Meet and Greet

If the race for mayor were as over-and-done-with as most of the polls have it, you'd think Mike Bloomberg would slow down spending money, and that challenger Fernando Ferrer would sleep in. Not so for Ferrer on Thursday: Aides arrived at his Riverdale apartment just after 5 a.m. for the ride to New Jersey to tape a TV interview, and he was at the Fordham Road 4 train station for a 7:30 a.m. meet and greet with commuters—a traditional campaign ritual, and for Ferrer a regular one. "We've got to stop meeting like this," a burly guy wearing a heavy flannel shirt and a close-cropped, dyed-blonde haircut quipped. "You know," Ferrer said, "you're the third person to say that." Familiarity cut both ways for Freddy. Some commuters posed for pictures; others smiled broadly. A few went out of their way to meet him. But one black woman stopped and said, "What those policemen did to that man was a crime. It was a crime. And you are going to represent all of us. We don't need bigots of any color." Ferrer nodded at the reference to Diallo. Behind him campaign volunteers chanted his name, asked voters to help him "make history," and—of course—reminded them that Freddy is a "Democrat, Democrat, Democrat!"