With A CEO-Average Worker Pay Ratio Closing In On 20 . . .

As CEO salaries balloon, New Yorkers discover that the New York Public Library is not immune to this disturbing trend:

The library’s most recent federal tax filing shows that the total compensation for Paul LeClerc, the library’s president and chief executive, had increased to more than $800,000, a jump of more than $221,000 from just a year earlier.

. . .

In the world of charitable organizations and major public-private institutions, executive compensation has grown sizably in recent years. Those who defend the increased salaries contend that such costs are dictated by the marketplace for the most talented and expert people. Others, however, have complained that the often quite lucrative pay — while opaque to donors, large and small — has become excessive.

A survey of compensation for nonprofit executives that was featured in the September issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy showed that Dr. LeClerc’s salary of $464,170 was significantly less, for instance, than that of Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Lowry’s compensation for the same fiscal year, excluding benefits and expense allowances, was $875,301, according to the magazine.

But in the category of museums and libraries, Dr. LeClerc’s salary was considerably higher than what James Cuno, the director and president of the Art Institute of Chicago, took home that year. The survey reported that Mr. Cuno’s compensation was $323,531.

See also: “Starting Salaries” (Library Dust).

After Which You Will Personally Get To Use The Entire 88-Foot Tree As Kindling To Light 100-Dollar Bills That You Will In Turn Use To Light Your Cigars

Now that the top tenth of the top one percent is pulling away from the rest of the top one percent, gazillionaires might find that they have trouble spending all that money. This will help:

Getting to watch the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in person can be tough: too many people, too many VIPs, too little space.

But for this year’s ceremony on Nov. 29 there’s a better way — the Rock Center Holiday Package for two.

It includes a vintage Rolls-Royce limo, a helicopter, a fancy lunch, a duplex penthouse suite in the Buckingham Hotel and some truffled snacks. And the whole deal will only set you back $75,000.

The package will be available to one couple daily from Nov. 29 through Jan. 8, when the tree comes down, said Neil Alumkal, vice president of 5W Public Relations.

Each couple will be driven in a vintage Rolls limo from their area home to the Buckingham Hotel, where they will check into the Martinelli Penthouse, decorated with their very own replica of the 88-foot Christmas tree.

Next comes a private lunch at the Rock Center Cafe with a menu of their own making, overlooking the famous rink, on which, after lunch, they will be able to skate alone, just the two of them.

Then it’s on to the chopper, with a stop at the Sea Grill, where Chef Ed Brown will personally deliver an array of white truffle snacks for the couple to nibble on as they circle Manhattan and view the tree from the sky.

. . .

“The couples will take away endless memories of the most glamorous experience of their lives,” [Buckingham Hotel managing partner Stephen] Shapiro said yesterday. “What could be more glamorous than a penthouse in the middle of Manhattan?”

The Botox Theory Of Urban Revitalization

Affluent whites set their sights on Fulton Mall:

Fulton Mall is a commercial heavyweight, according to its merchants association. It draws 100,000 shoppers each day, rings up more than $100 million in annual sales and commands rents of up to $250 a square foot, among the highest of any retail district in the city.

But few of its customers are from the nearby brownstone neighborhoods.

“The challenge the Fulton Mall has is a lack of retail diversity,” said Joseph Chan, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the leader in the effort to renovate the mall. “There are certainly a lot of cellphone stores and shoe stores, for example. But in terms of retail that cuts across a broad socioeconomic spectrum, there’s not a lot right now.”

The first order of business for Mr. Chan is a makeover of the streetscape — streamlining sign clutter, installing new bus shelters — to which the city has committed $9.5 million. As for new stores, Mr. Chan said, the choice will largely be driven by the many newcomers.

“Basically,” he said, “you’re adding thousands of people who are going to need a quart of milk at 10 at night.” Local brokers say the new residents will also need a wine store, a specialty supermarket, new restaurants, dry cleaners and perhaps another bookstore.

“There are no good restaurants, there’s no midrange apparel or accessories,” said Faith Hope Consolo, an executive with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which handles many of the store rentals in the downtown developments.

“What we’re aiming for is a better neighborhood all around,” Ms. Consolo said. “That doesn’t mean Gucci, but maybe HMV, maybe Zara, maybe Equinox. We’re addressing chain restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and Legal Sea Foods. We’re not asking anybody to leave the street. We just have to bring in new stores in a way that everybody can work together. We’re Botoxing Fulton Street Mall.”

Sometimes I Really Wish That Now-Ubiquitous O’Jays Song Never Happened In The First Place

Highlights from New York Magazine’s Money Issue include but are not limited to:

• Brian, a “subsidized grad student,” spends on an average of almost $2000 a month on shit that is not rent.
• One dollar in New York is only worth about 76 cents in real terms.
• While that security guard makes $1352 a month, you are starting to hate all your old Penn friends.

With Any Luck This Means The Economy Is Correcting Itself

Time was, “trend-spotting reporters eager for pampered-pooch stories” couldn’t get enough of WoofSpa. Oh how times have changed:

To peek inside the windows of the WoofSpa and Resort at 678 Hudson Street was once to glimpse a real-life Cassius Marcellus Coolidge painting in action: Dogs of every breed lounged on leather dog furniture in the lobby. Multicolored Andy Warhol–esque portraits of the proprietor’s Wheaten Terriers adorned the walls. And for non-canine glitz, the likes of Ed Burns, Julianne Moore, Lili Taylor, Molly Ringwald and Molly Shannon coming through the front doors was unbeatable.

But this fall, a sign was posted to the entrance, dated Sept. 15, announcing that the pet spa had been “forced out” of its lease.

In fact, the departure of WoofSpa from the meatpacking district was the culmination of a prolonged legal struggle with its landlord over tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent, as well as numerous regulatory violations and customer complaints of less-than-luxurious animal accommodations.

. . .

The sudden shuttering came as little surprise to some disgruntled patrons, who became dissatisfied with the upscale dog-hotel.

“With the fake Le Corbusier sofas and fake Warhols, it was very much geared toward the West Village aesthetic done doggie-style,” said one neighborhood dog owner and former client, who wanted her name—and that of her precious pooch—withheld. “[WoofSpa proprietor] Keith [Acker] really tapped into something, knowing that there was a certain comfort level that us West Village–meatpacking [district]–Chelsea residents felt in leaving our dogs somewhere stylish.”

Conversations with several patrons revealed that however luxurious-looking the place may have been, a kennel is still finally an indoor place where lots of dogs spend lots of time; dogs with rich owners, it turns out, don’t smell any better than the less fortunate of their species, making the prospect of an upscale kennel seem, at best, paradoxical.