Must-reads headlines from around the city, curated by the WNYC Newsroom.

POLITICS
Bloomberg Asked Clinton to Consider Succeeding Him as Mayor (NYT)
Michael Barbaro reports: “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has long struggled to imagine a successor with the combination of star power, experience and grit to fill his shoes. But not long ago, he was struck by an inspiration: Hillary Rodham Clinton, the retiring secretary of state. In a phone call confirmed by three people, Mr. Bloomberg encouraged Mrs. Clinton to consider entering the 2013 mayor’s race, trading international diplomacy for municipal management on the grandest scale. She would, he suggested, be a perfect fit.”.        

POLITICS
Dem Smith to Join GOP Coalition (NYP)
Carl Campanile reports: “Queens Democrat Malcolm Smith is joining forces with Republicans in a new coalition to run the fractured state Senate, the Post has learned.In a stunning move, Smith, the former Senate majority leader, will join the Independent Democratic Caucus, which includes four other renegades who will help keep the GOP in charge.”   

TRANSPORTATION
Most Senior Port Authority Cops Paid Average of $83.99 an Hour (NYDN)
Erin Durkin reports: “It's not just the tolls that are soaring at the Port Authority. A day after the authority hiked cash tolls at its bridges and tunnels to a staggering $13, a watchdog group revealed Monday that the most senior Port Authority cops are paid an average of $83.99 an hour — dwarfing the $58.86 earned by their counterparts at the NYPD... Only Nassau and Suffolk County cops make more, according to the report by the Citizens Budget Commission.”   

POLITICS
It’s Nopez to Gropez: City Panel to Nix Vito-Friendly Council Map (NYP)
Sally Goldenberg reports: “The city’s Districting Commission will meet this morning to formally withdraw the new City Council maps it presented last month creating a new district seemingly tailored for a Vito Lopez candidacy. The meeting was called in response to Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s demand on Thursday that the body alter its proposed council lines so Lopez, now an assemblyman, stays in his current 37th District.”  

ENVIRONMENT
Resisted for Blocking the View, Dunes Prove They Blunt Storms (NYT)
Mireya Navarro reports: “Six years ago, after the Army Corps of Engineers proposed to erect dunes and elevate beaches along more than six miles of coast to protect this barrier island, the Long Beach City Council voted 5 to 0 against paying its $7 million initial share and taking part. Many of Long Beach’s 33,000 residents would come to regret it.”    

EMPLOYMENT
City-Based Contractors 'Frozen Out' of Hurricane Sandy Clean-Up Jobs (NYDN)
Lisa Colangelo reports: “An army of city agencies and contractors took on the Herculean task of clearing debris created by Superstorm Sandy. But some of those outside contracts — which translated into good jobs for local firms and union workers — ended before Thanksgiving as the Army Corp of Engineers switched to its own emergency contract. A previous pact with Environmental Chemical Corp., a firm with offices in New Jersey and California, kicked in. Those subcontracts pay much lower wages that are set by the federal government. The emergency work is considered a service rather than construction.”   

EMPLOYMENT
They Came to the Rescue; Now, They Wait to Be Paid (NYT)
Patrick McGeehan reports: “Going to Long Island to help restore power after Hurricane Sandy, though grueling, was a financially rewarding assignment for utility workers from outside the metropolitan area. Or at least it was supposed to be. But five weeks after the storm, many who went to the aid of the Long Island Power Authority have not been compensated properly for the long stretches of 16-hour days they put in, workers and union leaders say. Some are still owed several thousand dollars and are not sure if they will be paid before the holidays.”   

HEALTH
With Some Hospitals Closed After Hurricane, E.R.’s at Others Overflow (NYT)
Anemona Hartocollis reports: “Since the storm, a number of New York City hospitals have been scrambling to deal with a sharp increase in patients, forcing them to add shifts of doctors and nurses on overtime, to convert offices and lobbies to use for patients’ care, and even, in one case, to go to a local furniture store to buy extra beds.”   

TRANSPORTATION
Hoboken, Jersey City Commuters Protest PATH's 10 p.m. shutoff (Star Ledger)
Terrence McDonald reports: “Fed up with not being able to take the PATH into or out of New York after 10 p.m., some commuters have created an online protest to urge the Port Authority via Twitter, Facebook and Change.org to restore late-night service on the trains.”    

TRANSPORTATION
Drivers to Sue City Over Red-Light Cam Tickets (NYP)
Jennifer Fermino and Jennifer Bain report: “Three motorists who were slapped with $50 red-light camera tickets are filing a class-action suit against the city, arguing that they were nabbed by too-short yellow lights, The Post has learned.”   

SANDY
How the Coastline Became a Place to Put the Poor (NYT)
Jonathan Mahler reflects: “In retrospect, after the storm, it looked like a perverse stroke of urban planning. Many of New York City’s most vulnerable people had been housed in its most vulnerable places: public housing projects along the water, in areas like the Rockaways, Coney Island, Red Hook and Alphabet City.”