The headline in the April 18 issue of the Hotel Voice, the weekly newspaper for the Hotel, Motel and Club Workers of New York, boasted: “The Plaza is saved! Union reaches deal that preserves many jobs; Mayor Bloomberg to convene panel on Condominium Conversions.”

The article started off, “Eloise can stop packing her bags. It looks like there will be a Plaza Hotel in New York City for the next 100 years or more.”

Now, why isn’t my heart going pittypat over that prospect? Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t thrilled with how the battle to secure the victory over the new owners of the Plaza, Elad Properties, was waged. It doesn’t augur well for the prospect of businesses looking to invest in the city if labor unions can conjure up huge rallies by using fear tactics on their members and misleading the public.

Under the terms of the agreement, there will be an 18-to-24-month renovation project that will create 150 condominiums along with a full-service, 350-room hotel. Mr. Bloomberg announced after the agreement, “This is another good day for New York.”

Is it really? The Plaza is a very nice hotel with a beautiful Grand Ballroom and treasured public places, like the Palm Court and the Oak Room. The owners paid $675 million for the Plaza and planned to spend $350 million for the renovation. One has to wonder if they would have purchased the 98-year-old hotel if they had known what awaited them.

As for the union saving the jobs for its members, the hotel is still going to be closed for the next year or so, and what will these workers be doing? According to the agreement, at least 350 employees will retain their jobs when it reopens, and there will be a generous double-severance-pay package for those who decide not to return. How likely is it that these workers will be living on their severance-pay packages for that entire time? My guess is that they will find other jobs because – surprise, surprise – new hotels are springing up all over the city.

One Staten Islander whom I meet regularly riding the ferry took umbrage at a previous column I wrote expressing the opinion that owners of private property should have the right to determine what should be done with it. My fellow commuter said rather testily, “These people just come to New York to make money and they don’t care about and they don’t know anything about what makes this city great. They’re going to tear down a great landmark for a bunch of million-dollar condos.”

I’ve given his statement a lot of consideration and come to the conclusion that it’s a lot of rubbish. It’s not buildings that make this city great. It’s the people who are responsible for the city’s je-ne-sais-quoi identity, and they don’t have to be born here to love it. Dorothy Parker was a Jersey girl. Indeed, I’m not sure if any of those who sat at the Roundtable at the Algonquin were New York-born and bred. Tom Wolfe was born and raised in Richmond, Va. Bobby Short was born in Danville, Ill. Was Broadway Joe Namath a native? I think not. Our own mayor is from Massachusetts, isn’t he?

Well, I was born here at Manhattan and have seen great beautiful buildings disappear and monstrosities take their place, and it didn’t make any dent in my feeling for my hometown. I remember the Roxy, the Lorelei, and the great German restaurants on East 86th Street. I’ve lived in neighborhoods that have completely disappeared, but a building is still only a building. The energy of the city comes from those people who believe that, “if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”

There is one thing about this Plaza affair that I find particularly ironic. The Plaza is not a budget hotel. It caters to high-end guests and those able to afford deluxe accommodations and services – in other words, the well-off. As much as certain politicians like to demonize the “rich,” the unions and the politicians who jumped on their bandwagon to save the hotel jobs have inadvertently proven what we conservatives have always known: Rich people provide jobs.

So pardon me if the loss of a Plaza or another landmark would not send me into fits of deep depression.

The only city buildings whose destruction broke my heart were the Twin Towers.