Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Happy Birthday | Former Today and Early Show host Bryant Gumbel turns 61 today. John Sexton, the president of New York University, is 67. Faded comic Andrew Dice Clay is turning 52. Jerry Lee Lewis is 74. Florida Senator Bill Nelson is turning 67. And Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is celebrating his 73rd birthday today.

Happy Birthday | If it seems like Bryant Gumbel has been on TV forever, well, that's because he has. The former Today show fixture and Real Sports host on HBO is 60 years old today. Also celebrating: NYU's bearded president, John Sexton, is 66. Comedian Andrew Dice Clay is 51. Barbra Streisand's son, actor/director Jason Gould, is 42. Filmmaker Robert Benton is turning 76. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida is 66. And Lech Walesa, who championed democratic reforms in Poland in the '80s and later served as the nation's president, is 65.

If it feels like every week brings news of yet another cash-strapped American company raising money from Abu Dhabi or Dubai or selling itself entirely to one of these emirates, it isn't your imagination. From real estate (the GM building) to finance (Citigroup), cash has been pouring in from the Middle East as of late. But the expressway of money goes in both directions. Today the Times covered many of the banks setting up shop in Dubai. But loads of other prominent New Yorkers are heading East to take advantage of the petro-dollar gravy train. Here's a look at the growing list of prominent restaurateurs, fashion designers, architects, and real estate developers setting up shop in one of the world's fastest-growing—and richest—regions.

Fashion
You don't have to manufacture diamond-encrusted burkas to get in on petrobillionaires' wives' ravenous appetite for designer duds. New York-based fashion gurus are opening boutiques in Dubai's constantly multiplying high-end malls (places like the famous Mall of the Emirates, which sports the world's largest indoor ski slope). So far Michael Kors and Betsey Johnson have gotten in on the action, there are two Calvin Klein boutiques in the emirate, an outpost of Saks Fifth Avenue recently opened there, and designer Karl Lagerfeld has signed a deal to design 80 limited-edition homes on Isla Moda, the world's "first dedicated fashion island." A Dubai outpost of Barneys seems likely in light of its 2007 takeover by Dubai-based investment firm Isthimar.More