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If New York New York was good enough for Frank Sinatra, let's gather the kids and go. Hey, if we can make it there, we'll make it anywhere! We still get to the Big Apple every year or so, and love the place. Where else in the world can you see a dozen great Broadway productions in a dozen days, shop at the poshest stores, eat at the best restaurants and, with the kids, see the United Nations, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Times Square, Lincoln Center, Lady Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge? In fact, where else can you buy the Brooklyn Bridge for a bargain price.

As the biggest city in the world, and with Manhattan the most packed island outside of downtown Tokyo, I couldn't possibly list all the kid-friendly hotels. New York is a great place to visit, but you couldn't afford to live there. Inflation rules! Speculators like Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump sent the prices doubling and tripling just about every year for the past three decades. So, be sure to establish a family budget before you venture into the city.

Even the dinkiest Greenwich Village five-room row home goes for more than a million bucks plus, and tiny one-room studio apartments rent for two thousand and more. Before you bring your family to Manhattan, be prepared to pay very high prices for everything, and that certainly includes hotel rooms. However, with some research, out of the hundreds available, I tried to select those with list prices of $150 a night or less. For all of them, either I've visited, or members of my family have stayed at least one night.

Two points to remember: I'll list the prices currently advertised by the individual hotels. You may be able to get lower rates, but you shouldn't be surprised to see higher prices. Please be aware that New York City has some of the highest occupancy taxes in the US, and your quoted price will be hiked higher by 25% or more when it comes time to pay the bill.

Here are just ten, and not necessarily in value and quality order:

1. Hotel Pennsylvania, 401 7th Ave., $150, is right across the street from two NYC landmarks, Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station. You'd have to be in your 70s or 80s to remember some of the pop music history of this century-old kid- and pet-friendly, 1,700-room hotel. In the Big Band era, many members of the famous ones stayed here while they performed on Broadway. Glenn Miller immortalized the hotel phone number with his hit, "Pennsylvania 6-5000". Though old and a bit threadbare, it has

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