Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Ever wish you could attend a taping of The Jerry Springer Show, but found the prospect of flying to Chicago a little daunting? You're in for a treat! The most sophisticated show on television has been relocated to lovely Stamford, Connecticut, along with other gems like Maury and The Steve Wilkos Show. You'll  now be able to take in the parade of hillbillies and trannies with a simple, hour-long trip aboard MetroNorth. More importantly, Stamford officials report the city's struggling economy just got the big boost it desperately needed! Congrats, Stamford. We have no doubt a flood of classy tourists with high disposable incomes will follow shortly. [ConnPost]

To-Do List For Out-of-Towners | Do you have friends or family coming to visit this summer? Manhattan User's Guide has a list of 100 things that you can suggest they do when they're here so they stay out of your hair. [MUG]

Here's something to take pride in: The very first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be brought to the United States to stand trial is now a temporary resident of New York City! Tanzania native Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani arrived in town earlier today under extraordinarily heavy guard, which is a probably a good thing since he's accused of assembling the bombs that killed 224 people at two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. More

Things to Be Thankful For: Tourists in Midtown | And you thought Manhattan's retail market was struggling. Fifth Avenue in the 50s is doing just fine thanks to tourists with foreign currency to blow on discounted American goods. The former Brooks Brothers store at 666 Fifth Avenue is now up for grabs and five major chains are currently vying to take over the space (which costs $30 million a year to rent): Uniqlo, Topshop, Zara, Century 21, and Forever 21. So instead of sneering at the next camera-toting German couple who bumps into you on Fifth, thank them for their patronage and move along, okay? [NYP]

NYC Launches 'Podcast Tours' | The city is now offering hour-long podcast tours designed to "highlight the rich and fascinating history of film and television locations in New York City." The first two installments focus on Tribeca and Wall Street and are "narrated by some of the city's most notable figures in entertainment." Whether Julianna Margulies and Matthew Modine live up to such billing is your call, but the tours are free, so don't complain. [NYC.gov]

The New New Times Square: Cabbies, Tourists Unimpressed | The city's plan to turn parts of Times and Herald Squares into "pedestrian zones" went into effect yesterday. How did it go? Traffic wasn't disrupted very much, although officials pointed out that there were fewer cars on the street yesterday after the holiday weekend. Some groups—like cabbies and tour bus operators—were pretty displeased, although that was to be expected. And the crummy lounge chairs that now dot the city's most famous thoroughfare didn't do much to impress tourists passing through Times Square. When a woman from Germany was asked whether she thought "the lounge chairs were a bit, well, cheap for a major public space in New York City," she acknowledged that real wooden chairs and benches would have probably been too expensive. "But we do have them in Germany," she added. So NYC isn't Frankfurt just yet. But just give it some time. [NYT, AMNY]

Good news for those of you who have friends visiting from out of town who also happen to be obsessed with Gossip Girl. On Location Tours, the company responsible for taking tourists from Des Moines to see Carrie Bradshaw's apartment from Sex and the City and the stomping grounds of the cast of The Sopranos, is now accepting reservations for its Gossip Girls tour. More

Room Rate Plunge | Now would be an excellent time to invite your parents to come and visit New York! According to a new survey, nightly hotel rates in the city have dropped nearly 30 percent over the past year: The average room now costs $284 a night, down from $404 at the beginning of 2008. On the other hand, if you happen to despise your parents and want to punish them for ruining your childhood, you'd be better off proposing that they take a trip to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tokyo or Milan. Those were the only four big cities that saw hotel rates increase over the past year. [HotelChatter]

Only the Gays Can Save Us Now | New York is facing an unprecedented $4 billion budget deficit. Who will rescue us from the ruin? The gays! The city kicked off an new ad campaign today designed to attract gay tourists to New York City. The $1.9 million marketing effort, which features the tag line "Join the rainbow pilgrimage," hopes to position a visit to NYC as a "rite of passage," a message that if the city truly took to heart would involve a night out at The Cock, not reduced rates at the Sheraton and discounted tickets to Phantom of the Opera and Madame Tussauds' wax museum. But, hey, the gays sure do love a recession, so it's worth a shot. [AP, Crain's]

Don't be alarmed if you start seeing large groups of Chinese tourists circling your block—they're just here to buy up all the property you can't afford! Thanks to falling real estate values market and newly-relaxed visa rules, travel agencies in China are now putting together guided trips to places like New York and LA, package tours specifically designed for house hunting. Organizers of the trips say it's really not that different than Chinese tourists coming to NYC to buy a dozen handbags at Louis Vuitton. "In the past, people who traveled to the U.S. might carry back a large luggage with American goods," says one. "It's just that this time, what they bring back are [papers showing] hundreds of thousands of dollars of a house." But we can't imagine that desperate sellers, who have grown accustomed to seeing empty open houses in recent weeks, will mind a big crowd turning up. Even if they are camera-toting tourists who plan to hit the Bronx Zoo later that day. [LAT]

Out-of-towners might be out of luck if they visit New York over the holidays hoping to take a double-decker bus tour of the city. The union that represents guides at Gray Line is threatening a strike when its contract expires this month, according to New York. The guides' chief complaint? Pay, naturally (they make $16.73 an hour; they want it raised to $20). But the guides are also concerned with the harsh working conditions, like having to give tours from the top of a double-decker when it's two degrees outside, and the wind chill makes it even colder since they're standing on top of a bus moving at 30 MPH. But their unhappiness about the frosty work environment doesn't seem to have had an effect on Gray Line's promotional plans. The company is now offering tourists the option to eat a "delectable" meal aboard the bus. More