City Living

August 11, 2017

‘NoiseAware’ sensors alert landlords when tenants are too loud

As the number of short-term rentals skyrockets across the country so does the chance of noisy tenants, and with that, complaints from neighbors. A new startup has developed a way for property owners to become more courteous neighbors. NoiseAware, founded by two short term rental managers, developed noise-tracking software that distinguishes noise from true nuisance and alerts landlords with a text message when it violates the threshold (h/t Fast Co.Design). Users of the software, what the company calls a "smoke detector for noise," can customize quiet hours, the noise threshold and alert preferences.
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City Living

New report says more New Yorkers are moving to Los Angeles

Los Angeles via Wikimedia

August 11, 2017

New report says more New Yorkers are moving to Los Angeles

By Devin Gannon

The East Coast versus West Coast rivalry may be slowly fading away. New Yorkers are making the cross-country leap from New York City to Los Angeles at a higher rate, in pursuit of cheaper rents, blossoming creative communities and, of course, all of that sunshine. According to LA Weekly, a new report by LinkedIn shows NYC as the top out-of-state feeder for LA transplants. For every 10,000 Angelenos on LinkedIn, about 7.3 of them just moved there from the Big Apple.
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An insider’s guide for first-time homebuyers in NYC

Photo via New York Law School/Flickr

August 7, 2017

An insider’s guide for first-time homebuyers in NYC

By Alison McQueen

6sqft’s ongoing series Apartment Living 101 is aimed at helping New Yorkers navigate the challenges of creating a happy home in the big city. This week, Corcoran realtor Alison McQueen shares her personal guide for first-time homebuyers in NYC. Many first-time homebuyers in NYC are doubtful they'll find a great place within their budget, but every single client I've worked with has closed on a home, and they say buying was one of the best decisions they ever made. To make this dream a reality, you'll want a clear understanding of your finances and how much you'd like to spend; the top five things you want in a home; and a sense of your preferred neighborhoods based on potential commute, area amenities; and ideal budget. Sound overwhelming? That's where a team of professionals comes in, including a real estate agent, real estate attorney, and home inspector. The best way to enter the purchase process is as an informed consumer, as you’ll have an easier time targeting and getting what you want. To make the process a bit easier, I've put together a handy list of the key things to consider when embarking on the purchase path in New York City.
All the tricks of the trade

Metered NYC taxis turn 110 years old this month

Image via Wiki Commons

August 4, 2017

Metered NYC taxis turn 110 years old this month

By Michelle Cohen

110 years ago on August 13th, one of the cornerstones of New York City life, the first metered taxicab, rolled into the city's streets. The metered fare idea was born, fittingly, in 1907 when Harry N. Allen was smacked with a five dollar fare ($126.98 in today's dollars) for being driven a quarter of a mile in a horse-drawn hansom cab. Allen imported 65 gas-powered cars from France, painted them red and green, and started the New York Taxicab Company. The elven hues were replaced by the iconic yellow shortly thereafter so they could be seen from a distance, and a year later 700 cabs were nowhere to be found when you wanted one.
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With bicycle ridership up, city will add 60+ miles of bike lanes a year

Image via Nick Harris/Flickr

August 1, 2017

With bicycle ridership up, city will add 60+ miles of bike lanes a year

By Emily Nonko

As the city subway systems struggle to keep up with increased ridership, it's a no brainer that more New Yorkers would take to the streets on bicycles rather than deal with the modern-day headaches of train travel. In fact, as 6sqft reported just yesterday, more commuters bike to work here than any other U.S. city. With the growth of bike riding, Mayor de Blasio's administration is further expanding biker-friendly infrastructure. According to Crain's, the Department of Transportation announced plans this Monday to add 10 miles of protected bicycle lanes and allocate 50 miles of regular bikeways annually starting this year.
Read more about the mayor's bike lane rollout

July 31, 2017

INTERVIEW: Architect Rick Cook on the legacy of COOKFOX’s sustainable design in NYC

By Emily Nonko

Since its founding in 1990, COOKFOX Architects has become one of the most recognized names in New York City real estate. In the firm's early days, founding partner Rick Cook found a niche in historically-sensitive building design, looking for opportunities to "[fill] in the missing voids of the streetscape," as he put it. After teaming up with Bob Fox in 2003, the pair worked to establish COOKFOX as an expert in both contextual and sustainable development. They designed the first LEED Platinum skyscraper in New York City with the Durst family, the Bank of America Tower, then took on a number of projects with the goal of designing healthier workplaces. The firm also got attention for its work in landmarks districts, winning AIA-New York State awards for its mixed-use development at 401 West 14th Street (better known as the Apple store) and its revamp of the the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. (The firm also made it the first LEED-certified theater in the city.)
6sqft's conversation with Rick fox here

More commuters bike to work in NYC than any other U.S. city

Image via WikiCommons

July 31, 2017

More commuters bike to work in NYC than any other U.S. city

By Dana Schulz

Earlier this year, 6sqft shared data from the Department of Transportation that found daily Citi Bike ridership had grown 80 percent from 2010 to 2015, and now, according to new information published in the Times, those figures have ballooned even more. Last Wednesday was "the highest single-day ridership of any system in the Western world outside of Paris," reports the bike share program, with a staggering 70,286 trips. These figures are part of an overall bike-centric trend in the city that "has outpaced population and employment growth" with New Yorkers taking an average of 450,000 daily bike trips, exponentially higher than the 2005 average of 170,000. And about one-fifth of these trips is by commuters, making New York home to more bike commuters than any other city in the country.
More details ahead

Photo via Nick Allen on Flickr

July 19, 2017

Experts say NYC’s noise issues will only grow worse

By Devin Gannon

With its 8.5 million residents, honking taxis, constant construction and vibrant nightlife scene, New York City remains one of the noisiest places on Earth. Although quieter neighborhoods like the Upper East Side once offered a quiet reprieve from the city’s cacophony, these pockets of peace are getting harder to find as NYC’s population expands. As the New York Times reported, despite the fact that noise pollution has already been linked to harmful health effects like stress, hypertension and heart disease, about 420,000 noise complaints were filed citywide with the city’s 311 hotline in 2016, more than doubling the number of complaints made in 2011.
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July 19, 2017

MTA considers ban on subway dining; snacking might be ok

By Michelle Cohen

After an upper Manhattan track fire this week reminded them that trash catches fire, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is considering limiting the all-too-familiar practice of stuffing one's face with hot, messy food while riding the subway. The New York Times reports that MTA chairman Joseph J. Lhota said Tuesday that he'd like to curb inappropriate eating as a way to eliminate fires caused by the ensuing litter.
Have another french fry. For now.

July 18, 2017

Crowd-sourced maps show where tourists and hipsters land in every big city

By Devin Gannon

While most New Yorkers can describe each neighborhood in just a word or two, a new website takes these definitions and puts them on a map, giving users a better understanding of how locals see each city block. As ArchDaily learned, the platform, Hoodmaps, crowd sources information, letting the public “paint” parts of the city using six colors to represent “uni”, “hipster,” “tourists,” “rich,” “suits” and “normies.” In NYC, it’s no surprise users painted Times Square, Hell’s Kitchen and the High Line in red, marking high tourist spots. And of course, Williamsburg was yellow marking it “hipster central” on the map.
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City Living

Beekeeping finds a home throughout NYC’s five boroughs

By Cait Etherington

On June 1, the United Nations joined a growing local trend—they installed three apiary yards, better known as beehives, on their grounds in midtown Manhattan. The UN is hopeful that by summer’s end, their 150 bees will turn into a thriving colony of 250,000 bees. If this happens, the UN bees will not be alone. There are millions of bees buzzing around the five boroughs and not only in the backyards of earthy residents in neighborhoods like Park Slope and Greenpoint. From the rooftops of high-rises in Manhattan to community gardens stretching from the Bronx to Staten Island, New York City is home to thousands of active beehives, but this wasn’t always the case Prior to a 2010 ruling, beekeeping existed in the five boroughs but only under the radar. At the time, the city deemed beekeeping to be as dangerous as keeping cobras, tarantulas, or hyenas on one’s property. Indeed, if caught, underground beekeepers faced hefty fines of up to $2000. Since the 2010 ruling that legalized beekeeping, both bees and beekeepers have been on the rise citywide and so have organizations and services designed to help residents explore apiculture.
learn more about beekeeping in the city

The top 10 neighborhoods NYC artists are moving to

Image via Kid Monkey for the Bushwick Collective

July 13, 2017

The top 10 neighborhoods NYC artists are moving to

By Devin Gannon

According to a new analysis by the Center for an Urban Future (CUF), the number of artists in New York City has grown in almost every discipline, borough and neighborhood between 2000 and 2015. Citywide, the number of artists has increased by an all-time high of 17.4 percent, to 56,268 as of 2015. Since 2000, the Bronx saw the number of visual and performing artists nearly double, to 2,920 from 1,524, while Manhattan saw a decline of 10 percent, from 28,454 artists to 25,650. On the other hand, Brooklyn grew 72 percent to 17,605, Queens grew at 35 percent to 8,726 and Staten Island experienced an 8 percent growth to total 1,367 in 2015.
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July 13, 2017

Dry ice and solar power to be used in city’s $32M rat battle

By Michelle Cohen

Mayor Bill de Blasio declared Wednesday that he wanted "more rat corpses" in a $32 million crusade to rid the city's most plagued neighborhoods of the scurrying scourge. The New York Times reports that parts of lower Manhattan, the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx are the focus of the latest campaign that hopes to reduce the number of rats in those areas by 70 percent by the close of 2018. Among the battle's newly-forged weapons are 336 $7,000 solar-powered rat-proof garbage bins and an EPA-approved–and apparently very effective–method of killing rats in their holes using dry ice.
Psst...hey...pizza over here

City Living

The story behind ‘Scabby the Rat,’ NYC’s symbol of unionized labor

Photo courtesy of Big Sky Balloons

July 12, 2017

The story behind ‘Scabby the Rat,’ NYC’s symbol of unionized labor

By Devin Gannon

Despite a nationwide decline in union membership, New York City continues to defy this trend. The number of city workers who belong to unions has risen for the last three years in a row, growing from 21.5 percent of all workers to 25.5 percent in 2016. And because of this high number of unionized employees, city residents have become even more familiar with Scabby the Rat--one of the most recognizable symbols of unions. The giant inflatable rodent, with its sharp buck teeth and beady red eyes, has been a staple of union construction protests in NYC and across the country for decades, and if there's a development project that enlists nonunion labor in New York, expect to see Scabby out on the street.
Find out more about Scabby's story

July 10, 2017

Interactive map reveals how your daily commute time compares with the nation’s worst

By Michelle Cohen

For something to ponder while trapped in subway hell or highway gridlock, a detailed visualization by statistician Chase Sawyer shows typical commute times clocked in every U.S. county, based on census data from 2011-2015. Citylab reports on the findings revealed therein; for example, we probably could guess that the top 10 easy-peasy commutes were in Alaska (where you can always find a seat on the subway), but you may not have guessed that Pike County, Pennsylvania has the worst transit time at an average of 44 minutes.
Find out how your daily trek stacks up

July 2, 2017

VIDEO: Drone footage takes this love letter to New York City to a new level

By Michelle Cohen

From the concrete canyons of Midtown to verdant outcroppings deep in Central Park and everything in between, NYC unfolds in a suitably epic series of moments in this live-action love letter created by Wasatch aerial drone photography specialists. A drone camera sails above it all on metal wings, capturing the city, its architecture and its creatures large and small at rest, work and play.
READ MORE

City Living

June 28, 2017

INTERVIEW: The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project talks gay history and advocacy in NYC

By Dana Schulz

"Where did lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history happen in New York City? In what buildings did influential LGBT activists and artists live and work, and on what streets did groups demonstrate for their equal rights?" These are the questions that the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project is answering through a first-of-its-kind initiative to document historic and cultural sites associated with the LGBT community in the five boroughs. Through a map-based online archive, based on 25 years of research of advocacy, the group hopes to make "invisible history visible" by exploring sites related to everything from theater and art to social activism and health. To mark Pride Month, 6sqft recently talked with the Historic Sites Project's directors--architectural historian and preservation professor at Columbia Andrew S. Dolkart; historic preservation consultant Ken Lustbader; and former senior historian at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission Jay Shockley--along with their project manager, preservationist Amanda Davis, about the roots of the initiative, LGBT history in NYC, and the future of gay advocacy.
Read the interview here

June 28, 2017

Map: Where to watch the Macy’s fireworks this July 4th

By Michelle Cohen

Here's a handy guide outlining some prime spots for experiencing Macy's Fourth of July live fireworks extravaganza this Tuesday evening; in addition, the folks that put on the show have provided a helpful interactive neighborhood finder so you're well situated when things go boom. Take a fun quiz here, then find out the best spots to watch from. Or just check out some prime spots here.
More info this way

June 27, 2017

Recent breakdown spurs demand for better subway escape plans

By Michelle Cohen

After experiencing a big dose of the NYC “train pain” that seems to be reaching epidemic proprtions lately, subway passenger Michael Sciaraffo has launched a campaign against the MTA for what he feels are lousy safety standards. After being “trapped on a sweltering F train" that got stuck in a tunnel during a recent “colossal breakdown,” Sciaraffo was mad enough to demand that straphangers be provided with a better protocol for escaping to safety in the event of a mass emergency. The city's already-strained subway system moved 5.6 million passengers a week 2016, leading to a reported 70,000 delays per month over the last five years according to NBC New York.
So how do we get out of this thing?

June 26, 2017

INTERVIEW: Architect Thomas Kosbau on the exciting future of sustainable design in NYC

By Emily Nonko

Since Thomas Kosbau began working for a New York consultancy firm running its sustainable development group, in 2008, much has changed in the city's attitude toward green design. Kosbau has gone from "selling" the idea of LEED certification to building developers, to designing some of the most innovative sustainable projects in New York to meet demand. He founded his firm, ORE Design, in 2010. Soon after, he picked up two big commissions that went on to embody the firm's priority toward projects that marry great design alongside sustainability. At one commission, the Dekalb Market, ORE transformed 86 salvaged shipping containers into an incubator farm, community kitchen, event space, community garden, 14 restaurants and 82 retail spaces. At another, Riverpark Farm, he worked with Riverpark restaurant owners Tom Colicchio, Sisha Ortuzar and Jeffrey Zurofsky to build a temporary farm at a stalled development site to provide their kitchen with fresh produce. From there, ORE has tackled everything from the outdoor dining area at the popular Brooklyn restaurant Pok Pok to the combination of two Madison Avenue studios. Last November, ORE launched designs for miniature indoor growhouses at the Brooklyn headquarters of Square Roots, an urban farming accelerator.
ORE's latest project

Top architects and engineers present solutions for NYC’s soon-to-explode population

June 21, 2017

City announces $106M plan to keep neighborhoods cool this summer

By Devin Gannon

After a few days of extreme heat, Mayor de Blasio launched a $106 million initiative on Wednesday to protect New Yorkers from the risks of dangerously high temperatures this summer. The Cool Neighborhoods program aims to lessen the effects of the “urban heat island effect,” a problem that occurs in New York City due to its abundance of heat-holding asphalt and concrete and lack of greenery. According to Gothamist, to reduce heat-related health risks and deaths, the city plans on planting more trees on streets and in parks, supporting forest restoration efforts and painting roofs of homes in vulnerable areas with reflective white paints.
Find out more

June 14, 2017

New private school brings top global academic program to NYC’s Upper West Side

By BASIS Independent Manhattan

BASIS Independent Manhattan, a K-8 private school teaching the acclaimed BASIS Curriculum, is opening this fall in a 45,000-square-foot school at 795 Columbus Avenue. Although new to NYC, BASIS Curriculum Schools is no strangers to praise. Steadily since 1998, they've grown their network to 28 campuses around the world while gathering many accolades, including that of U.S News and World Report. This year, BASIS Curriculum Schools was ranked #5 on the publication's list of the "Top 10 Best High Schools in the Country." Designed with the modern child in mind, BASIS Independent's upcoming Manhattan campus will feature state-of-the-art facilities that support everything from daily physical education in the elementary grades, multiple recess breaks, weekly engineering sessions, and, for middle school students, the study of chemistry, physics, and biology in a laboratory setting. Indeed, thoughtful spaces designed to elevate performance are at BASIS Independent's heart, and they work in tandem with the school's curriculum developed to provide students with the strongest academic foundation—and for a fraction of the tuition expected in NYC, at that. Ahead, Head of School Jesse Rizzo shares how the upcoming New York City schoolhouse has been designed to help create and fortify Manhattan’s next school community.
find out more about BASIS' Manhattan school here

City Living

The MTA considers a ‘car-free busway’ as L-train alternative

L train via Wiki Commons

June 7, 2017

The MTA considers a ‘car-free busway’ as L-train alternative

By Devin Gannon

L train via Wiki Commons To mitigate the nightmare commuters will face during the 15-month L-train shutdown, the MTA and the Department of Transportation presented four possible alternatives that would make a portion of 14th Street a car-free busway. Streetsblog NYC reported that during a Manhattan Community Board 6 meeting on Monday, the agencies laid out the following options: a standard Select Bus Service (SBS) along 14th Street, enhanced SBS that includes turn and curb restrictions, a car-free busway in the middle lanes along 14th and a river-to-river car-free busway. Agency officials predict between 75 and 85 percent of the daily 275,000 daily L riders will use other subway lines, with bus service possibly absorbing between 5-15 percent of displaced trips.
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June 5, 2017

An NYU project hopes to virtually track 10,000 New Yorkers for 20 years

By Devin Gannon

Beginning this fall, a research project led by a neuroeconomic professor from New York University will follow 10,000 New Yorkers for two decades in hopes of understanding the future of big data and human decision making. The Human Project, developed by Paul Glimcher, will gather a ton of data from residents, including medical records, diet, credit card transactions, social interactions, sleep, educational achievement, blood work, stool and urine samples and even more. As the New York Times reported, the goal is to create an atlas of the entire human experience. With a $15 million budget, the project hopes to start making some findings by 2020.
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Your Daily Doseof NYC Life!

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