“Given all the politics and special interests, if we don’t do it this year, it may never get done,” he said of his proposed rezoning plan for the area around Grand Central Terminal, intended to encourage the construction of modern towers. Later, defending aggressive stop-and-frisk police tactics, he said, “We can’t let politics trump public safety, and for the next 320 days — at least — we won’t.”

He pointedly chastised the Democratic lawmakers sitting before him for failing to support his efforts to break the union representing striking school bus drivers, hinting that the officeholders were beholden to organized labor.

“The special interests and campaign donors have never had less power than they’ve had over the past 11 years,” he said, alluding to his ability, because of his personal wealth, to refuse campaign donations. “And this year, we’re going to show them just how true that is.”

The speech was an unusually robust and public airing of the private misgivings that Mr. Bloomberg has long harbored about the city’s other elected officials, the same concerns that have prompted him to ask people he respects, like Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, to consider joining the race to succeed him.

The speech immediately earned a rebuke from several of the Democratic candidates for mayor, who chafed at Mr. Bloomberg’s suggestions of indispensability and the rosy recollections of his three terms.