Leading Economic Indicators: Wal-Mart Willing To Put Up With New York City

In 2009, things were so bad retail-wise that Wal-Mart may be braving the potential shitstorm that would follow an announcement to open a store in Manhattan:

Manhattan’s retail rent rollback is causing Wal-Mart to give the city another look.

The giant discount chain has shopped for space in Union Square and among the big-box stores along Sixth Avenue in Chelsea, The Post has learned.

Wal-Mart recently passed on a proposal by Related Companies for a two-level store of about 57,000 feet in Union Square where Virgin Megastores and Circuit City are closing, sources said.

The company’s real-estate scouts have also been roaming the area around 620 Sixth Ave., said the sources.

Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said the Union Square sites “were never under consideration.” But he said the company is “still interested” in opening stores in New York, despite strong political and union opposition.

When You Put It That Way, It’s Nearly Impossible Not To Get Excited For Opening Day!

Amid the fan-friendly touches, new and improved sightlines and new excellent concessions, sad truths remain:

Sitting in their seats, few fans will see the chop shops in Willets Point, the cars roaring past on the Van Wyck Expressway, the subway yards to the south or the U-Haul sign. They will still get a crystal-clear view of the planes on their final approach to La Guardia Airport. Some things never change.

Location Scout: Citi Field.

Funny, I Was Just Thinking About Pitching An Updated Dog Day Afternoon

With more glam, and za-za-zoo:

A thugged-out pack of transvestite teens has been targeting women walking into a star-studded West Village building, snatching their purses and using stolen credit cards to buy wigs and women’s clothes, sources said yesterday.

Jubril “Dominic” Faggins, 19, and Jhirad “Shanese” Powell, 18, both of Brooklyn, have been charged with attacking woman in The Archive on Greenwich Street on two occasions.

The apartment building is the onetime home to Monica Lewinsky, designer Michael Kors and actress Jennifer Connelly.

The first attack came at about 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 29.

“It was Destiny [another transvestite] that told me to rob the white bitch,” Powell told cops, according to court records.

Faggins and Powell then followed the woman, 36, into the lobby and wrestled her purse from her.

. . .

The attackers then fled, and over the following two days charged $3,639 to the woman’s credit cards on wigs and women’s clothes and jewelry at stores at the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn.

Are Brooklyn Women Too Ugly Or Something?

Last year the excuse was that there weren’t enough entrants. And residency requirements are an issue again this year:

Keelie Sheridan, an Irish step dancer who moved here in 2005, is the new Miss Brooklyn — but not without a schmear of controversy.

The 22-year-old student says she’s been in love with Brooklyn ever since she moved into a Sheepshead Bay apartment that’s only seven minutes from the beach.

Sheridan is certainly more familiar with borough life than Leigh-Taylor Smith, last year’s winner, who lived in Manhattan.

Still, some Brooklynites are griping Sheridan hasn’t been here long enough to represent the borough’s 2.5 million people from 150 nations — people who speak 136 different languages.

Seven of the pageant’s nine contestants were born and raised in the borough.

“One of them should have won,” said Makada Lemont, 18, a student at Pacific High School and a lifelong Crown Heights resident.

Lemont’s friend Tiffany Cook, 20, also of Crown Heights, agreed: “She doesn’t know what Brooklyn is all about, like what we go through or anything about our lifestyle, like the clothing we wear, the way we talk, our swag.”

Mayors Have Gone Down For Less

Weiner should have seen this as an opening — the snow wasn’t that bad yesterday:

When he canceled school yesterday for the first time in five years, Mayor Bloomberg had to deal with two storms: one from Mother Nature, which dumped eight inches of snow on New York, and another from schoolkids’ moms, furious the last-minute decision forced them to scramble for child care.

. . .

For Bloomberg, it was a snow-win situation. Knowing that so many parents depend on the schools to take care of their kids, the city waited until the last possible moment, 5:39 a.m., to cancel classes for the first time since Jan. 28, 2004.

For that day, Bloomberg made his announcement the night before — and it caused outrage the next day, when the storm turned out not to be as severe as had been forecast and parents groused that they had taken off work for no reason.

This time, the city wanted to make sure that the storm was not overblown, Bloomberg said, adding the thought should have occurred to most parents.

“If you got up this morning, looked outside, and the question didn’t come to you right away, ‘Hmm, I wonder whether or not school is going to be open today,’ and you didn’t know enough to call 311, I would suggest another day in school’s probably a good idea,” the mayor said at a briefing.

“I mean, come on,”[*] he added. “Looking outside, it’s a legitimate question, and you know how to get an answer.”

*Remember, Bloomberg is at his most unbecoming when he reverts to the “Come on . . .” trope.