I’m Not Sure How “Payments In Lieu Of Itemized Expenditures” Becomes “Lulu” But I Like It!

New York City Council Committee chairmanships bring cash payments that are known by the lyrical nickname “lulu”:

The much-desired “lulu” will make a revealing visit to the City Council today.

Lulu is the nickname for the stipends Council members receive for chairing the Council’s numerous committees or holding leadership posts. It’s short for payments in lieu of itemized expenditures.

Lulus add from $4,000 to $29,500 to the $90,000 annual salaries of the 51 Council members.

Potty Parity Arrives

The first establishment covered by New York City’s “potty parity” law has opened, but men still seem to have the advantage:

Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, a 200-seat eatery at 407 Greenwich St., will be the first new establishment to open and be forced to comply with the new legislation. The result is that the eatery will have four stalls in the ladies room and two stalls and three urinals for the men.

The law, designed to solve the age-old problem of overcrowded ladies’ facilities, covers new or renovated public spaces, including stadiums, theaters, dance halls, convention centers and drinking establishments.

It says that for every sit-down toilet in a men’s room, there have to be two for the ladies.

So male patrons at Wolfgang’s bathrooms will have five places to relieve themselves versus four for women . . . well-written legislation!

In Defense Of Tourists

Tourists may have strange accents, ask dumb questions and not know how to walk* but they also dump an assload of money into New York, as this news that tourism is at an all-time high reminds us:

An all-time high of 41 million visitors traveled to the city in 2005. And the city is on track to record one of its best holiday travel seasons in years, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

According to a preliminary forecast, more than 8.25 million visitors enjoyed the holidays in New York in November and December, an increase of 6% from the previous year.

Citywide hotel occupancy for December is expected to be 86%, up from 83% in 2004.

“There’s been this resurgence in interest and in love for New York City,” Bloomberg said yesterday. “People will come here because they know that the city is safe — they know the city is exciting.”

(The mayor also used the announcement as an opportunity to plug a new Javits Center, but that’s neither here nor there.)

*This seems like as good a time as any to plug our new “Learn How To Fuckin’ Walk!” New York City tours, in which actual New Yorkers show visitors around the city.

On Jumping Off Of Bridges

Are we to assume that you can jump off of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge but not the George Washington Bridge?

First, a 19-year-old apparently survives a jump from the Verrazano:

A Brooklyn teen told cops he survived a leap off the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge last night.
Pavel Kononov, 19, was soaking wet when he flagged down an off-duty cop who was driving onto the Belt Parkway from the bridge at 7 p.m. Earlier, cops had responded to reports of a possible jumper, but nobody saw one.

At its highest point, the bridge is 237 feet above the water, but it’s not clear how far he fell.

He was taken to Lutheran Hospital in critical condition but was later upgraded to stable.

This comes on the heels of the death of a man on Monday after diving headfirst from the GWB:

A lover’s spat between two gay men driving over the George Washington Bridge ended in tragedy yesterday when the driver stopped the vehicle mid-span and dived headfirst into the Hudson River, police and witnesses said.

“It was terrible, just terrible — something awful to see,” said Gus Guerra, who was in his boat under the bridge and got to the victim first. “He was shaking a bit and moving in the water when I pulled him out. His face was pretty bad and blood was coming out of his ears.”

The jumper, 45, was pronounced dead a short time later.

The nightmarish drama began at 11:30 a.m., when the two men got into an argument as they headed toward New Jersey on the upper level.

Police said the driver pulled the car over by the bridge’s New York tower, climbed over the railing and took a 220-foot dive.

Guerra, a mechanic at a marina, said a cop told him the driver had flipped out during an argument with his lover.

“He landed head first. He looked pretty rough. There was no way he could have survived,” Guerra said.

Visual comparison: Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the George Washington Bridge.