[Fog engulfed much of New York City this morning. What did it look like out your window? Photo via @nymetwowx/Twitter.]

Every year, the New York Police Department steals millions of dollars from poor New Yorkers. The code governing this ability was written in 1881, and ruled unconstitutional twice—and yet the seizures are still happening. Former Gawker weekend editor Max Rivlin-Nadler takes a look at the NYPD's civil forfeiture industry.

Of course you should use silverware when you're eating dinner at a restaurant that has provided silverware, right there next to your non-paper plate. Nobody believes otherwise. But here's our important new populist debate about whether New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is too fancy because he used a fork and knife to eat a pizza dinner in a sit-down restaurant.

The sun is out over Manhattan now, after the darkness of the winter storm. Yet will the city ever recover? For the first time in decades, New York had to face frozen precipitation without the steadying hand of a right-wing authoritarian or a pragmatic technocrat as mayor. Now, as the New York Post has been warning us, the city is being run by a potentially feckless radical, who cares more about identity politics and fostering class resentment than the nuts and bolts of governance.

Good morning! Congratulations on surviving (so far) the blistering winter storm that is not named Hercules. Here's what happened while you were sleeping.

[The ground of New York City's Times Square early New Year's Day was littered with confetti, garbage, and Lord knows what else. In the distance, you can see Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, an exclusive restaurant that sold New Year's Eve party tickets for $679. Photo by Tine Fineberg via AP]

Incoming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has already horrified everyone with his bizarre hatred of walkable pedestrian plazas, but his war on anything that's not a car is just beginning. According to the Daily News, de Blasio announced today that he will "get rid of the horse carriages. Period."

Today the Bloomberg administration unveiled the outgoing mayor’s official portrait, which was painted by Jon Friedman and depicts Bloomberg wearing two “Big Apple” cufflinks and a Big Apple lapel, and, behind him, at least two Bloomberg LP computer terminals. The city unveiled the portrait three days after Polish artist Ismena Halkiewicz placed on the market her own (uncommissioned) portrait of the mayor, who in Halkiewicz’s version is holding an owl and framed by blood-red raindrops inscribed with the dollar sign.

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has named Carmen Farina as the new chancellor of New York City’s Department of Education. Farina, who previously served as deputy chancellor under Bloomberg, has helped steer de Blasio’s plan to implement a city-wide universal preschool program.

Eliot Spitzer is secretly dating Lis Smith, the head spokeswoman of mayor-elect Bill de Blasio (and Spitzer’s former campaign aide during his failed run for New York City comptroller).

On Friday morning, Michael Bloomberg boarded the 7 train for a ride that lasted a single stop and cost the city $2.4 billion dollars. Where he got off on the far West Side, there is now nothing. In a few years time, there will be condos.

Mike Bloomberg likes his privacy. For ten years, the outgoing mayor of New York has refused to disclose when he visits Bermuda to golf, going so far as to hide his private jet from FAA’s public database. He threw a $160,000 hissy fit over releasing emails related to his appointment of Hearst executive Cathie Black, the failed almost-chancellor of New York City’s public schools. So it’s all the more satisfying that his administration’s records—letters, travel logs, internal memos—will soon come under the supervision of his liberal successor—and enormous Bloomberg hater—Bill de Blasio. That’s because of a law Bloomberg himself signed ten years ago.

It's so cold outside, on the freezing streets of Manhattan. Yet the dogs must have their walks. They are city dogs, after all, and it takes an army of dog-walkers to get these beasts out of the apartments at regular intervals. We headed up to Central Park West to meet America's most pampered canines, all dressed up in their winter coats. Here's our first NYC dog of winter, in his red knitted sweater. It's Oliver, the French Bulldog!

The family of mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is moving into Gracie Mansion for “logistical and security concerns.” The de Blasios promise to visit Park Slope, Brooklyn, where they occupy a “modest three-story townhouse,” as often as they can.

First it was the giant hornets in China, now it's winter-proof super cockroaches in New York City.

Down on Canal Street, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has set up a tent for New Yorkers to "talk transition." Among the activities: Writing your wishes in marker on nametags and slapping them up on the wall. Dodge & Burn's Victor Jeffreys went down to check it out and see what New Yorkers are asking for.

Famed New York City bookstore the Strand has allegedly been hosing down homeless people with its sprinkler system in an effort to discourage them from sleeping beneath its trademark red awning overnight. Jesus Christ. We thought reading was supposed to make you more empathetic.

Bill de Blasio, the Brooklyn Democrat and sitting Public Advocate, was elected the 109th mayor of New York City on Tuesday, carried by a dramatic lead over Republican opponent Joe Lhota and widespread sentiment that the Bloomberg administration had turned against New York’s struggling middle class. The candidate is expected to deliver his victory speech in roughly eight-and-a-half hours before supporters gathered at the Park Slope Armory YMCA.