Lysandra Ohrstrom

The Staten Island-Jersey Shore smackdown intensified yesterday, as the "guidos" and "guidettes" of Staten Island took aim at the uncouth mayor of Belmar. [City Room]

It's been over a week and the iPhone frenzy is still going strong. [Racked]

"Vati-con" (geez, we love New York Post headlines) Rafaello Follieri is cutting a deal that could trim his sentence by three years. [NY Post]

A certain sassy hedge fund honcho has paid $24 million for a condo at the Plaza. [TRD]

Grand Central Station has finally gotten separate women's restrooms. We didn't even know that unisex bathrooms existed outside of David E.  read more »

The southwest corner of McCarren Park has been a meeting place for breakdancers, or “B-Boys” as they call themselves, since long before the gleaming row of luxury condos rose on Bayard Street, and a doggie daycare and organic market followed.

Anywhere from a couple to a couple dozen breakdancers continue to roll out their tarp at least three nights a week on the edge of the track, alongside the postwork joggers, picnickers, and meandering hipsters—and under the gaze of the condo-dwellers above.

They’re a motley crew of 20-somethings from the Bronx and Brooklyn (some went to the same junior high together in Williamsburg); European and Asian exchange students who’ve ventured to the city for a dose of authentic street culture; modern dance instructors who “break” in their spare time or promote competitions, and a few old-timers there to coach the new generation.  read more »

Over several months, a 640-ton machine boring a tunnel for Long Island Rail Road trains 19 stories underground has made its way from Second Avenue and 63rd Street to the depths beneath Grand Central Terminal. [NY Times]

The Empire State Development Corporation declared the area of Manhattanville in the footprint of Columbia's expansion blighted, paving the way for the state to use eminent domain to evict the two remaining property owners who have refused to sell to the University. [NY Times]

The Amagansett Farmers' Market has been sold, and Eli Zabar will take the helm. [NY Times]

Starbucks plans to close 10 New York City locations, including six in Manhattan, by mid-2009, leaving only 225.  read more »

John Catsimatidis paints a grim picture of what's in store for the city's real estate market (particularly in Brooklyn), but the mayoral hopeful says he's the only man tough enough to see the city through the impending storm. [Brownstoner]

A former real estate heavyweight cashed in his property portfolio to become an old world "Piazzaiolo" in Carroll Gardens. [Business Week via TRD]

Funnyman Billy Crystal has joined the board of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Foundation to help fundraise. [AP]

Curbed turned us on to this blog chronicling unflattering real estate marketing photos. It should be called how not to sell your house.  read more »

St. Vincent’s public affairs office gave us a call about our post on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s meeting Tuesday on the hospital’s hardship application to demolish the O’Toole building and construct a new, “state-of-the-art” medical facility in its place.

Dr. George Neuman, the interim chief medical officer at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center, said that “support for the new hospital among the doctors and nurses, maintenance and ancillary staff is universal.”

“The people here want to see a new hospital built,” he said. “When you think about it, who wouldn’t want to work in a new building?"

Dr.  read more »

To celebrate the 60th birthday of JFK Airport on July 25, the Port Authority will offer travelers free rides on the airport's monorail system, the AirTrain. A one-way ticket's normally $5.

Release below:

THE PORT AUTHORITY THANKS ITS CUSTOMERS

AS KENNEDY AIRPORT TURNS 60

Travelers Encouraged to Leave Their Cars Home Next Friday

and Take a Free Ride on AirTrain JFK

The Port Authority will provide free AirTrain JFK rides on Friday, July 25, as a thank you to customers who have helped make John F. Kennedy International Airport the country’s premier international gateway, and one of the world’s most venerable aviation facilities.  read more »

Despite his penchant for political repression and election fraud, former two-term Nigerian President Olu Obasanjo scored points in the West for economic reforms in the oil-rich African country. But Mr. Obasanjo’s hands were by no means clean when he left office in May 2007.

Last March, for instance, Mr. Obasanjo was indicted by the Nigerian parliament for awarding $2.2 billion worth of energy contracts during his eight-year rule, without due process.

His son, Olu Obasanjo Jr., however, seems to have markedly less extravagant tastes and spending habits than his father. He and his wife, Imelse, live in a Park Slope condo at 705 Carroll Street that Mr.  read more »

Merrill Lynch has formally ended talks with the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein over moving its headquarter to the new World Trade Center. [NY Times]

Representative Charles B. Rangel's neighbors at Lenox Terrace in Harlem say prominent residents get a better deal then the other rent-stabilized tenants. [NY Times]

Set back from President Street in Carroll Gardens is a small Romanesque Revival building that gets a lot of attention from Brooklynites. [NY Times]

Luxury, bed bug-fighting mattress covers are on the way. [NY Times]  read more »

The city unveiled 33 new construction site regulations in response to the Deutsche Bank blaze.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated a West Chelsea Historic District today and deemed a former Staten Island butcher shop worthy of landmark status. [City Room]

Nothing brings out the inner-alcoholic in New Yorkers like a sizzling summer. [NY Times]

Zabar's is opening a branch in the Hamptons. [Gridskipper]

That Catsimatidis lambo? Um, not so fast. [City File mea culpa]

With the Bowery, as we knew it, on its last legs, here's a look at the Lower East Side during its low-rent heyday. [Jeremiah's Vanishing New York]

Ice cream wars rage through Cobble Hill. [NY Sun]

The Irish equivalent of the Plaza is the Shelbourne Hotel, give or take a couple hundred condos.

Built in 1824, in a landmark building overlooking a park in the heart of Ireland's capital, the Shelbourne has had a long reign as what The New York Times called "the princess of Dublin hotels." Like the Plaza, the 225-room hotel never lost its cache with tourists, even as more luxurious competitors popped up and service started to decline--in October 2004, an Irish court ruling stripped the Shelbourne of its five-star status, and the hotel decided to become unclassified.

A few months later, Irish oil magnate/hotelier John Sweeney swooped in with a consortium of investors and bought the down-at-the-heels hotel for 120 million Euros and promised to restore it to its former splendor with a 40 million Euro makeover.  read more »

We’ve been wondering what kind of building would rise from the vacant lot on North 3rd Street between Bedford and Berry since construction began four months ago.

Could it be another luxe-residential complex for priced-out Manhattanites in the heart of Williamsburg hipsterdom?

Apparently, yes.

Though the project has not yet been christened with an appropriately yuppie-kitsch name--like say “Aqua” or “The Edge”--Joe Nicholas, who brokered the $22 million sale through Kalmon Dolgin Realty, confirmed that developer Quadriad Realty LLC is building an 85-unit condo on the 42,000-square-foot lot, boasting the prime Williamsburg addresses of 201 Berry Street and 248 Bedford Avenue.  read more »

Recent accidents in New York City have cast a spotlight on serious industry flaws in the crane operating industry that have been all but habitual. [NY Times]

As economy heads south, office rents head north. [NY Times]

Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins joined the chorus of West Village residents opposing the St. Vincent's development plan yesterday. [NY Times]

With limited options to expand, New York City's art services industry that has sprung up in the dark warehouses. [NY Times]

More US homeowners are taking in boarders. [NY Times]

Between the Bricks: A partnership headed by Peter and Anthony Malkin has agreed to pay $9.  read more »

The South Bronx may no longer be burning, but not all the residents have felt the benefits of the much heralded boom supposedly sparked by the neighborhood's transition to "SoBro." [City Room]

Long Island's iconic Pepsi sign is being moved so it won't obstruct the views of luxury condo dwellers. [Curbed]

It looks like Carroll Gardens will not host the new season of The Real World. [TRD]  read more »

So long O'Toole building?

A host of elected officials today--City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Senator Thomas K. Duane, and Congressman Jerrold Nadler--gave their blessings to a demolition of the O'Toole building at 12th Street and Seventh Avenue in order to make way for a new St. Vincent's hospital in its place, should the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission find the hospital faces sufficient "hardship."

By issuing statements or speaking at a hearing today, the officials voiced support for Rudin Management's modifications to the original, $1.6 billion proposal, but warned that more revisions responding to community concerns about construction, building height and density, and how to mitigate shadows and traffic cast on the neighborhood, would be needed should the proposal reach the public review phase.  read more »

In the spring of 1976, Joni Mitchell trekked out to the North Shore of Staten Island to the Mandolin Brothers, a vintage American guitar dealership that had opened five years earlier and had already become a well-trodden pit stop for musicians, guitar buffs, and fretted-instrument collectors.

Ms. Mitchell bought a 1915 Gibson Mandocello and a Martin herringbone guitar, Mandolin Brothers President Stan Jay recalled on a recent Friday afternoon. On the ferry back to Manhattan, she penned “Song for Sharon,” beginning with the lyrics: “I went to Staten Island, Sharon, to buy myself a mandolin.”

“Something must have set off an autobiographical memory for her so she wrote this highly personal song… which is the story of her life and the story of her friend Sharon’s life, who she knew in Canada,” Mr.  read more »

Representative Charles Rangel has decided to move his campaign office out of one of the four rent-stabilized units he leases in a Harlem luxury building. [NY Times]

And in Washington, Mr. Rangel is reportedly soliciting donations from corporations with business interests before the House Ways and Means Committee that he chairs to raise $30 million for a new academic center bearing his name. [The Washington Post]

Despite the F.A.A.'s introduction of new flight limits to curb airport delays, things have yet to improve at LaGuardia and Newark Airports. [NY Times]

The Port Authority has appointed a new Ground Zero project consultant with a checkered past.  read more »

Has French director Michael Gondry settled in East Williamsburg (the neighborhood formerly known as Bushwick)? Peut-être...[Brownstoner]

After the "chupperific" triplex in Julian Schnabel's downtown palazzo languished on the market for months with a $32 million asking price and nary a nibble, a new broker has re-listed the property at $29.5 million. [Curbed]

Of the 50 Starbucks branches across the country slated to close by the end of July, only one is located in the five boroughs. Which one, you ask? Let's just say coffee consumption patterns in Manhattan should remain more or less unchanged. [Crain's]

The usually chatty Mayor Bloomberg remained mute on the scandal over Charles Rangel's rent-stabilized apartments.  read more »

If you missed the barrage of Bastille Day celebrations over the weekend, fear not because there will be ample opportunity for Francophiles and foodies alike to mark the beginning of the end of the ancien regime tonight at the hundreds of brasseries and bistros in the city.

Zagat has a list of some of tonight's culinary-themed festivities, including a DJ, specialty cocktails, and complimentary amuse-bouches at the bar of Alain Ducasse's new bistro Benoit; and the week-long pre-fix menu featuring escargot, duck confit, and crème brûlée at West Village Eatery Le Gigot.

We can't help but remember a time when Bastille Day was less than trés chic.  read more »

New York City has been lying about its age for centuries, charge some historians. [NY Times]

Park Slope residents will welcome the resumption of alternate side parking today. [NY Times]

Yankees fans bid farewell to the best seats not in the house. [NY Times]

The city has refined the formula used to measure poverty to take into account housing, childcare, and clothing costs. [NY Times]

Governors Island is inviting development proposals for an arts and entertainment complex. [NY Times]  read more »

Without the promise of hefty bonuses, investment bankers and others on Wall Street have been transformed from aggressive apartment buyers to real estate pariahs.

A Korean couple has opened a new pool hall on a strip of Jamaica Avenue in Queens that was once clustered with billiards clubs. But their effort to reclaim the glory days of billiards in Richmond Hill has been thwarted by the State Liquor Authority's refusal to give them a permit to sell alcohol. [City Room]

Columbia has paid almost $7 million for the Nebraska Meat Building on 12th Avenue and 131st Street, in the footprint of the university's controversial expansion. [TRD]

Here's the scoop on tonight's French Revolution-themed protest against the Lower East Side's most maligned landlord. In honor of Bastille Day, demonstrators are encouraged to wear white wigs, wave French flags, and bring along any other pharaphernalia symbolizing the excesses of the ancien regime.  read more »

Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York has four rent-stabilized apartments in the Harlem luxury building that is home to a handful of politicians, including Governor Paterson. [NY Times]

A public esplanade will take over two traffic lanes on one of the busiest sections of Broadway in August. [NY Times]

Does the city have too many Starbucks? [NY Times]

The architect of the one-year-old New York Times building, Renzo Piano, said he supports planned alterations to the tower's facade. [NY Times]  read more »

Average hourly wages in New York City have risen slower than the minimum wage over the past few years, a new report finds.

To prove that "money does not buy taste nor does it buy common sense," Property Grunt has started a weekly feature "Queens or Scarsdale." See if you can tell where some of these suburban gems are located. [Property Grunt]

The Donald's development partner on the Trump Soho project, the Bayrock Group, has sold the Loehmann's store in Sheepshead Bay to an unknown buyer for $24 million, setting a new neighborhood record. The buyer is rumored to be a "local Russian businessman." [Sheepshead Bites]

A former employee of the city’s housing agency has been arrested for allegedly charging more than a dozen tenants $5,000 to $6,000 each for federally subsidized rent vouchers, and she's not taking the fall alone.  read more »

In May, right after the cheap, trendy clothing chain Steve & Barry's announced that they had leased the Soho store that was home to Tower Records for two decades, The New York Times wrote a glowing article about how the company had managed to expand to 276 locations nationwide and strike up partnerships with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, yet still charge under $10 for "stylish celebrity-branded clothing."

Co-founders Steve Shore and Barry Prevor were quoted throwing around words like "revolutionary," likening Steve & Barry's to "the Google of Fashion."

Basically, The Times attributed Steve & Barry's success to the "underlying business model that relied on an obsessive attention to costs"--like eschewing advertising, manufacturing overseas, and opening branches in under-performing malls.  read more »

Oil-and-gas billionaire David Koch is donating $100 million to renovate the New York State Theater, which will be renamed for him in the fall. [NY Times]

City Council's Land Use Committee chairwoman and city comptroller candidate, Melinda Katz, is asking to set up an account for next fall’s race so she can keep collecting big donations from the real estate industr before new finance regulations take effect in December. [NY Times]

About 8,000 people have lined up to be embraced by a world-famous, Indian-born hugging prophet in town for a three day tour. [NY Times]

The city will test raising peak parking meter rates in portions of Manhattan and Brooklyn this fall.  read more »

Even if housing prices stop plummeting and the worst of the crash is now behind us, it has left an “extraordinary destruction of wealth” in its wake, sending the median net worth of American households plummeting across the board next year, according to a study released today (PDF) by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Since prices started to drop in mid-2006, each U.S. homeowner has lost $50,000 in real housing wealth; and, even if the market proves to have already bottomed out, the collapse has “eliminated most, if not all, of the gains that families had made in accumulating wealth over the last two decades.  read more »

Spain’s skimpy, ubiquitous, mass market clothing chain, Mango, is venturing where no Western retailer has been before--at least since the 2003 war--by opening a branch in Iraq, WWD reported today.

Undaunted by the political instability, sporadic violence, and relatively more modest style of dress that prevails in even the relatively peaceful, liberal Kurdish region of Northern Iraq, Mango’s president of expansion Isak Halfon told Women's Wear Daily that the one million people in the city of Arbil are “starving for something like this.”

Unlike Mango’s Western branches, the Iraqi flagship won’t carry the typical skin-tight, midriff-baring, cleavage-flaunting, provacative attire, but a conservative line designed by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad, tailored to the Middle East.  read more »

CBS debuts its new documentary tonight, "Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Superrich," giving viewers a glimpse into the relative deprivation experienced by the elite. [Wealth Report]

The company that manufactures the screens in 13,000 New York City cabs is adding entertainment content from two new entertainment sites. God forbid you should be deprived the latest up-to-the-minute report on Brangelina's trip to the market. [City Room]

The new venture from the owners of the Bowery Hotel is charging $100 per night for a 50-square-foot room (with flat screen T.V. of course). [NY Times]

Curbed readers' reactions to the $15 million Waterfalls exhibit today varied from "This is the Shiznitz" to "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.  read more »

What better place to track the habits of tastemakers and trendsetters than the West Village, a neighborhood filled with lithe fashionistas and their imitators, big-spending bankers, all sorts of retail, and quaint real estate that is well beyond the price range of average folks.

It's only natural then that a New Yorker scribe who catapulted to fame with a book on the dynamics of trends would choose to live there. And after the book spends 28 weeks on the best-seller lists and you start making the rounds of the business/marketing conference circuit, doing about 25 speaking engagements a year at $40,000 a pop, like Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell, then it's only fitting that you'd buy a second place in the West Village.  read more »

The aggrieved rent-stabilized tenants of 47 East 3rd Street are not giving up their fight against landlord Alistair Economakis, whose efforts since 2003 to convert his East Village building into a grand mansion for his family continue to be stymied by nine pesky renters who won't budge.

Earlier this month, in the third appeal since Mr. Economakis first began mass eviction proceedings five-a-half-years ago, the state's highest court sent the case back to housing court and a final verdict could be two years away. Under the owner occupancy clause of the rent law, the Economakis family still needs to prove to the court that they really plan to convert their 60-room, 11,575-square-foot East Village tenement into a single-family residence--tenants fear that their real agenda is to charge market-rate rents.  read more »

La Guardia Airport launched a new screening system today that asks travelers to choose a line based on their familiarity with checkpoint procedures. [NY Times]

As the city battles thousands of ground zero workers over their health claims in federal court, New York State is making more 9/11 workers eligible for health care benefits. [NY Times]

Bed, Bath, and Beyond posted better-than-expected quarterly profits on Wednesday as sales rose 6 percent. [NY Times] 

Shopping mixed with farewell at a memorial/open house at the home of William and Pat Buckley. [NY Times]  

When submitting an application to a co-op board, most buyers know they are going to get investigated, but few realize how extensive the inquiry can be.  read more »

The city unveiled the final design for the first phase of the High Line today. [CityRoom]

American Airlines is doing its first test flight with wireless broadband service from JFK to LAX today. [Boing Boing]

Oprah is giving a Harlem senior center a $100,000 makeover. [Uptown Flavor]

Spa 88, the Russian restaurant and bathhouse on Fulton Street, is throwing another Bana party this Friday night. A $40 cover gets you free drinks all night served by 'Bare-tenders.' Birthday suits are encouraged. [Grub Street]

Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens residents lash out at the Ikea buses taking over their neighborhood streets. [Curbed]

Tomorrow you can start making reservations for the next New York City Restaurant Week. [Gothamist]

Furniture from the iconic, but decidedly non-hip incarnation of San Domenico hits the auction block today. [TRD]

With friends like Ron Burkle and Donald Trump and a lilting Italian accent, ID Model Management founder Paolo Zampolli (whose clients apparently include Tara Reid) has long been a Page Six fixture. But the high-rolling, aspiring real estate mogul drew the attention of the international media in 2005 when he started recruiting fashion models to moonlight as brokers.

When it came time to put his own two-bedroom, 2,300 square-foot Gramercy Park penthouse on the market about a year ago, however, Mr. Zampolli decided to handle the sale personally, listing the co-op with Elliman, with himself as broker.  read more »

For the most part Manhattan remains a brutal market for renters this month, especially if you’re set on living below 23rd Street. But economic uncertainty has brought bargains (in the New York sense of the word) to some neighborhoods in the middle of a season when rents usually peak, according to the June rental report (PDF) released today by The Real Estate Group New York.

The good news is you can still find a market-rate apartment for less than $2,000 a month on the island of Manhattan, if you’re willing to live without a doorman in the borough's sleepier neighborhoods.

Average June rents for non-doorman studios were below $2,000 on the Upper East Side ($1,831), the Upper West Side ($1,968), Harlem ($1,287), and Midtown West ($1,984).  read more »

The city is questioning 9/11 workers' claims of illness after a review found that many reported only common symptoms. [NY Times]

Residents of the northwest Bronx are looking to negotiate a community benefits agreement with Related Companies, the firm that won development rights to the Kingsbridge Armory. [NY Times]

The Department of Buildings announced a new seven-point plan for crane operations in the agency's second overhaul of construction safety regulations in recent weeks. [NY Times]

Meanwhile, the City Comptroller slams the DOB's oversight and follow-up. [NY Times]

A Parks Department official told the City Council yesterday that the difficulty of the work is responsible for delays replacing park space lost to Yankee Stadium.  read more »

Oprah's BFF has put her Greenwich McMansion on the market for $7.4 million. [The Realestalker]

From king of bling to busted. Jacob the jeweler has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. [AP]

An out-of-work investment banker wearing a sandwich board that reads 'Experienced MIT Grad for Hire' has been spotted roaming the streets in Midtown recently. [Dealbreaker]

A (very lonely) guy is looking for a woman to live rent free in his Manhattan apartment in exchange for a 'friends with benefits arrangement' one night a week in a Craigslist post that sounds dangerously close to prostitution.  read more »

“The Brooklyn Brewery was a confirmation of the American Dream,” co-founder Steve Hindy wrote in a commentary released today by the Center for an Urban Future called "Trouble Brewing."

“But after a frustrating, futile four-year search for a new Brewery site to expand operations in the city, I am now asking myself a question our success should have definitively answered: Does New York City really have a place for light manufacturing businesses like ours,” Mr. Hindy writes.

He and his partner started brewing beer from a defunct, Prohibition-era facility in Bushwick in 1987, and in 1991 leased a new 75,000-square-foot plant in Williamsburg for $3.  read more »

Mike Fleming, a 29-year-old Ohio native who has been living on the streets since 2003, had his 15 minutes of fame a few months ago when he discovered the building schematics for the Freedom Tower while sifting through a trashcan on Houston Street.

A couple months later, Mr. Fleming again finds himself facing the same grim realities he did before his brush with notoriety.

“I was on the front page of the New York Post the week the pope came to town,” Mr. Fleming said, pulling a poster board of the story clip from his bright orange messenger bag as evidence.  read more »

The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved revised plans for a massive development at the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg, Brownstoner reported just before noon after blogging live from the hearing all morning. Most importantly "the sign will live," said an architect for the project.

The LPC has sent the developers back to the drawing board twice since February, after the first set of plans that would have added a five-floor glass addition to the recently landmarked factory without preserving the iconic Domino Sugar sign drew the ire of preservationists.

This time around, the LPC's reaction was verging on jubilant.

"LPC chairman Robert Tierney says he's really digging the new submission," Brownstoner's Gabby Warshawer wrote. "Tierny calls it a 'brilliant' adaptive plan, says the addition is now 'appropriate,' particularly since the Domino sign is being preserved. Calls the chutes 'dramatic and evocative.' Another commissioner says the design will 'rival the Tate'."

Chinese tourists could become the next Japanese tourists. [NY Times]

Car-free streets, a Colombian export, inspire debate. [NY Times]

More than 840 of the largest American corporations reaped a $265 billion windfall thanks to a one-time tax break aimed at bringing home profits stashed overseas. [NY Times]

Citing gas prices, the I.R.S raises the auto-mileage deduction. [NY Times]

The city wants Con Ed removed from a tax-abatement program, but the utility claims it would be forced to pass its ensuing 10-year, $1 billion loss on to its customers. [NY Post]

The global media giant WPP Group has signed a lease on a 100,000 square-foot office in the Sapir Organization's building at 11 Madison Avenue.  read more »

The "most expensive and pedigreed new development that no one is talking about," Soho Mews, is courting potential buyers with a press release. [Curbed]

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. reveal some early lessons in finance and trust. [Portfolio]

Carroll Gardens residents film a tongue-and-cheek ode to the benefits of gentrification. Who needs subversive T-shirt shops when you can grab a venti cinnamon soy latte on the way to work? [Gothamist]

Bidders are vying for indicted former Bear Stearns' manager Mathew Tannin's old business card. [Dealbreaker]

Watch out, Silicon Valley! Google is expanding its Manhattan headquarters. [City Room]

In the era of the Blackberry, money buys more stress than happiness. [Washington Post]

A Russian fertilizer tycoon has been identified as the buyer of Donald Trump's $100 million Palm Beach mansion. [Palm Beach Post via TRD]

Before Winona Ryder had a falling out with an up-and-coming ingénue named Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1990's, the duo were often spotted gallivanting around Manhattan with cigarettes dangling from their lips, and Ms. Paltrow reportedly lived on her more famous friend's couch in Gramercy Park.

Things have changed a lot for Ms. Ryder since then--the infamous shoplifting incident, getting overshadowed by Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, a relationship with Matt Damon, and a handful of cinematic bombs, to name a few--but until now she had held on to her second-floor co-op at One Lexington Avenue on the northern end of Gramercy.  read more »

There are a lot more renters nationwide than there used to be. [NY Times]

Once a scene of loud, colorful protests and even a few riots, the steps of City Hall are now available only by appointment and must be booked much like a Saturday morning tee time. [NY Times]

When it comes to home ownership, and lately foreclosures, trends in Staten Island more closely mirror the rest of the country. [NY Times]

Once considered a product of the real estate boom, Hoboken is now proving that it can hold its own in a down market too. [NY Times]

Living in Ditmars-Steinway, Queens: A piece of Europe on the East River.  read more »

State Assembly Member Catherine Nolan is introducing legislation that would push the penalty for chronic graffiti offenses to a felony. Fellow "public paint hater," Queens City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., who has unsuccessfully pushed two similar bills in the past, endorsed the bill, warning graffiti fans that "if you keep tagging our streets, you'll get tagged with a felony." [Animal]

The owner of the last Dutch farmhouse in Brooklyn (above) will plead with the Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday for protective status. [Gothamist]

Analysts at Bank of America subjected interns to an Egg McMuffin-eating contest, which did not go entirely according to plan.  read more »

Some people like to celebrate the Summer Solstice with bonfires and pagan rituals. Others might prefer an evening picnic. Whatever your inclination, there are a bunch of activities this weekend to commemorate the longest day and shortest night of the year on June 21. Most of them are even free!

• The Socrates Sculpture Garden in LIC is hosting a free festival on Saturday, complete with a performance by "pagan rights" musician My Barbarian, an interactive special solstice ritual from Urban Shaman Mama Donna, and facepainting for the kiddies.
• The Wiccan Family Temple's annual "Summer Solstice Masquerade Soiree: A Midsummers Night's Dream Ritual" starts at 7 tonight at 638 East 6th Street.
   read more »
  
  • 0 comments

While most Americans are struggling to gas up their cars to get to work (or in New York bemoaning a possible M.T.A. fare hike), trophy yacht orders are up nearly 20 percent this year, according to a report out this week from the Luxury Institute and yacht broker Camper & Nicholsons International.

In 2007, 245 yachts over 130 feet were ordered--the average price tag of a motor yacht about 100 feet is $100 million--compared to only 134 in 2005. The increase is most likely fuelled by newly-minted moguls from Russia, the Middle East, and India, rather than from American tycoons who once dominated the trophy yacht market.  read more »

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and another reigning populist in city government, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, joined the media circus outside Cooper Union on Thursday evening to denounce the Rent Guidelines Board, right before the nine-member panel voted 5 to 4 in favor of one of the steepest rent hikes in years.

As of October, rents will increase by 4.5 percent for one-year leases and 8.5 percent for two-year leases. Tenant advocates and proponents of RGB reform claim the annual vote is little more than what Ms. Quinn called "a rubber stamp to rent increases every year," and have urged the board to come up with creative solutions.  read more »

In New York City the unemployment "tsunami is still making its way across the ocean," reaching 5.2 percent in May. [NY Times]

The Macon branch of the Brooklyn Public Library reopened on Thursday after a two-year renovation. [NY Times]

The vice president of the MTA board backed off free passes for members, and said he would vote in favor of revoking unlimited free travel.