” at Huckleberry Bar in Williamsburg. 9 p.m [Free]

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

IN THE NEWS

- Mayor Bloomberg shelled out $650 million during his tenure, including $263 million to civic, health and cultural groups in the city. [New York Times]

- A choosy mugger in Central Park handed back his victim’s three-year-old flip phone. [New York Post]

- Jets beat Dolphins, 20-7, so Rex Ryan gets to keep his job. Giants beat Redskins, 20-6. Rangers beat Lightning, 4-3. Islanders beat Wild, 5-4.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

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Contemplating Life in the Bathtub

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

I’m in the bathtub again. I’m not in the bathtub that often, but, when I am, it becomes an event.

I take more time preparing for the bath than I do submerged in water, for goodness sake. I usually bring a beer I won’t drink, a book I won’t read and a phone I won’t touch. All my plans go out the window as I catch myself millions of miles away in outer space with a beard made of suds.

I like opening the window and hearing the sounds of Chinatown downstairs. What a racket. Everybody’s selling something or too busy honking their cars into a wreck to even consider selling something. But there I am, grinning like a dope in my bathtub.

I always watch movies where people are in their tubs with half their bodies submerged. I think it’s a way to show off their anxiety. I don’t know; I make do with my sudsy beard and untouched book. Oh, porcelain chamber, you know me too well. I’m comforted and dismayed all at once as you wash off the grime of the day from my skin.

I’m happy for cleanliness, though remorseful of the memories lost. What if I wanted that old book smell on my hands from that place uptown? I try sticking my head under water, I really do, but my ears get all foggy and I forget where I am. Oh yeah, three floors above Grand Street where people like me have been feeling contemplative for, what, hundreds of years? Maybe there wasn’t much to think about back then. Maybe there was.

This is Mr. Glass, submerged in the bathtub, a bag of tea in boiling water. Drink up my anxiety; I’m only steeping.

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