Mayor Bloomberg has stepped up the city’s response to the 10-day blackout in northwest Queens with a series of measures aimed at aiding businesses, boosting tourism, and quelling the rising criticism that has sounded from residents of the affected neighborhoods.

Last night, it appeared that he would have to do the same in Staten Island, after thousands of homes lost power there late yesterday afternoon. Con Edison expected to restore full power overnight.

The multi-pronged Queens initiative includes an agreement by Con Ed to eliminate the red tape for residents seeking up to $350 in reimbursement for spoiled food and to speed the collection of up to $7,000 in compensated losses for business. The city is also offering emergency, low-interest loans of as much as $10,000 for small businesses in the areas that lost power.

Finally, Mr. Bloomberg yesterday announced the launch of “Power Up Queens,” a citywide advertising campaign designed to promote the borough and head off any long-term economic wounds the power outage may inflict.

Together, the initiatives signal an attempt to remedy what has become a 10-day morass for thousands of Queens residents and a political hiccup for the popular mayor, who has faced scorn from local officials fuming at his unwavering defense of Con Ed.

In a further acknowledgement of the seriousness of the blackout and the political toll it has taken, Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday he had postponed a trip to Ireland planned for today and tomorrow.

He also responded quickly to outages in Staten Island.After not appearing in Queens for three days following the start of the power outage last week, the mayor canceled two evening events and headed to Staten Island for a briefing last night.

Still, the mayor defended his handling of the Queens crisis, saying the city “did everything it should have done from the very beginning.”

He also offered a tongue-in-cheek jab at Queens politicians who have criticized him for backing Con Ed. “I think in retrospect I probably made one mistake here,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “The mistake I made was not going out and irresponsibly attacking a company that as far as I can tell had an accident that befell them that they didn’t deliberately cause, and I didn’t go and scream at them in a way that would keep them from focusing on doing what they should have done — returning the power as quickly as possible.”

He later added that it was a mistake he “would deliberately make again.”

Under the agreement with Con Ed, the utility will waive a previous requirement that residents provide receipts or photographs for their expired food and medication. A resident now must simply write a letter to the company — in any language — and include an address in order to receive a check, which the company has pledged to send out within a week. Businesses must still submit proof for their claims.

Borough officials welcomed the aid from the city, but they said yesterday it was far from enough. “It’s a start, but these are baby steps,” the state assemblyman who represents the affected area, Michael Gianaris, said.

The $350 for residents and $7,000 for businesses falls far short, Mr. Gianaris said, as it doesn’t account for lost wages, ruined equipment, and other damages.

The city’s initiatives garnered mixed reviews on the streets of Queens. Some residents said the $350 would be more than enough reimbursement, while a few businesses said the $7,000 for spoiled food and a possible $10,000 loan would be paltry compared to the loss they suffered. “The loan won’t cover our cost, and the city will still make money from us,” the manager of a 31st Street pizza parlor called Michaelangelo’s, Ardita Daci, said. “Our workers’ loss is not covered. Nothing. Zero.”

Political analysts applauded the mayor’s move, including his decision to postpone his trip to Ireland. “It’s a recognition of both the needs of the community and, in a sense, Mike Bloomberg’s political needs,” a professor of public policy at Baruch College, Douglas Muzzio, said. “It’s both politics and good policy.”