Yesterday Forbes magazine, in their annual ranking of the rich, declared New York City is no longer the billionaire capital of the world. Where have all the dollar signs gone? To Moscow, of course, who beat us out by 3 billionaires (they have 74 to our 71). Most of the big buck city dwellers are familiar names: Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($11.5 billion), publishing powerhouses Samuel Newhouse Jr. and Rupert Murdoch ($8.5 billion and $8.3 billion),......

The NY Times' Styles section describes the lonely existence of new residents of the Plaza Hotel condos. Why lonely? Well, if you can afford the pricey digs ($6,400 per square foot!; an owner interviewed paid $5.8 million for a two bedroom), your neighbors are also rich people who probably have other residences and don't live there very often. In other words, does the Times seriously expect us to feel sorry for these people? Maybe......

The Chronicle of Higher Education released its annual salary survey of the heads of educational institutions and the value of a college education is evidenced in the paychecks being cashed by institutions' presidents. More than a dozen heads of private universities took home more than $1 million during the 2005-06 school year. According to the New York Post, the dean of higher earning was Donald Ross, who took home $5.7 million--most in deferred compensation after......

New York magazine has an extraordinary cover story on the life of Brooke Astor, months after the "doyenne" of the city's social scene passed away. It is a sordid tale of jealousy, greed, enmity, conflicting agendas, and familial conflict worthy of the most outlandish soap opera. Her son Tony is now under i investigation by a grand jury and control of her estate has passed to Astor's friend Annette de la Renta. The litany of......

Evidence continues to be collected and associates continue to be questioned as the police try to solve the murder of "broker to the stars" Linda Stein. Stein, who managed the Ramones back in the day and had many famous friends, was found bludgeoned to death in her exclusive Fifth Avenue apartment on October 30. So far, the police have spoken to former business associates, her family, construction workers and building residents, as well as removed......

If you're really, really rich, why not offer $150 million for a triplex penthouse at The Mark Hotel on East 77th Street? The Post reports that Russian-born American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik (#102 on the last Forbes list has "signed a letter of intent" for a number of units that would total almost 30,000 square feet. That's about $5,000/square foot! The Mark is being renovated to offer residences in addition to its hotel rooms. We guess......

The most expensive dessert in the world (pictured) used to be the $14,500 “Fortress Aquamarine” served at a luxury resort in Sri Lanka. But today Sri Lankans can choke on their gilded shame, for the Upper East Side’s Serendipity 3 has put America back on top with a $25,000 triumph called the Frrrozen [sic] Haute Chocolate. Break out your giant diamond-encrusted foam fingers, because the Guinness Book of World Records will now list this as......

Two men were arraigned for trying to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from billionaire Mayor Bloomberg. Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau outlined the two schemes: Odalis Bostic forged two checks from Bloomberg's personal Bank of America account. One was for $190,000, the other was for $230,000, and both were "issued in the name of the mayor’s financial manager, Geller & Company," according to CityRoom. Bostic deposited them into two different bank accounts, but when Bank......

If it's April, it's time to get quarterly real estate data. The NY Times reports that the "prices and number of apartments selling in Manhattan rose" during the beginning of the year. Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property say sales were up 12% versus 2006's 4th quarter. And in an amusing example of how different data can be, BHS and HP say prices rose 6%, but Prudential Douglas Elliman says prices rose 5.4% and......

Earlier today, former mayor Rudy Giuliani was endorsed by Steve Forbes in front of the NASDAQ board. Forbes ran for president in 1996 and 2000 and, like Giuliani, appeared on Saturday Night Live. While Forbes, who has touted a flat income tax, said that Giuliani's record "showed how exercising fiscal discipline, including tax cuts, lowers deficits, spurs economic growth, and increases revenue," we're really not sure what Forbes' endorsement does for Rudy. Encourage more......

Today is "perp search" day on the Gothamist Newsmap-- with skels fleeing the fuzz in the East Village, JFK airport, Harlem, and the Bronx. Also, there was a DOA floater in the East River near 96th Street. Score one for Borat: a NYC judge "told lawyers who filed a $30 million lawsuit accusing the makers of the hit movie "Borat'' of misleading residents of a remote Romanian village that they must make specific allegations......

- The New York City Fire Patrol, which has been around since before the FDNY, may cease to exist on October 1. Save the Patrol! - There is a good piece in the Times today on Green apartment towers rising in the city. All well and good, but we'll really start to get excited when buildings start retrofitting themselves to fit green standards. We'd love to see rain-catching gardens on most city rooftops. -......

Radical Cartography has launched another interesting comparative maps project called City Income Donuts: These maps show the distribution of income (per capita) around the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the US (all those with population greater than 2,000,000). The goal was to test the "donut" hypothesis — the idea that a city will create concentric rings of wealth and poverty, with the rich both in the suburbs and in the "revitalized" downtown, and the......

As World Cup fever slowly infects its way across the five boroughs (we can't be the only ones who've found ourselves standing for hours in bodegas staring at soccer matches when we've already bought the beer we came for) the city has announced its own new competition, and we're pretty pumped for it, too! Using one of the few remaining large vacant properties in the city's portfolio, the Bloomberg administration and an architects' group......

- Ruh roh. Several subway lines are experiencing problems because of the heavy rain. From the MTA: Due to weather conditions, E, F and R service is currently suspended in Queens. V service is suspended in both directions. 2 and 3 service has resumed with delays. 4, 5 and 6 service has resumed with delays. There is no 1 service south of Chambers Street. - The angry ex-member of a commune knew when and......

The Department of Homeland Security want to help New Yorkers - New Yorkers who can afford $140 helicopter rides from downtown Manhattan to JFK Airport that is. It seems that the Downtown Heliport at Wall Street will be the offering 9 minute rides to JFK for seven sweet Andrew Jacksons. The Downtown Heliport will be "federalized," with federal screeners and everything which will enable rich people or people with generous expense accounts to bypass security......

It's New York magazine's 2005 Salary Survey, and the lesson is clearly: The city is full of rich people who are not you. In our highly unscientific early-morning survey of a few pages of the survey, it seems that well over half of the incomes are over $1 million. According to the U.S. Census, only 3% of New York City households have an income of over $250,000. Overlaying that with the number of households in......

- The two teenage girls who died on East Houston Street a week and a half ago died of heroin-and-cocaine overdoses - Goldman Sachs may be leasing at Ground Zero, but they won't paying any rent until the NYPD agrees on security - The missing grandmother with Alzheimer's had actually been at a hospital for two days...but no one contacted her family even though she had a medical ID bracelet - The stealing-from-celebrities housekeeper claims......

David Rockefeller announced that he would be giving $100 million in a cash gift to the Museum of Modern Art's endowment. Now, Gothamist was hoping that the money would take some of the edge off the $20 admission price, or maybe give people waiting in line an annex to wait in, as the current lobby has no waiting line. But the NY Times says Rockefeller thinks the $20 is okay, saying the museum has......

New York is in a tizzy because it's the day before The Gates in Central Park officially open. Gothamist must say, we love how there's so much excitement about public art. Honestly, there hasn't been this much excitement and anticipation from photobloggers in New York since...the Republican National Convention last summer. Wow, Mayor Bloomberg, you really know how to push New Yorkers' buttons! The finishing touches won't be put on The Gates until tomorrow......

Subway riders are still grousing about the C-line suspension, even though C will be running again in a few months. One of the main reasons might be because having the C, plus part of the A out, many other subway lines are affected (the A is running on the F/V), making everyone's subway commute feel twice as long and harrowing in a way only the MTA can do. One person told Newsday, "the rats......

Andrew Boyd, Cultural Activist and Founder, Billionaires for Bush...

AS announced earlier this summer, Real Simple magazine is organizing a huge tag sale in a week and a half with proceeds going to NYC public schools. It's Get Organized New York, which will be held in Central Park on October 16 and 17. All items - from clothing to electronics, from sporting goods to "treasures" - are supposed to be new or nearly new, and Gothamist loves this idea, because we know there are......

Steven I. Weiss, Journalist/Blogger...

Criminal justice system is sucking right about now: Judge calls mistrial in the Tyco case: A judge declared a mistrial Friday in the trial of two former Tyco International executives accused of looting the company of $600 million, citing intense outside pressure placed on one of the jurors. "It is certainly a shame that this has to be done at this time," state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus told jurors after announcing his decision.Shame? It's......

Heh, the Times has given everyone a new way to slam people, with the title of their article about the affordability of the Upper East Side for young people: "Sorry, Your Wallet Says Upper East Side." Though the people interviewed scoffed at the notion of living on the UES, calling it "a very barren nothing land, a wasteland of rich people," they quickly convertiing after finding decent living options and realizing the UES's quality of......

Yesterday, jurors for the case against free spending ex–Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski were treated to home video footage of his $18 million Fifth Avenue apartment, which the prosecution says was paid for by Tyco monies. Another $14 million was sunk into the apartment for renovations, art, and furnishings. The highlights: Paintings by Monet and Renoir, a $17,100 "leather and bronze toilette box" Kozlowski hated and stashed in a closet, and the infamous $6,000 shower......

The amateur video that shows the $2.1 million birthday party ex-Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski threw for his wife's 40th birthday, using Tyco money, not personal money, tells everyone something very clear: Some rich people are very tacky. Though this birthday was held in Rome Sardinia, apaprently the thing to do is recreate a Caesars Palace like atmosphere with men in gladiator wear and women in togas. Gothamist was going to say it seemed pretty......