New York City’s Skyline Now Just Rich People’s Empty Apartments
Although Brooklyn is in the throes of a startlingly rapid vertical reinvention north, south, and east, our development is nothing compared to the shoots that have sprouted on the mainland—most notably...
View ArticleThe Stranger Economy Claims Another Form of Human Interaction
Bad news for umbrella men: The sharing economy has come for them. In the latest iteration of what has also been called (mostly by Margaret Eby and myself) the “stranger economy,” an umbrella sharing...
View ArticleLimited-Edition Reissue of a New York Font-Lover’s Dream to Be Funded on...
If you’ve seen the documentary Helvetica, you’re familiar with the high-concept fontscape of New York City’s subway system. If you’ve seen the documentary Helvetica more than once, you’re a stronger...
View ArticleDe Blasio to Sign Executive Order Expanding Living Wage Law in NYC
Mayor Bill de Blasio is hopping on the executive order train—seemingly the only able to leave the station in an election year. He plans to sign an order today that will broaden the city’s living wage...
View ArticleThe Locavore’s Internet: [dot] nyc
We are now well into week two of open registration for a .nyc web address, a top-level domain (TLD) open to individuals and businesses in New York City. After more than a decade of petitioning ICANN,...
View ArticleWere 20th Century Librarians Smarter Than Google? An Investigation.
A screenshot of Google.com Long ago, before Google was humanity’s all-knowing sage of indispensable wisdom, people used to go to libraries. At these libraries, there were stacks upon stacks of books...
View ArticleA Staggering Number of New Yorkers Don’t Have Bank Accounts or Proper Access...
Bank of America logo. Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr Creative Commons An estimated 825,000 New Yorkers don’t currently have open checking accounts, while low-income, heavily minority neighborhoods like Mott...
View ArticleVerizon’s Planned NYC FiOS Rollout Is Called a Failure by the Mayor’s Office
Verizon’s logo. Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr Creative Commons Mayor de Blasio’s administration issued an audit today calling Verizon’s plan to rollout high-speed FiOS internet and cable service to all New...
View ArticleNYPD On Track For Most Peaceful Year On Record, Still Hiring Over 1,000 More...
NYPD officers. Photo: Diana Robinson/Flickr Creative Commons Last month was the most peaceful June in New York City on record, according to Compstat, the crime-data tacking program instituted by Police...
View ArticleFree Broadband is Coming to Five NYC Affordable Housing Developments
The Queensbridge Houses will be among five developments to receive free broadband. Photo: Metro Centric/Flickr Creative Commons Five public housing developments in the communities of Mott Haven in the...
View ArticleDaniel Kessler on Interpol’s Early Years: “There Were Lots of Reasons for Us...
Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler is convinced his band could have separated in its nascent stage. If Interpol met an early demise, he reasons, it wouldn’t have been an implosion born of clashing...
View ArticleNew York City Is a Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Place, and People Don’t Like...
Photo: Greg Jaden/Flickr Creative Commons New York might still be the home to idealized romances—and $30 hot dog heroes—but apparently most people who live here think quality of life is lacking quite a...
View ArticleRemoving Trash Cans From Subway Stations Makes Them… Cleaner?
Photo: Ralph Hockens/Flickr Creative Commons Subway stations can be some of the filthiest, cluttered, most sweltering, and trash-strewn places in the city, but an MTA initiative that called for the...
View ArticleDrawing Every Person in New York: Talking with Illustrator Jason Polan About...
Drawing every inhabitant of New York City is an impossible task, but illustrator Jason Polan is still sketching his way through largest metropolis in the United States, illustrating the city’s eight...
View ArticleDemocracy in Action: Help CitiBike Move to South Brooklyn
Photo: Drpavlov/Flickr Creative Commons As much as some Americans like to trumpet the virtues of freedom to an almost nauseating degree, one aspect of living in this country is undeniably neat: we get...
View ArticleNew York City Has Amazing Solar Energy Potential
Image via Pixabay/Hello_Rayman New York City’s sprawling landscape could serve as one of the world’s largest solar-energy grids, according to some research compiled by a Massachusetts-based startup...
View ArticleThat Derailed G Train Actually Crashed into a Protruding Wall
Photo: MTA If you spent the weekend wondering what caused last Thursday night’s G train derailment in Downtown Brooklyn, you can now stop. It turns out, the G train crashed into a protruding bench-wall...
View ArticleAnother Day, Another Sinkhole Opens Up in Brooklyn
screen shot via twitter Remember the sinkhole that ripped open an entire intersection in Sunset Park last summer? Well, it turns out that the giant Brooklyn chasm from last month has a new buddy, as...
View ArticleThe City of New York Really Really Wants You to Get an IUD
Not to be all, Hey, ladies… But also, hey, ladies: Do you know anybody with an IUD? Oh, you do? Then you know all about how great the IUD is—it’s the most effective form of birth control! It doesn’t...
View ArticleWhat the NYC Beer Community is Drinking This Summer
Dr. Seuss’ magnum opus, “Green Kegs and Ham,” contains two of my all-time favorite lines in literature: “Summer shouldn’t be a bummer. There is usually sun—and if beer is near, there is always fun!” In...
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