Another New Hotel In Queens Plaza, No (Hot) Sheet!

When it comes to offering hourly rates, just say no:

A new Quality Inn Hotel featuring sleek, modern accommodations for tourists and weary business travelers located just minutes from the Queens Plaza transportation hub has been opened in Long Island City.

The hotel opened its doors at 30-03 40th Ave. last weekend. Owner/manager Vipul Patel and his staff welcomed Big Apple visitors to its 48 units — each featuring a complimentary Internet connection, a daily complimentary breakfast and a 32-inch plasma television for use via complimentary satellite dish TV service.

. . .

Tourists will find that rates at the new Quality Inn will save them valuable vacation dollars, too. Introductory prices include a queen-size unit for $129 per night and a double-double unit for $149 to $169 per night. Grand opening prices will be adjusted at a future date, he added.

Patel guaranteed that the hotel would not offer short-stay rates. “If our staff is approached by anyone seeking such accommodations we will tell them ‘No,’ and suggest they go elsewhere.”

But does that big hole in the ground really count as “access” to Penn Station?

Patel said, “This is the perfect location for tourists and business travelers seeking quick, easy access to all subways, buses and highways. We are also just minutes away from Long Island Rail Road access [to] Pennsylvania Station. Who could ask for more?”

Dog People In Death As Well As Life

Nice:

Leona Helmsley’s dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley’s grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire’s estate.

Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer — so long as they visit their father’s grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.

Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer’s other children — Craig and Meegan Panzirer — for “reasons that are known to them,” she wrote.

Throw Away Your Nextel

Not only is having a work cellphone intrusive but it could actually cost you your job:

A 21-year employee of the school system could lose his job after officials accused him of repeatedly leaving early – and stunned the worker with data it got by tracking his movements with a city-issued cellphone, The Post has learned.

In a precedent-setting case, administrative trial judge Tynia Richard recommended the firing of John Halpin, a veteran supervisor of carpenters, for cutting out before the end of his shift on as many as 83 occasions between March 2 and Aug. 9, 2006.

The evidence against Halpin, whose base pay is $300 a day, included time cards that suspiciously appeared stamped on the same machine, even though his duties placed him in different locations each day.

But there was a clincher: data gathered through the GPS system on Halpin’s cellphone, which he accepted in 2005 without being told it might be used to trace his every move.

On March 8, for example, supervisors determined that Halpin was last in Manhattan at 1:31 p.m. and was home in Levittown, L.I., at 2:40 p.m. On March 29, Halpin was found at home at 2:38 p.m.

The earliest he was caught in Levittown was 1:40 p.m. on June 22.

But his shift wasn’t supposed to end until 3:30 p.m.

Some workers refused the free-phone offer, saying they preferred to use their own cells.

Richard said the unsuspecting Halpin “admitted he took the phone because he liked the walkie-talkie and other functions it has.”

And a good reminder why it’s always better to start late than end early:

Halpin questioned the reliability of the data and argued that his privacy was invaded, since officials tracked him when he wasn’t at work.

In fact, the data found Halpin on numerous occasions turned up early for his job, sometimes at 6 a.m. His shift started at 8 a.m.

Despite the extra hours Halpin put in without pay, Richard ruled that it didn’t mitigate his early departures and recommended he be fired.

As Mark Twain Once Said, All Moving Violations Are Good Moving Violations

In a strange twist, being a total jerk driver actually may help you in the long run:

Pedicab drivers busted by police for running red lights and hitting pedestrians may have better odds of winning coveted licenses to “pedal” their wares in the city than drivers who bother to obey the law.

Tickets for moving violations will be accepted as proof a pedicab business was in operation prior to the new regulations passed by the city this spring.

This proof, which can also come in the form of insurance or incorporation documents, gives operators of bicycle rickshaws first dibs in the lottery to distribute 325 licenses later this year.

New York Swings Like A Pendulum Do, Bugaboo Strollers, Two By Two

The dollar is like the weakest it’s been since the Civil War, they’ve turned our housing stock into pied à terres . . . what more do we have to give them? Oh right — a milfy Julianne Moore:

Speaking at the newly constructed American Airlines terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the mayor said that international tourists complain that American immigration officials are “rude” and “disrespectful.”

“This is one more of those things that is diminishing our competitive edge,” Mr. Bloomberg told a crowd that included more than 45 international journalists. “Poor customer service is not what this country needs. We have to welcome people from around the world. We have to change this at the federal level.”

But the city, he said, is not going to wait for Washington. To improve New York’s competitive edge in the race for international visitors, Mr. Bloomberg unveiled a campaign to make them feel welcome.

The initiative, which is being called “Just Ask the Locals,” will feature billboards throughout the five boroughs with advice from celebrities — including Robert DeNiro, football star Tiki Barber, and others — on where to go and what to do in the city. Movie star Julianne Moore, for example, is pictured in a café with the caption “Even if your kids say they want to walk, bring the stroller.”