City Living

Affordability vs. racial inclusion may sound like an odd battle to be having, yet it's one that often simmers below the surface in discussions of neighborhood change. The words "Nearly 50 years after the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act..." are, of course, no small part of the reason. And in a city known for its diversity–one that often feels more racially integrated than it is–the question of how housing policy might affect racial makeup tends to be carefully sidestepped, but the New York Times opens that worm-can in a subsection called "Race/Related."
Is there a tradeoff between integration and affordability?

April 13, 2016

Tips for Keeping Pets Happy and Healthy in an Apartment

By Alyssa Alimurung

6sqft’s series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week we offer up helpful tips on how to live with a furry family member (or members) from choosing the right furniture to actually getting your pet OK'd to move into a new place with you. Owning a dog or cat in the city is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Not only can small apartments and loud noises be stressful for humans, but animal anxiety can also be exacerbated by these external elements (and de-stressing for them isn't as easy for them as getting a massage or happy hour). On top of this, pet messes and their manic outbursts can seem exponentially larger when compacted into an home that's barely 500 square feet. Ahead, with the help of Erin McShane, owner of Manhattan's new cat cafe and teahouse Little Lions, we've rounded up a few tips and things to consider when it comes to making apartment living with dogs and cats comfortable for all—especially humans.
A happy home, happy pet and happy you this way

April 13, 2016

POLL: Will You Miss the MetroCard Swipe?

By Dana Schulz

The ye-olde MetroCard swipe has made national headlines in recent weeks, thanks to Hilary Clinton’s inability to get through the turnstile and Bernie Sanders’ belief that we’re still in the dark ages using subway tokens. The fact that these snafus are so attention-grabbing goes to show how intrinsic the simple act of swiping a MetroCard is […]

April 12, 2016

Vinyl, Kale or Condos: It’s Your Move in the ‘Settlers of Brooklyn’ Board Game

In the Settlers of Brooklyn (pronounced inexplicably in the lost tongue of the High Middle Ages), an "award-winning game of entitlement, self-discovery and brunch," there are five resources available: coffee, vinyl, bicycles, skinny jeans, and kale. All of which sound like reasonably life-enhancing additions, but when combined with a tableful of flannel-wearing gits, such as those portrayed in the video below, set on engineering the perfect endless brunch, the whole picture begins to grate like the line outside Egg on a Sunday morning. So the best thing to do may be just to roll with it, which is the idea behind this quick video sendup from snarkmeisters Above Average.
Watch the full video here

City Living

Do Poor New Yorkers Live Longer? Study Says Yes, Despite the Income Gap

“The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014,” by the Journal of the American Medical Association; Life expectancy for all income quartiles.

April 11, 2016

Do Poor New Yorkers Live Longer? Study Says Yes, Despite the Income Gap

The New York Times recently took a look at the results of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Using data compiled from anonymous earnings records and death certificates, the results offer some provocative insights into the importance of geography to how long people live–poor people in particular. There is, as we've already assumed, a longevity gap between the rich (in this study, people with household incomes of over $100,000 per year) and poor (those with incomes less than $28,000). In Manhattan, for example, the average poor person will die about six years before the average rich one. But that gap is about a year and a half smaller than the same income/longevity gap for the United States as a whole. Tulsa and Detroit, for example, were two cities with the lowest levels of life expectancy among the low-income population, with the results already adjusted for differences based on race.
Find out what the numbers look like where you live

April 8, 2016

Spotlight: Stepping Behind the Camera with FOX5 and Hot 97’s Lisa Evers

When it comes to reporting news in New York, Lisa Evers does not shy away from hard topics. As a reporter for FOX5, Lisa regularly covers breaking news, community issues, crime, and counter-terrorism. She also serves as the go-to interviewer for the likes of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. In addition to her work on television, Lisa is widely known for hosting radio station Hot 97’s popular news and community affairs program Street Soldiers. On the show, she addresses topics ranging from hip hop lyrics to gender to drug use, with a guest panel of music artists and community leaders. Earlier this year, FOX5 brought Street Soldiers to television, where viewers can now tune in to Lisa and her guests in the studio on Saturday nights. 6sqft recently spoke with Lisa to find out how she approaches her work, the experience of bringing Street Soldiers to FOX, and what she's learned about the city through her reporting.
The full interview ahead

April 7, 2016

This Map Tells You How Frequently NYC Subways Actually Run

This New York City Transit Frequency map, from Ft. Collins, Colorado-based public transit enthusiast and urban adventurer Tyler A. Green, is a mapped visualization of how frequently the city’s subways and buses travel along each line. You can use it to see where—and on which days—trains and buses run most and least often. The darker the color of a transit line on the map the more frequent your prospects are going to be. Four viewable data layers on the map represent buses and trains on Fridays and Saturdays. Hover over lines to see exactly how many trains or buses run in an hour between any two stops.
Take a look at the map

April 7, 2016

POLL: Do You Prefer Starbucks Over the City’s New Cafes?

By Dana Schulz

It was announced yesterday that Starbucks is opening its largest store in the world in the base of Rafael Viñoly’s forthcoming Meatpacking District building at 61 Ninth Avenue. The 20,000-square-foot facility will be a Roastery-branded store, “part of a push to bolster growth with larger locations that offer experiences to customers,” reports Crain’s. The decision may be due to the […]

City Living

April 6, 2016

Famed Tiny Apartment Architect Says He ‘Doesn’t Really Believe in Tiny Living’

By now you’ve surely seen Tim Seggerman‘s practically iconic 240-square-foot apartment on Pinterest and on design blogs across the web. But while the architect has made a name for himself creating innovative solutions for small living in the city, what might come as a surprise is that he doesn’t really advocate squeezing into a small space. […]

This 1970s East Village Windmill Was Decades Ahead of Its Time

If you want to build a windmill today, you can thank a handful of dedicated tenants in a building at 519 East 11th Street in the East Village of the 1970s. The story of the Alphabet City windmill is one of many stories, recounted in Gothamist, from the bad old days of Loisaida–as the East Village's far eastern avenues, also known as Alphabet City, were once called–the kind the neighborhood's elder statesmen regale you with, knowing well that you know nothing firsthand of a neighborhood of burned-out buildings and squatters who bought their homes for a buck. But this particular story isn’t one of riots or drug deals on the sidewalk; it’s one of redemption, no matter how brief in the context of time. The windmill was installed above an East Village building that was saved by the community, built and lifted to the roof by hand–or many hands. According to legend, the windmill kept the lights on during the chaos of the 1977 blackout.
Read all about it

Spotlight: Gotham Greens Talks Rooftop Farming Against the New York Skyline

The Gotham Greens team: Viraj Puri, Eric Haley and Jennifer Nelkin Frymark

April 1, 2016

Spotlight: Gotham Greens Talks Rooftop Farming Against the New York Skyline

If you walk through the produce section at Whole Foods or scroll through Fresh Direct’s website, you likely have come across Gotham Greens’ Blooming Brooklyn Iceberg Lettuce or Queens Crisp. What make these lettuces different from others is that they’re local, urban greens, which are grown on rooftop greenhouses in Brooklyn and Queens with views of Gotham not too far in the distance. Gotham Greens was founded in 2009 with the goal of revolutionizing urban farming and providing a model for the future when cities are expected to be even more densely populated. One of the visionaries behind the company is co-founder and CEO Viraj Puri. Viraj and his partners started with one greenhouse in Greenpoint and now have four greenhouses between New York and Chicago that cover over 170,000 square feet and produce 20 million heads of lettuce every year. 6sqft recently asked Viraj some questions about what’s growing in Gotham.
read 6sqft's interview with Viraj

March 31, 2016

NYC Water 101: From the Catskill Aqueduct and Robotic Measurements to Your Tap

New York City is the nation’s largest municipal water supplier. While many locals happily choose tap water at restaurants and extol the virtues of New York’s wettest, we sometimes wonder how and where the magic happens–even more so recently, in light of some other cities’ far less stellar experiences with the local water supply. This recent New York Times article clears things up, so to speak, on how 9.5 million people (and growing, apparently) can keep the good stuff flowing. The source: More than 90 percent of the city's water supply comes from the Catskill/Delaware watershed, about 125 miles north of NYC; the other 10 percent comes from the Croton watershed. The watershed sits on over a million acres, both publicly and privately owned, but highly regulated to make sure contaminants stay out of the water.
Robots, radiation and more of the journey

March 30, 2016

Controversial Zoning Change Would Fill Lower Manhattan Public Plazas With Retail

Whether you consider them "dead-end" corridors devoid of street life or nifty urban shortcuts (or just convenient rain shelters), the city's covered public walkways and arcades are finding themselves in something of a spotlight, reports the Wall Street Journal. This recent focus is on the covered walkways that run alongside skyscrapers in the Water Street corridor in lower Manhattan. A proposed zoning change, which would affect property owners in the Water Street Subdistrict, would allow retail to open up shop in these arcades.
Find out why some object to new retail additions

March 29, 2016

Three People Share What It’s Like to Live in Common’s Co-Living Concept in Brooklyn

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

What if your home was more than just a place to live? What if it took care of the tedious parts of everyday life (like cleaning, paying utility bills, and shopping for the basics) and there were always a bunch of interesting and like-minded people hanging out in your living room? Brad Hargreaves, CEO of Common, has structured his co-living housing company to be just that. While we've reported on Common before (as well as WeWork's similar new shared housing setup in FiDi), today we're going behind the scenes at Common's first outpost located in Crown Heights. We asked three residents why they chose to live at Common, if this catered style of co-living beats the standard New York roommate setup, and, of course, what we all really want to know—with 10 different personalities under one roof, just how "Real World" do things get?
Meet residents Jason, Kamilah and Adam here

March 29, 2016

The Official 2016 NYC Bike Map Has Arrived

The Department of Transportation just released the downloadable 2016 New York City Bike Map ahead of a paper version due next month. This year's map shows 70 miles of new or "upgraded" bike-specific lanes, twelve of which are protected (physically separated from auto traffic). Also on the map are seven miles of newly-created off-street bike lanes.
Check out the map

March 25, 2016

Spotlight: Mike Gansmoe Puts Macy’s in Bloom at the Annual Flower Show

In America, seasonal change is ushered in by Macy's and its productions, from the holiday season with the Thanksgiving Day Parade to summer with fireworks for America’s birthday. When it comes to welcoming spring, the department store puts on its annual Flower Show, a longstanding tradition that began 65 year ago and is now marking its 42nd year at the company's Herald Square location. This year’s show, America the Beautiful, celebrates the wonders of the nation's natural world at five stores around the country (NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco). For New Yorkers who visit the show, it’s a chance to step out of the hustle and bustle and immerse themselves in gardens representing various regions of the United States. The executive producer behind the show is Mike Gansmoe, who is responsible for overseeing everything from conception to putting that last flower in place during overnight setups. 6sqft recently spoke with Mike to find out what's blooming at this year's show.
Read the full interview here

March 25, 2016

Chatty Maps Tell You What You’ll Hear on Given Streets and How It’ll Make You Feel

Chatty Maps is an interactive project that reveals what sort of experience your ears will have on specific city streets. Leaflet-based maps of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Miami, Seattle, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan and Rome map each city's roadways, which are colored to correspond to sounds on the street (transport, nature, human, music and building), based on tags taken from social media. Select your city and find a street on the map (or search for the street of your choice) to view the corresponding sounds. For each street, you also get a data visualization that attempts to track the relationship between street sounds and human emotions. Streets with dominant music sounds, for example, are associated with strong emotions of joy or sadness.
Check the map to find out how the city sounds at street level

City Living

March 18, 2016

Spotlight: Beekeeper Andrew Coté Gives Us the Buzz on Raising Honeybees in the City

On rooftops throughout the city, there's a great deal of activity taking place. This hustle and bustle isn't coming from the construction of new skyscrapers, but instead from beehives across the city where honeybees are hard at work. The keeper for many of these bees is Andrew Coté, who at the height of spring and summer works at least 14 hours a day, seven days a week tending to them. Andrew traces his family’s beekeeping roots to the 1800s in Quebec, Canada. In the 1970s, his father carried this tradition to Connecticut by starting a farm and selling honey, and a decade ago, Andrew brought beekeeping to the city. As a New York City beekeeper, his work focuses on overseeing clients’ hives on business and hotel roofs as well his own hives in neighborhoods ranging from Prospect Heights to the Upper East Side. Andrew harvests the honey from his hives, bottles, and then sells it at Union Square Market for his company, Andrew’s Honey. Depending on what jar customers pick up, they might be purchasing Forest Hills, Central Park or Harlem honey. With spring starting this Sunday, we recently spoke with Andrew to find out what all the buzz is about.
read our interview with andrew here

March 18, 2016

Fire and Ice: City Snow Removal Methods Included an Army Flamethrower

With forecasts threatening snow (?!) on this fine late March weekend, the idea that an "army flame thrower" was among the historic methods the city used to make piles of the formerly-white stuff disappear is oddly satisfying.
Moar! this way

March 16, 2016

Go Inside the Trippy Apartments of 1970s Urban Dwellers

Mid-century modern is often touted as the ideal when it comes to design, but while that era gifted us beautiful and timeless works from the likes of Mies and Charles and Ray Eames, not everyone at the time was keen on keeping with this design aesthetic. As the 70s gave way to a slew of political and social change, many homes also saw revolution of their own from the streamlined to the downright psychedelic. Case in point: All of the interiors featured in old issues of Apartment Life, a city living lifestyle magazine from the 70s. But what might be better than ogling all the decades-old acid trip decor in these old issues is reading the captions of the glossies. Like the folks featured in our My sqft series, Apartment Life talks the challenges of urban living (like no-view windows and limited storage), in addition to offering up some tips on how to deal (solution: build yourself a "butcher block storage/coffee table" they say!). They've even got a great idea for beating the below-zero blues: A "Winter Picnic" in bed.
Go inside these apartments here

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

6sqft’s series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week we offer up ideas for decorating exposed brick walls without drilling.

March 15, 2016

10 Ways to Decorate an Exposed Brick Wall Without Drilling

By Annie Doge

Exposed brick is one of the most common architectural elements in NYC apartments -- even otherwise bland spaces often feature the material. Though it offers tons of character, it can make decorating quite challenging since drilling into brick isn't the easiest task. Renters especially have a tough time, as putting holes in a brick wall can be a big no-no for landlords. But 6sqft has come up with 10 ways to dress up such walls, no drill necessary. Thanks to decor like string lights and ladders, you'll never have to stare at a blank brick wall again.
See all the ideas ahead

March 14, 2016

Interested in a Flex Apartment? Here’s What You Need to Know

With rising real estate prices and shrinking spaces, flex apartments are growing in popularity with roommates, couples and families who are looking to add another room but can’t afford to move into a larger space. Flex apartments, for those who are unfamiliar, are typically a studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom unit large enough to be converted up one level with […]

March 11, 2016

Spotlight: The Word on Whiskey From Kings County Distillery’s Colin Spoelman

Colin Spoelman moved to New York for post-grad job opportunities, but it was his home state of Kentucky that ended up giving him direction. On trips back home, he developed a deep appreciation for moonshine and distilling, and now his interest has gone from hobby to profession. Six years ago, Colin combined his Kentucky roots, his life in Brooklyn, and his love of distilling whiskey through Kings County Distillery, where he is one of the founders (along with David Haskell) and the head distiller. Founded in 2010, Kings County Distillery is making a name for itself with the whiskey and bourbon it distills at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, making it New York City's oldest operating whiskey distillery, the first since prohibition. The company started with eight five-gallon stills, and were at the time the smallest commercial distillery in America. But they now have a 250-gallon and a 180-gallon still and are beginning to distribute out west and internationally. With St. Patrick's Day coming up and lots of whiskey drinking to be had, 6sqft spoke with Colin to find out what's distilling in Brooklyn and why it makes perfect sense to make whiskey in this borough.
The full interview, this way

March 11, 2016

Reel Estate: Three Movies Put New York Housing Dramas on the Big Screen