"We should get out of the subway business," Mayor Riordan said in a less celebratory moment earlier this week.

Mayor Riordan, by political standards, is almost a recluse.

Mayor Riordan is calling for a board of nonelected officials who would be free from making decisions based on politics.

These include Mayor Riordan, who himself is up for re-election next year.

So Mayor Riordan's proposal is being carefully watched by other cities and states.

To hear Mayor Riordan tell it, a long-term strike would "plunge our city and county into a recession."

He has raised about $50,000 so far, his campaign staff says, compared with more than $2.4 million by Mayor Riordan.

Mayor Riordan said he hoped the new theater would be ready by 2001.

Asked today whether the Chief still has his confidence, Mayor Riordan declined to comment.

"This is a personnel matter," Mayor Riordan told reporters at a news conference.