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.

This Comes On The Heels Of The Company’s Announcement That It Will Open Its Latest Flagship Store On Haifa Street In Baghdad

New Era, the supplier of Major League Baseball caps, is accused of exploiting gang rivalries in designing new merchandise:

Angry East Harlem activists took to the streets yesterday, demanding that New Era baseball caps designed with the colors and symbols of three notorious gangs be pulled from shelves.

The protesters say the headwear, which they claim evoke the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings gang colors, will add to the violence that already plagues their neighborhood.

“Young people who don’t know the meaning of these hats will fall prey to gangs and wind up beat up, shot or worse,” said Johnny Rivera, who led the group of 20 protesters to apparel stores along Third Avenue near East 107th Street.

. . .

Rivera first discovered the caps while shopping with his son for back-to-school gear last week.

He offered to buy his son a black New Era baseball cap with a gold Yankee logo and embroidered crown. The 11-year-old explained to his then-clueless father that the hat was “a gang thing,” and wearing it would put him in danger.

“This is not something I was aware of as a 45-year old father buying a hat for my 11-year old kid,” he said.

His son pointed out two other New Era-brand Yankees hats, both white with red or blue bandannas wrapped around the sides, that he said represent Bloods and Crips.

Always The Forgotten Borough

Teamwork means reaching across the aisle — or down Pennsylvania Avenue — so that you can build the coalitions needed to get things done:

Congestion pricing has been touted as a boon for the entire city, yet no one from Staten Island is included on a commission to study the controversial plan.

A search of official records indicates that the 17-member panel announced yesterday by city and state politicians has no one who either lives on the Island or represents it.

The revelation infuriated several of the borough’s elected officials, who ultimately would vote on the plan in the City Council and state Legislature.

“What that has done is made a very difficult sell to the people of Staten Island nearly impossible,” said City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn).

Oddo contended the commission would lack a voice defending the needs of the Island, where commuters generally feel mass transportation alternatives are lacking and tolls are too expensive.

“Can you imagine Manhattan not being represented?” he asked. “Can you imagine the [former Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani administration creating a 17-member commission of whatever that didn’t include a Staten Islander?”

. . .

Oddo was not alone in his outrage.

State Sen. Diane Savino and Councilman Michael McMahon, both North Shore Democrats, also slammed the composition of the group.

“We are the most under-served and most overlooked constituency by mass transit, and again we are getting short shrift here,” Ms. Savino said.

On The Volatility Of Markets

You know, just because the Dow has tanked for a couple of weeks now doesn’t mean you’re allowed to stiff the waitstaff:

Stingier restaurant tips and smaller company parties are adding to the fiscal fallout from Wall Street’s market slump.

“Tipping has gone from about 18 percent to 12 to 14 percent,” moaned Rene Santiz, a waiter at City Lobster on West 49th Street, which caters to a Midtown finance crowd.

“When you hear your co-workers complaining, it’s definitely happening. People used to have a cocktail or glass of wine with dinner and now it’s just water. You can feel the stress,” he added.

. . . sort of makes stuff like the Hedge Fund Regatta seem like a quaint relic of the (bygone?) New Gilded Age.

Why Don’t You Also Go Bend All Our Rims While You’re At It?

That’s two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash who wants to tear apart Sheep Meadow:

Steve Nash, a two-time most valuable player in the N.B.A., and Claudio Reyna, once a mainstay on the United States national soccer team, were warming up for what was supposed to be a pickup soccer game in the Sheep Meadow between one of Nash’s recreational-league teams and several players for the Red Bulls, Reyna’s professional squad in Major League Soccer.

Nash spends most of the year running the point for the Phoenix Suns, but in the off-season, he can be found playing soccer in rec leagues in New York.

“It’s better for me than just running lines,” he said. “I don’t want to play a lot of basketball until September’s over or I’ll burn myself out. I just shoot, work out and play soccer.”

But not in the Sheep Meadow. The 15-acre patch of grass is for passive recreation only, park officials said as they shut down the game Tuesday between Nash’s team and the Red Bulls players before it started. Employees of the Central Park Conservancy established that the group did not have a permit, then asked the soccer players to remove their cleats — “there is a reason the turf is in such nice shape,” one of them said.

That prompted vigorous but futile protests from Nash’s team, Promotion Factory, which is composed almost entirely of Italian transplants.

“Soccer is not loved,” shouted one player from Nash’s team, winning a round of laughing cheers from his teammates.

“They are always trying to contain it,” said another, insisting that the incident illustrated why soccer was not more popular in the United States.

To appease the park officials, the match was moved to a nearby patch of dirt. But concern about the potential for injury on such the surface led a Red Bulls official to forbid the players from participating. Reyna and his teammates stood by and watched as Nash’s team split into two groups and played on their own.

Location Scout: Sheep Meadow.