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In a relatively uneventful autumn week, there were subtle yet disquieting signs of New York’s continuing suburbanization.

In a gray, sodden week, one that pushed New York toward a new record for October rainfall, the city echoed with strange linguistic innovations.

Reflections on righteousness occupied the thoughts of many New Yorkers, Jew and gentile alike, as they strove to sort out complicated feelings about various public figures.

Freddy Ferrer told churchgoers that �God is on my side,� an endorsement that, added to those of David Dinkins and Dennis Rivera, made for a powerful Trinity indeed.

The city seemed to enter a judgmental mood, meting out chastisement to some while showing surprising leniency toward others.

A confluence of major events made for a slightly hectic week, as players from three ordinarily nonintersecting domains crowded the city’s stage.

Meanwhile, keeping an empathetic eye on the Gulf Coast (and a skeptical eye on the White House), New Yorkers reacquainted themselves with the dubious pleasures of actually putting in a productive day at the office.

The devastation that Hurricane Katrina wreaked upon New Orleans concentrated the minds of New Yorkers, who also weighed the possible consequences of such a storm’s hitting the five boroughs someday.

It was a week of mercy and forgiveness, when hundreds of Hamptons houseguests were doing their best to forgive their hosts’ décor, as the precious remainder of the season drew to a close.

It was a New York week replete with events, affairs, controversies, milestones, and even a happening or two.