The Afternoon Wrap: Monday

The Plaza Hotel re-opens this Saturday, welcoming the first official guests since its renovation, and charging $715 a night. [NewYorkology]

The author of The Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City on the best outdoor excursions for all you nature-starved urbanites. [City Room]

Subprime woes forced further belt-tightening on the part of high-powered executives today. "In light of recent events" one of America's largest home lenders, Countrywide Financial, decided to cancel its corporate ski-retreat at the Ritz in Aspen. What a sacrifice. [Daily Intelligencer]

A walking tour of the unsung "taggers" in New York's underground world of graffiti art. [Gridskipper]

Hedge-funder flips his condo in the Bloomberg building for $11 million. [TRD]

Bucking national retail trends, the Time Warner Center becomes one of America's best-performing malls. [Crain's]

The New Yawwk accent will soon go the way of Shakespearean English, but for now the absence of the R persists. [amNY]