In the mayor's race, Democratic mayoral candidate William Thompson unveiled his first TV ad campaign Thursday.

While the ads are largely biographical, they indirectly slam the mayor by saying the rich and powerful have been favored over the last eight years.

The cash-strapped Thompson campaign is spending $200,000 on running the ads, which starts Friday.

Asked about the ads, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he doesn't favor the rich.

"It's the middle class that have better schools for their kids, it's the middle class that have safer streets where they live, it's the middle class that has parks they can go to," said the mayor.

Bloomberg made the comments while receiving the backing of the Building and Construction Trades Council.

While campaigning in Chinatown, Thompson questioned whether a bike lane on Grand Street and the other bike lanes across the city have hurt businesses.

Thompson said if elected, he would rip out the Grand Street bike lane and review other ones put in by the Bloomberg Administration.

"I'm in favor of bike lanes but you can't put bike lanes in without speaking to the community," Thompson said. "You can't put bike lanes that are doing damage to local businesses."

The bike lanes have been a key initiative of Bloomberg's Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

In other Bloomberg campaign news, his longtime Deputy Mayor Patti Harris will be leaving the administration soon to work on the campaign. The mayor says he has not talked about what her role would be if he's reelected this fall.