NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blame it on the recent rains, the storms, or maybe the sudden temperature dip in some parts of the U.S. Whatever the reason, big cities are out-polling the beaches in priceline.com’s (Nasdaq: PCLN) 5th annual survey of the 50 most-popular destinations for the upcoming Labor Day holiday.
To compile its list of the Top 50 Labor Day travel destinations, priceline.com looked at a sampling of more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for the September 1-3, 2007 period. Because the survey is based on actual booking requests, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, priceline.com believes its annual survey is one of the more accurate predictors of Labor Day travel trends.
Priceline.com also said it still has plenty of last-minute airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises available for Labor Day getaways. Visit www.priceline.com for full details.
Chicago was the big winner in the Labor Day 2007 survey, with the Millennium Park and North Michigan Avenue areas coming in #1 and #2 in popularity. New York City followed up with the next 4 spots on the list for its Upper Midtown, Midtown East, Soho and Midtown West neighborhoods. Las Vegas and San Francisco neighborhoods rounded out the top 10 spots on the list.
Beach areas weren’t totally shut out on the list. San Diego took six spots on the list, the highest total of any individual city, while other areas making the list included Waikiki, Key West, Virginia Beach, Hilton Head and San Juan. For most Americans, Labor Day is a long weekend, so almost no overseas international destinations made the list, with the exception of London.
Destinations recording the biggest gains in popularity over 2006 include Jersey City (+20 spots to #23), St. Louis (+19 spots to #12), New York’s Midtown South area (+19 spots to #30) and San Diego’s East County (+14 spots to #18).
Priceline's Top 50 Destinations for Labor Day 2007
Rank 2007 Neighborhood Rank 2006 Yr/Yr Change
1 Chicago, Millennium Park, 2 +1
Loop & Grant Park Area
2 Chicago, North Michigan Ave/ 4 +2
River North Area
3 NYC, Upper Midtown/Central Park South 1 -2
4 NYC, Midtown East 7 +3
5 NYC, Downtown/Soho/Financial District 5 0
6 NYC, Midtown West 6 0
7 Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity South NA NA
8 Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity 3 -5
9 San Francisco, Union Square West 12 +3
10 San Francisco, Union Square East, 11 +1
Embarcadero
11 San Diego, Coastal Area 8 -3
12 St. Louis, Downtown 31 +19
13 Boston, Copley Area 15 +2
14 Seattle, Downtown 9 -5
15 San Diego, Downtown & Harbor Island 13 -2
16 Vancouver 14 -2
17 Boston, Downtown/Charlestown 16 -1
18 San Diego, East County 32 +14
19 San Diego, Point Loma/Shelter Island/ 21 +2
Old Town
20 St. Catharines, Niagara Falls 19 -1
21 Montreal 22 +1
22 San Antonio, Downtown/Riverwalk 17 -5
23 Jersey City 43 +20
24 Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity North NA NA
25 Chicago, O'Hare Airport Vicinity 23 -2
26 Oahu, Waikiki Beach Area NA NA
27 Beverly Hills/West Hollywood NA NA
28 Philadelphia, Downtown 34 +6
29 Las Vegas, Convention Center/UNLV 18 -11
30 NYC, Midtown South 49 +19
31 Hollywood NA NA
32 Orange County, Disneyland Area 26 -6
33 Austin, Downtown 27 -6
34 Atlanta, Downtown NA NA
35 San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf NA NA
36 Boston, Brighton/Brookline 35 -1
37 London, Mayfair/Soho NA NA
38 Monterey/Pacific Grove 36 -2
39 Oahu, Waikiki Marina Area NA NA
40 Virginia Beach 30 -10
41 Markham (Ontario) 37 -4
42 Washington, DC, White House/Downtown 33 -9
43 Toronto, Downtown 24 -9
44 San Diego, Mission Valley NA NA
45 New Orleans, French Quarter 40 -5
46 San Diego, Coronado NA NA
47 Orlando, Universal Studios/Sea World 38 -9
48 Key West NA NA
49 Hilton Head 47 -2
50 San Juan 20 -30
NA - Did not appear on last year's list.
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| KEY WEST, Florida Keys – Latin diva Gloria Estefan is scheduled to perform several songs from her upcoming CD release, “90 Millas” (“90 Miles”), live in Key West Saturday, Aug. 25, during videotaping of Univision network’s “Despierta America” morning television show. According to "Despierta America" producers, the singer’s performance is to be a facet of the production from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sunset Pier at the Westin Key West Resort & Marina, 245 Front St. The public is invited to watch Estefan and the rest of the show for free. Key West is situated just 90 miles from the Cuban coast and on the CD Estefan revisits the Cuban music of her roots. Recorded entirely in Spanish and set for release Sept. 18, the 14-track set is led by the single "No Llores," (“Don’t Cry”) featuring guitarists Carlos Santana and Jose Feliciano, and percussionist Sheila E. Hosting the show from Key West are to be Fernando Arau and Raul Gonzalez, two of the hosts from the morning show. “Despierta America” airs weekdays in South Florida on Channel 23 and is the Spanish-language broadcast version of such network morning shows as ABC’s “Good Morning America.” It also airs on 61 other Univision Television Group-owned television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets as well as Puerto Rico and on cable television in Mexico and some parts of South America. Producers have been coordinating with the Monroe County Tourist Development Council to facilitate the taping. The show is to air Monday, Sept. 17, from 7 to 10 a.m. Schooner Liberty, docked in Key West Harbor, and the Westin’s Sunset Key Guest Cottages are to be the backdrops for the show. Segments to be featured include performances by acts from Key West’s nightly Sunset Celebration, the Westin’s bartender creating a signature "Gloria" cocktail and a singing contest where aspiring artists take their turn at the microphone to belt out a famous Estefan tune. Additional segments focusing on Keys activities also are to be featured, including a visit to the Pirate Soul Museum, a kayak excursion with Lazy Dog Charters and a snuba session that combines scuba diving and snorkeling. The resort is to have food and beverages available for purchase by the audience during the taping. “Despierta America” is the second production of a network morning show in the Florida Keys this summer. On July 5, portions of the “The Early Show” were broadcast live on CBS to kick off that network morning show’s Great American Vacation series. |
Weary of the homeless encampments, fights and filth that have kept families and tourists away from one of the largest beaches and parks in the city, the mayor wants to reclaim Higgs Beach — but first the city has to own it.Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson will start that process Aug. 21 when he officially asks Monroe County officials, at a City Commission meeting, to give the park to the city to use, maintain, patrol and improve.
The area has long been under county control, and has been the subject of a hot-potato debate over whose resources should be expended to enforce la
ws there and maintain the park.
"The ultimate goal is to turn that into a world-class park," McPherson said Thursday, envisioning a small miniature golf course, and separate play areas for children of different ages. The building that currently houses Salute restaurant also would be owned by the city, and McPherson said he would love to see the high school culinary program use it as a student-run restaurant.
The cost of owning the park would run the city about $500,000 per year in law enforcement and maintenance, but, McPherson said, most of that money still would come from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council as part of a beach restoration and maintenance program.
"It would basically be a break-even situation," he said, adding that city resources already are being used to enforce laws, remove homeless people and stop fights that frequently break out at the picnic tables that line the beach.
"We have a huge park that we can't use," said business owner and father Jim Gilleran, calling the situation "absurd."
He said a committee of concerned residents has started circulating a petition asking for the removal of the picnic pavilions to discourage loitering by homeless people during the day.
Although strict laws govern what can be done to remove homeless people from an area, McPherson said he would like to see a nonprofit foundation eventually lease the park from the city so it could enact rules that would be a deterrent to loitering, such as charging families a dollar to "rent" the pavilions for a day.
"There are things other places have done that are possible if a nonprofit runs the park," McPherson said.
I am weary of the homeless in general. Having been homeless on several occasions during my life, I feel no qualms at all about voicing my feelings towards them.
For some reason the bums on Higgs beach have decided that their stinking, drunken, filthy dirty lives should be shoved in the faces of everyone and anyone who has a bath once a week or more. They have been left alone by the authorities for so long that they now feel that the BBQ pits and Tiki huts are their own.
They throw bottles and other garbage at anyone walking by, and god help you if they decide to demand money from you. They have sex in full view of the kids in the park across the path, and trust me nasty does not begin to describe it, but by the time the 'cops' appear naturally there is no sign of the offenders. They shoot drugs. They scream and yell at each other and anyone else in or out of earshot.
I find it incredible that there are apparently 'strict laws' governing how to get rid of these scum bags. I am going to look them up, because I simply do not believe that this kind of behavior is not more illegal that removing these 'people'. If I decided to set up shop there and hurl insults at passers by, I wonder how long it would be before a disturbing the peace arrest would ensue.looking them up
Cay Clubs will soon own Southernmost Restaurants, a Cay Clubs spokesman said. The restaurant group owner says otherwise in the latest chapter of a summer-long debate.Good news for heroin addicts everywhere, the war on drugs is going along fairly similar lines as the war on terror, and to show what a simply fabulous job Prezzy Bush is doing in Afghanistan, the AP reports that the country is on track for a record setting opium harvest. Junkies across the globe tried to mobilize a party of sorts but it kind of fizzled pretty quick.
“Cay Clubs exercised their option to extend the closing date,” says Chris Brown, a marketing and advertising manager for Cay Clubs, via e-mail. “The new date of closing of the purchase of the A&B [Lobster House] property is scheduled for Sept. 24, 2007.”
Frank Rego, vice president of operations at Cay Clubs, said the acquisition and all other business operations were running smoothly, even though the company was going through a “slow period.”“We're not going out of business,” he said. “We're not in trouble.”
Gene Smith owns the leases of Turtle Kraals and Half Shell Raw Bar, both of which are city-owned. He owns A&B Lobster House and marina complex outright, which includes Alonzo's Oyster Bar, White Tarpon and Berlin's Cocktails & Cigars. Smith said his lawyers stopped hearing from Cay Clubs' lawyers.
“I assume that things didn't work out for them,” he said.Smith enjoys managing the properties, but said he will sell if presented with a good deal. Any such deal, though, has stalled, he said. Whoever takes over the leases for Turtle Kraals and Half Shell must maintain them as restaurants and cannot transform the property at all without approval from the Key West Bight Board.
The A&B area, including a marina, is more open to development, but Smith said he hopes any owner would give credence to locals' wishes related to any changes.
“If we had more people following the wishes of the city, we'd be a little better off,” he said.“We're not here to do anything negative,” Rego said.
Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world’s near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.
As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.
U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan’s poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world’s crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.
$34 Tab Brings Beating At Key West Waffle House
Patrons Beat A Customer Who Stepped Into A Fight Over The Tab
It’s one thing to be upset about the food or service at a restaurant, but in Key West two customers turned their anger into a fistfight, berating a cashier, beating a woman who came to her aid, over a $34 breakfast tab.
Police in Key West say the women became upset when they were handed the tab at the 24-hour eatery on Roosevelt Avenue, and told the cashier they wouldn’t pay. When a bystander tried to speak up for the cashier, police say the two women attacked the helpful customer, pummeling her with their fists.
Witnesses told police the women ran off, stiffing the cashier for the tab. Police are looking for the pair, who Waffle House workers told police are often seen in the restaurant.
There was no word over what made the diners so upset that they were willing to beat someone up over their bill.
Federal judge orders disgraced former county attorney to pay $50,000 fine
“I will not,” said Hendrick, who leaned over the bar to hug his wife. Her eyes brimmed and she whispered to him.
I know a couple of people who work at the Grand Key Hotel and the stories about this are scary. Apparently the 'smoke' alarms were going off for days before the main incidents and because no one could find any fire, they just reset them and ignored the noise. The problem is that some of these monitors were combination smoke/carbon monoxide monitors, but the staffing situation was so bad that no one knew. Alot of those in charge have been fired or re assigned, but a basic English speaking maintenance crew is obviously what is needed over there.
Kohl closes probe into DoubleTree
Despite numerous blunders by DoubleTree Grand Key Resort staff that proved fatal for 26-year-old Thomas Lueders, Monroe County State Attorney Mark Kohl's office on Friday said the resort's actions cannot be considered criminal.
Lueders, of Washington, D.C., died from carbon monoxide fumes Dec. 27. His father, Richard, was in the same room, No. 416, but was hospitalized and fully recovered in a day, according to a report from the state Fire Marshal's Office.
The two were discovered by Grand Key General Manager Steve Robbins, who attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Thomas Lueders. Robbins later resigned.Lueders' death spawned multiple lawsuits from other Grand Key customers who stayed on the fourth floor, where the boiler room is located. That room was found to be the source of the carbon monoxide that seeped into Room 416 and killed Lueders while he was reading in bed.
The city pulled its certificate of occupancy and the 216-room resort was closed from Dec. 29 to March 1.
After hearing vociferous public comment against it, the Key West City Commission on Tuesday passed a resolution to launch developer Spottswood Cos.' 20-acre redevelopment plan, called the Key West Hotel and Conference Center, at the so-called triangle where U.S. 1 intersects with Roosevelt Boulevard.
“I think we are going to have to get used to these changes,” Commissioner Bill Verge said.
The plan includes a 450-room hotel, 50 workforce-housing apartments, 33 time-share units, 21 residential condos, a 20,500-square-foot conference center, 21,000 square feet of retail space, and a 250-seat restaurant and bar at 3820 N. Roosevelt Boulevard.
hideous monstrosity up with what the town is losing. A Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Holiday Inn, Raddison Inn.. starting to see a creepy pattern here? Frankly losing those and a Waffle House just don't make me as uncomfortable as losing mom & pop B&B's downtown to massive over development. Yes I know, we are losing some of the cheap end hotel rooms and that is the one thing that is very very wrong with this deal. Those people are the ones who keep the economy going, not the rich bitches in their hermetically sealed, generic faux conch blockhouses.The measure is named for Adam Arnold, who was 16 when he was killed in 1996 as he was riding a mo-ped in Key West by a driver who was believed to be drunk.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, passed unanimously.
Keys Forum Bullcrap.Are you kidding?If it wasn't for the vacationers you wouldn't have a middle class workforce in Key West.Who do you think they work for.The bars,hotels and attractions that the vacationers go for.Another genius that moved to a tourist spot and now wants the tourists to stop showing up.A lot of people, myself included, moved here 16, 20 years ago, when it was most certainly NOT a major tourist spot. Also the kind of tourists that came back then truly respected the island and the locals. Now we have a bunch of yahoos with more money than sense who have caused multi million dollar rapist developers to destroy KW.
RACE OF THE FAMOUS
She was given a new Spyker C8 Spyder car to take part in a race from Montreal to Key West in Florida as part of the Bullrun race.
According to the organisers, the Bullrun is a race of good fun, driving and enjoyment. The famous race in their cars for a week and each day party in a different town. It seems that the sponsors picked the right person to promote their new car, TMZ says
 clipped from www.answers.comKey Hospitality Acquisition (OTC: KHPA) Contact Information Key Hospitality Acquisition 4 Becker Farm Road Roseland, NJ 07068 UNITED STATES Tel. (973) 992-3707 Blank check company whose objective is to acquire.
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clipped from www.cayclubs.com
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"The Key West Harbor Cay Club; a condo-hotel and marina with historic restaurants."Nauseating.
Give me a bloody break. I like art, I like a lot of art. My preference is for pictures of 20 something guys playing pool naked, but thats really unimportant. Apparently the Southernmost City feels it does not have enough tacky decorations scattered randomly about the place, so, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to 'rent' some lovely and truly tasteful statues to dump next to the Buoy. Greeeeat.
(CBS4) Key West, FL Some "New Friends" have arrived at the Southernmost Point in Key West.
"New Friends" is a multicultural sculpture in bronze by acclaimed artist J. Seward Johnson. It was installed Wednesday in front of the Southernmost Point Marker.
The artwork depicts four adults and three children, dressed in casual clothes typically worn by Florida Keys visitors, grouped around the Southernmost Point as though posing for a photograph.
“Two figures have their arms extended for living visitors to nestle into,” said Johnson, “Both are looking at the people, who are nestling, welcoming them into the picture."
"New Friends" is on loan to the city from Johnson. The sculptures will remain at the Southernmost Point for the next 2 months, but may become a permanent if approved later by the Key West City Commission.
Pretty nice eh? I googled 'acclaimed artist', J Seward Johnson, and found that he is famous for making bronze life sized castings and then painting them to look real. You may have seen them in your town. Weird guy sitting on the bench staring at you, no matter how much you yell at him, he just keeps on staring with those cold dead eyes? Yeah well now you know. Don't kick him. Oh and here is Mr Johnson with one of his 'friends'.
