City Living

A post shared by Chenglong Sun @N¥€ @NYU (@zoomscl35) on Feb 18, 2017 at 9:00am PST There's even more to love about the NYC subway this week, as Hypebeast and The Cut report on the branded collaboration between cult skatewear brand Supreme and the MTA. The limited-edition Supreme-branded Metrocards arrived at stores and select stations on Monday and limited outbreaks of mayhem have ensued as fans scrambled to buy the custom cards from Metrocard machines. The cards cost $5.50, though according to the MTA they're sold out, and it's reported that they're selling for $1,000 $38.88 on eBay.
Ruckus locations, this way

February 17, 2017

The Urban Lens: Fly over NYC during ‘golden hour’

6sqft’s ongoing series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, Alexey Kashpersky takes us above NYC at daybreak. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at tips@6sqft.com. We couldn’t think of a better day than this frigid Friday to lose ourselves in the warm glow of Manhattan during golden hour. Having ventured where many would dare not go—i.e. several thousand feet up in the air in a doorless helicopter—artist Alexey Kashpersky shares photos of his recent sky-high journey above New York, revealing a glorious metropolis at daybreak shining a fiery red and orange. From the piers of Battery Park City to hovering just above the tip of the Chrysler Building, lose yourself ahead in the quiet beauty of our dear city.
see more here

February 15, 2017

Put your favorite small businesses on the map with the city’s ‘Love Your Local’ initiative

Put your favorite local, non-franchise businesses "on the map" and help them apply for a share of a $1.8 million grant. Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Department of Small Business Services have announced the launch of "NYC Love Your Local," a new opportunity to celebrate and promote the city's many independent small businesses. The program allows New Yorkers to add their favorite mom-and-pop shops to an interactive map so they can get funding and access to expert advice.
Find out how to add your local

City Living

Sauna-hot apartments: How to cope without stripping down

Photo via pxhere

February 15, 2017

Sauna-hot apartments: How to cope without stripping down

By Cait Etherington

From a distance, one may wonder why television characters living in New York City apartments so often appear to wear little at all in the privacy of their own homes. From Archie Bunker’s white undershirts on "All in the Family" to Carrie Bradshaw’s lingerie on "Sex in the City" to Hannah Horvath’s practical skivvies on "Girls," fictional New Yorkers always seem to be stripping down to the bare essentials regardless of the season. To any real New Yorker, there is an obvious reason why these fictional New Yorkers are so often shown partially clad July or January: New York apartments have a tendency to be sauna hot. But in a city where tenants frequently have to fight for even the most basic amenities, how did heat become overly abundant, even in the dead of winter?
find out more here

February 10, 2017

NYC’s top 10 wealthiest ZIP codes will surprise you

There's no argument that Tribeca is home to the priciest real estate in all of New York City, but when it comes to wealth as measured by median net worth and household income, its residents don't even register in the top 10. A new study by ESRI conducted for the NY Business Journal reveals that 11363—or Little Neck, Queens (where Governor Cuomo once owned a mansion, to give you and idea)—is, in fact, New York's richest ZIP code. Here, the median household income clocks in at an impressive $94,192 with median net worth reaching $326,104.
the surprising results here

February 9, 2017

Mapping where undocumented immigrants live in America

Of the estimated 11.1 million undocumented immigrants living across the U.S., 6.8 million or 61 percent live in just 20 metro areas, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey by the Pew Research Center. And as CityLab points out, this is an extremely high concentration considering just 36 percent of the country's total population lives in these areas. The highest population is, not surprisingly, right here in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, with 1.15 unauthorized immigrants calling these cities home. We're followed by the Los Angeles area with 1 million residents, but after that it drops drastically to 575,000 immigrants in Houston.
Learn more here

City Living

Winter Storm Niko watch: Track the city’s plows live with this handy map

A real-time plow update today

February 9, 2017

Winter Storm Niko watch: Track the city’s plows live with this handy map

With close to 10 inches of snow already on the ground and more to come, Winter Storm Niko is certainly making getting around a challenge. But before taking a chance and entering that winter wonderland, check out the city's handy interactive map called PlowNYC, which tracks the progress of the Department of Sanitation's 2,300 salt spreaders and plows.
Find out more

February 7, 2017

MAP: See how demographics have shifted in every NYC neighborhood over 10 years

By now, we're all well aware that New York City is changing, becoming ever more expensive and far less friendly to its middle and low-income inhabitants. But here's a new interactive map from the Citizens Housing and Planning Council (CHPC) that offers us a snapshot view of how upper-income New Yorkers (the majority of whom are white, to be sure) have multiplied throughout the boroughs between 2000 and 2010 to alter the face of the city's demographics.
READ MORE

City Living

February 6, 2017

As New York City grows, so does its garbage

As a city of 8 million people became a city of 8.5 million, it only took a glance skyward at any given time to note the booming population in every borough, with tall towers and boutique buildings springing up like weeds in formerly less-bustling neighborhoods. It's just as noticeable closer to the ground as an exploding population's trash threatens to reach skyscraper proportions, too, taxing the city's sanitation infrastructure. From street cleaning to curbside sanitation pickup to volunteer "adopt-a-basket" efforts in tourist zones and parks, the job of keeping the city clean is getting out of hand, the New York Times reports. Yet the garbage keeps growing. The city's sanitation department spent $58.2 million last year to keep the streets clean, up from $49.5 million the previous year, as well as expanding and adding routes, putting more people on duty to empty sidewalk baskets and adding Sunday service; Staten Island got its first street sweeper last year.
More people means more trash

City Living

Interview: Daniel Kohs of SYNTHESIS on designing a brand-new Carnegie Hill mansion

By 6sqft

Developer and architect Daniel Kohs isn’t one of New York’s heavyweight developers. He’s not one to pursue glossy, big-ticket skyscrapers containing thousands of square feet of ubiquitous space. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just that there’s a lot to be gained from “transformation.” Best yet, preserving the integrity and culture of […]

February 3, 2017

NYC launches citywide book club, One Book, One New York

On Wednesday the city announced that it's bringing back the One Book, One New York program to get New Yorkers reading and support independent bookstores in the five boroughs, the New York Times reports. Starting in early March, residents from all corners of the city will be encouraged to read the same book, which will be chosen in an online vote from a small group of finalists. The five choices are: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me,” Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah,” Betty Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and Junot Díaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” But the first challenge the program faces is to get New Yorkers to agree on a book.
Read on, New York

City Living

February 3, 2017

Designing One Vanderbilt: The architects of KPF discuss the incredible 1401-foot undertaking

By Diane Pham & Ondel Hylton

There are a number of towers on the rise poised to change the New York City skyline, but few are anticipated to have an impact as significant as One Vanderbilt. Developed by SL Green and designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), the glassy supertall will extend an incredible 1,401 feet into the clouds to become the city's third tallest tower (following One World Trade Center and the in-progress Central Park Tower) while also bringing a staggering 1.7 million square feet of office space to Midtown Manhattan. But beyond its height and girth, this massive development is expected to elevate its surroundings a profound way. Indeed, the enshadowed "iconic but aging" district surrounding Grand Central, long-deprived of public space and life beyond weary commuters, will be turned into a verdant block dedicated to all New Yorkers.
6sqft's interview with the architects this way

February 2, 2017

The Hamptons mansion where ‘Seinfeld’ coined ‘shrinkage’ hits the market for $8.75M

By Annie Doge

A (pricey) piece of pop culture memorabilia is up for grabs, reports the NY Post. The Hamptons mansion featured in Seinfeld's unforgettable "ugly baby" episode—also known as "The Hamptons!"—has just hit the market for $8.75 million. While the estate situated at 45 Whalers Lane in Amagansett has a lot to tout—including 4,000 square feet of space and sweeping oceanfront views—what really makes the house special is the fact it is where the term "shrinkage" was introduced into modern day vernacular.
more views inside and out here

January 31, 2017

NYC lost thousands of parking spots as daily bike ridership increased 80 percent in five years

The NYC Department of Transportation has released its new "Cycling in the City" report, which examines how frequently New Yorkers use bikes as a mode of transportation and how that frequency has changed over time. In 2016, there were 14 million Citi Bike trips taken, a whopping 40 percent more than the previous year. And in terms of general bike riding, the DOT found that daily cycling grew 80 percent from 2010 to 2015, with 450,000 cycling trips made on a typical day in New York. But what has this meant for drivers? Less parking, thanks to the the city's 1,000+ miles of bike lanes. NY1 reports that in Manhattan alone, 2,300 parking spots south of 125th Street were lost in recent years to bike lanes and bike-sharing stations.
READ MORE

January 31, 2017

De Blasio defends sanctuary city status, saying withheld funds would be millions, not billions

In the state's capital on Monday, Mayor de Blasio spoke in defense of various policies including NYC's "sanctuary city" designation, WNYC reports. The mayor was in Albany to ask state legislators for funding for items like education, public health and affordable housing. In the face of criticism from Staten Island assembly members Nicole Malliotakis and Ron Castorina (both Republicans), who questioned the mayor's pledge not to aid in the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants by the new administration, de Blasio said he had discussed the issue with then-President-elect Trump, and would continue to resist mass deportation for "moral, economic and security reasons." Though Castorina said de Blasio would be risking the loss of billions of dollars in federal aid, the mayor said the money withheld by the federal government would only be $100-150 million and that his legal advisers say the city could fight back in court.
Sanctuary cities are safer

January 19, 2017

Interview: Greystone Development’s CEO discusses development in emerging neighborhoods around New York City

By Emily Nonko

Jeff Simpson, the CEO of Greystone Development, is due to celebrate his ten year anniversary with the company this February. In his decade with the real estate firm, founded in 1992, he has overseen Greystone’s reemergence into the New York market by tapping into emerging neighborhoods around the city. Before he joined Greystone, Simpson worked with […]

January 18, 2017

Mapping NYC subway stops according to their most popular Instagram hashtags

The Houston Street 1 station is #cronut; the PATH train’s World Trade Center station is #neverforget; and the Cathedral Parkway/110th Street station is #Seinfeld. This is the NYC subway map according to each stop's most popular Instagram hashtag. CityLab first shared the fun visualization, titled #tagsandthecity, and pointed out that, though the map has categories for sightseeing/monuments, shopping, leisure, culture/museums, and hotel/travel, it's the food and drink that really takes the cake. From #redrooster and #robertas to #shakeshack and #halalguys, it seems New Yorkers really like to post some food porn.
See the full map

City Living

January 18, 2017

Governors Island to open a month early on May 1st with new oyster garden

A springtime 2017 opening date will extend the park's season from 120 to 146 days, give the public a longer season to enjoy the island's bounty of arts programming and outdoor activities–and give us yet another reason to look forward to spring. Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news release, “An extra month on Governors Island means more arts, culture and outdoor time for New York families...a May Day opening stands as a symbol of changes as we create a more livable and affordable city.”
More of what's new on Governors Island

City Living

January 16, 2017

With the rise of ride-hailing apps, daily yellow cab trips fell 27 percent since 2010

6sqft recently shared analysis that 3,000 ridesharing vehicles could replace the city's fleet of 13,587 taxis. And while this was more a comment on how carpooling can decrease congestion and emissions, it also points to a changing landscape for yellow cabs. In a piece this weekend, the Times looks at how taxis have fallen out of favor with New Yorkers since apps like Uber and Lyft came onto the scene; these vehicles now number more than 60,000. In 2010, for example, yellow cabs made an average of 463,701 trips, 27 percent more than the 336,737 trips this past November, which also resulted in a drop in fares from $5.17 million to $4.98 million. And just since 2014, the cost of a cab medallion was cut in less than half of its former $1.3 million price tag.
Read more on this trend

January 12, 2017

Interactive chart reveals the diversity of NYC’s street trees

Just as New York's population is a melting pot of ethnicities, the city's tree population is just as diverse. A new interactive chart from Cloudred give us a look at how tree genus breaks down across the five boroughs. As seen above, if one zooms in on the largest chunks of graph across Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx, it becomes quickly apparent that maple, oak, pear, and planetree trees have their roots firmly planted in the ground—as do a bunch of "unknowns," which account for about 14 percent of the city's total tree population.
find out more here

January 11, 2017

Interview: Pembrooke & Ives founder Andrew Sheinman on outfitting ultra-luxe residences

By 6sqft

Skyscraper heights may be what make news headlines, but at the end of the day it’s the call of a stunning interior that gets a contract signed. Developers of New York City’s most luxurious buildings understand this well, and it’s why the same bold-faced names in interior design are often associated with the most splendid […]

January 10, 2017

Cuomo announces 750-mile Empire State Trail, a continuous trail connecting NYC to Canada

Joggers, walkers, cyclists, cross country skiers and just about anyone who can move their feet will in the very near future be able to follow a single trail direct from the bottom of Manhattan all the way to the border of Canada. This morning Governor Cuomo announced that the state would invest in building a $200 million Empire State Trail that would span 750 miles and become the largest, state multi-use trail in the nation. The project would build upon two existing but incomplete trailways—the Hudson River Valley Greenway (now 50 percent complete) and the Erie Canalway (now 80 percent complete)—and essentially run from Battery Park City all the way up to the Canadian border in the North Country, and from Albany to Buffalo.
more details this way

January 10, 2017

Study: Getting to work by public transit is easiest in NYC, San Francisco and D.C.