City Living

New York may be enjoying yet another unseasonably warm day, but 68 years ago today, short sleeves and sidewalk dining were completely out of the question. It was December 26, 1947 that the city experienced its biggest snowstorm ever—a blizzard that dumped 26.4 inches of snow on the ground. According to NYC.gov, "the City was paralyzed when the blizzard barreled its way through, stranding cars and buses in the streets, halting subway service, and claiming 77 lives." In the end it took $6 million, nearly 30,000 workers, and weeks of digging and plowing to bring the city back to passable again. You can watch a video of the chaos brought by 99 million tons of snow ahead.
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December 22, 2015

MAP: See the World’s Urban Population Grow Over 2,000 Years

While we all like to think of New York City as the center of the universe, our little metropolis really only started to pulsate in the last couple hundred years. Way, way before this (think 1 A.D.) ancient civilizations like the Mayans experienced "urban booms" of their own. This mind-boggling interactive map made by Esri puts thousands of years of global population growth into perspective, ultimately showing us that NYC is kind of just a blip on the radar—or in this case, the 2,000-year timeline of life.
Access the map this way

December 18, 2015

Spotlight: A Cold Dip With the Coney Island Polar Bear Club’s Dennis Thomas

The city may be having an unseasonably warm December, but it's fair to say most New Yorkers still find it a bit too chilly for the beach. Members of the famed Coney Island Polar Bear Club, on the other hand, relish the drop in temperature as they head out for an ocean swim. The Polar Bear Club is a New York institution dating back to 1903. While the organization is renowned for its annual New Year’s Day swim where New Yorkers gather to welcome the year with a chilly dip, it’s far from the only time the club embraces the cold water. In fact, they meet 12 times throughout the winter months and draw a sizable membership that's a mix of ages, backgrounds, and cultures from the metropolitan area and beyond. At the club's helm is president Dennis Thomas, who fell in love with Coney Island years ago and later discovered the serenity of swimming on brisk days. More than thirty years after he first became a member, Dennis spoke with 6sqft about the Polar Bear Club's history, what a typical swim is like, and what happens when hundreds of New Yorkers turn out for a New Year's Day swim that supports Camp Sunshine.
Read the interview here

December 18, 2015

MAP: How Much Do Murders Decrease Home Values?

We know that in New York City, living next to the deceased does little to earn you a discount on your rent or a price chop on a condo. But when it comes to murders, the story is quite different. Finder.com recently culled data from University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and popular real estate websites to find out just how much a murder that occurred on a property can affect the value of a home.
more here

December 15, 2015

NYC Municipal ID Card Holders Will Get Even More Free Stuff in 2016

If you're one of the 670,000 people who took the time to apply for a NY municipal ID last year, give yourself a pat on the back and rejoice, because your industrious spirit will be rewarded for yet another year. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced yesterday that card holders will continue to benefit from free access and discounts to 33 cultural institutions and a slew of New York services through 2016. On top of that, seven top tier names have joined the ID benefits roster, including The Guggenheim, the New Museum, the MoMA, the Metropolitan Opera, the Museum of Chinese in America, BRIC Arts Media and the Pregones Theater. Yay, free stuff!
find out what else was added and how to apply if you haven't already

Living in a Micro Apartment Could Be Harmful to Your Health

New rendering of Carmel Place interiors, via Monadnock Development/nARCHITECTS

December 14, 2015

Living in a Micro Apartment Could Be Harmful to Your Health

An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but living in a micro apartment may drive you to seek professional psychological help. A recent article in The Atlantic takes a look at the tiny living trend that has taken the nation—and in particular New York, with developments like My Micro NY and teeny renovations like this one—by storm, and finds that squeezing into an extra-small space could lead to health risks. “Sure, these micro-apartments may be fantastic for young professionals in their 20's,” says Dak Kopec, director of design for human health at Boston Architectural College and author of Environmental Psychology for Design, to the magazine. “But they definitely can be unhealthy for older people, say in their 30’s and 40’s, who face different stress factors that can make tight living conditions a problem.”
find out more here

Spotlight: Meet Chef Jon Lovitch, Builder of the World’s Largest Gingerbread Village

Portrait of Jon by Keith Hodan, adapted by 6sqft

December 11, 2015

Spotlight: Meet Chef Jon Lovitch, Builder of the World’s Largest Gingerbread Village

Chef Jon Lovitch is no amateur when it comes to building gingerbread houses. In fact, every year Jon constructs an entire village called GingerBread Lane that takes nearly 12 months to make. It's a holiday tradition he first started twenty years ago in Kansas City, Missouri, with just 12 houses, and he's since grown the project into an epic display of sweets shown everywhere from Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and now New York. Two years ago, GingerBread Lane found a local home at the New York Hall of Science in Corona, Queens, where Jon’s villages set Guinness World Records in 2013 and 2014 for the world's largest gingerbread exhibit. This year's village just set another Guinness record on November 17th with its 1,102 houses. But beyond seeking a world title, Jon hopes his labor of gingerbread love inspires kids and adults of all ages to get creative and start building projects of their own. 6sqft recently spoke with Jon to find out the history behind this tasty tradition, and what it takes to build an enormous gingerbread village each year.
Read the interview with NYC's gingerbread man here

December 10, 2015

POLL: Are You Pro or Anti Santacon?

We know it’s a loaded question, but after all these years of holiday debauchery, the debate surrounding Santacon rages on. The founder of the event recently contacted Gothamist, requesting an interview to set the record straight. He said the press is failing to focus on the notorious event’s “more important messages of anti-consumerism, creativity, jolly gay […]

Where to See the Best Lights in NYC This Holiday Season

Rolf’s Christmas Display via Rolf’s

December 8, 2015

Where to See the Best Lights in NYC This Holiday Season

By Rebecca Paul

It's Christmastime in the city! It's also time to see what New York City has to offer in this year's twinkly lights department. We've seen it time and time again—New York City painted as a romantic holiday backdrop, perfect for evoking the true Christmas spirit. Most of us are already familiar with classic destinations like Rockefeller Center and the Macy's window display, so in lieu of the standard roster 6sqft has put together the following list to help you find some of the less obvious (but no less spectacular) places to see fabulous lights for the 2015 holiday season.
Check out our list of where to see the best lights this holiday season

December 8, 2015

Mapping the Depressing Annual Salaries of Millennials Across the U.S.

This year, snake people became the largest share of the U.S.'s voting-age population, surpassing 76.4 million baby boomers for the title. But while this younger generation (generally defined as those born between 1981 and 1997) may be dominating in numbers, they're trailing when it comes to their median annual salaries. This map created by Business Insider using data from the from the Minnesota Population Center's 2014 "American Community Survey" in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series reveals just what working snake people are earning annually—and the results are somewhat depressing. While Midwest states showing medians in the low 20s aren't all that shocking given a lower cost of living, it is surprising to see that economic power players like California and New York ring in at just $21,900 and $25,000, respectively.
See the map in detail here

City Living

December 8, 2015

Which NYC Neighborhoods Charge the Most for Christmas Trees?

Just like real estate, the price of a Christmas tree will vary significantly depending on which neighborhood you center your search. DNA Info recently conducted a reader poll to find which local tree dealers are gouging evergreen buyers and which are keeping with a more charitable holiday spirit. Pollsters zoomed in on several neighborhoods across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens and found some major price disparities even when it came to minor details like whether a vendor was set up on a street corner or just a typical stretch. Just check out the $50 price difference at two Williamsburg locales ahead...
have a closer look at their findings

Stiletto-Friendly Subway Grates Are Finally Here

Image via MTA

December 8, 2015

Stiletto-Friendly Subway Grates Are Finally Here

Don’t you just hate getting your heel stuck in a subway grate and then ruining those beautiful stilettos? Well fear not, fashionistas, the MTA is employing high heel-friendly subway grates in their East Side Access Project. As Gothamist noted, the agency announced that they’ve completed construction on the 150-feet-below-ground ventilation facility at East 55th Street between […]

December 7, 2015

Chart Compares Suburb and City Commute Times–and How Much Extra We Pay for Convenience

When most of us rationalize our outrageous rents (and for buyers, real estate prices), our first go-to argument usually involves something along the lines of how great it is to live so close to work and the bustling city. But as it turns out, there are actually more than a handful of neighborhoods outside of the borders of Manhattan that boast way better commute times than even Brooklyn. Real estate data start-up NeighborhoodX is back again with yet another eye-opening visualization, this time pitting the commute times and real estate prices of various New Jersey, New York and Connecticut suburbs, and a few popular Queens and Brooklyn nabes, against one another.
See all the comparisons here

December 7, 2015

Brooklyn Bath Bombs Will Leave Your Skin Smelling Like Brownstones

We can't say we're surprised that now you can bathe in the scent of Brooklyn neighborhoods. But we are surprised that these Brooklyn Flavors bath bombs don't offer gimmicky scents like "Hipster's Beard" for Williamsburg or "Bacon Cupcake" for Crown Heights. As Brooklyn Mag explains, the creator of the products "conducted demographic research of the residents that live in the neighborhood—past and present—to create each scent." For example, the Church Avenue bath bomb has a Caribbean scent representative of the neighborhood's West Indian demographic.
More neighborhood scent profiles

December 4, 2015

Spotlight: Phil Kline Puts a Twist on Holiday Caroling With Unsilent Night

What started out as a simple idea for composer Phil Kline has became a beloved holiday tradition in New York. A fan of cassette tapes, Phil had been composing pieces for boomboxes when he wrote a holiday-themed piece set on four tracks to be played simultaneously on several boomboxes. In 1992, he gathered a group of New Yorkers for a modern take on caroling in which they walked down lower Fifth Avenue with boomboxes playing his piece. The performance was a resounding success and a yearly seasonal event known as Unsilent Night was set in motion. A little over two decades since that first performance, Unsilent Night has grown in magnitude and now draws a crowd of several hundred who still use a few boomboxes that are interspersed among a sea of smartphones. It has has been adopted by cities around the world, but even with this international recognition it finds its way back home each year. Phil is currently preparing for his 24th New York performance on Saturday, December 12th, so with the event a week away, 6sqft spoke to Phil to learn about his love of boomboxes, the idea behind Unsilent Night, and how one evening 23 years ago has become an annual holiday musical tradition.
6sqft's interview with Phil Kline right ahead

December 2, 2015

POLL: Are You a Lucky 212 Area Code Holder?

Come spring of 2017, there will be a new Manhattan area code in town. In addition to 212, 917, and 646, the city will now have 332. The news reignites the strange, only-in-New-York nostalgia and prestige that goes along with a 212 phone number, the original NYC area code. As 6sqft previously described, there are […]

City Living

December 1, 2015

No Filter Needed: Watch NYC Glow Against an Otherworldly Autumn Sunset

By Ondel Hylton

New York City experienced a surreal sunset last Sunday; one of the best in recent memory. The sky was dull and overcast for most of the afternoon but when the sun began to sink below the cloud-line, the city transitioned to a hue often reserved for sci-fi films and the outlandish renderings of our banal real estate developments. The tie-dye sky was so vivid that even the prosaic glass-walled rental towers on the Far West Side appeared majestic. During the sun's 15-minute adieu, the sky transitioned from soft pink, to a ribbony purple, and then to an electric tangerine; ultimately billowing into a fiery blaze over New Jersey. So what caused the city to be enveloped into this watercolor masterpiece? According to ABC News meteorologist Jeff Smith, a storm over Eastern Long Island created a situation that when the sun was going down, light caressed the high- and mid-level cloud bottoms resulting in the gorgeous sunset, which 6sqft captured in a gorgeous photo series.
Check out all the photos here

City Living

November 30, 2015

NYC Building Boom Yields Rise in Construction Deaths

All you have to do is look up to see that New York City is in the midst of a building boom; but this surge in development comes with a price. The New York Times reports that construction-related deaths and injuries over the past two years, most of which affect undocumented immigrant laborers, "far exceeds the rate of new construction over the same period," a testament to the inadequate safety systems at job sites. City records show that there were ten construction-related fatalities in the most recent fiscal year (July 2014 - July 2015), nearly twice the annual average. This time period also saw a 53 percent spike in injuries, up to 324 instances, and a 52 percent rise in accidents, up to 314.
Find out more ahead

The Story Behind Those Infamous ‘Sick Passenger’ Subway Announcements

Image via MTA/Flickr

November 23, 2015

The Story Behind Those Infamous ‘Sick Passenger’ Subway Announcements

Admit it–despite your general concern for the well-being of your fellow New Yorkers, you can't help roll your eyes when that dreaded "sick passenger" announcement comes over the subway intercom. "Why get on the train if you're not feeling well?" or "Can't they just move the person to the platform?" are common moans heard during these all-too-common delays. But, it turns out, it's a lot more complicated than that. The New York Times took a look at the rise in sick passengers, up to 3,000 a month this year as compared with 1,800 each month in 2012. Every time this happens, the train crew has to notify the rail control center, who then will call an ambulance. It depends on the specific station and time of day how long it will take emergency medical workers to locate the sick patient. Then, if it's deemed the passenger cannot safely walk, he or she must remain on the train to be assessed. Further, if the passenger has no one to wait with them and there's no police officer available, it falls on the train conductor to stay with the patient until help arrives. This can lead to the train being pulled out of service altogether. And of course, the delays start a ripple effect throughout the line.
More this way

November 20, 2015

Spotlight: Pernell Brice Shares How FeedingNYC Delivers 3,000 Thanksgiving Dinners

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, New Yorkers are busy perfecting their menus and preparing to do some serious supermarket shopping. But for many in the city, celebrating Thanksgiving is not a given—and this is particularly true for families living in shelters. But that's where the Dream Big Foundation's annual Thanksgiving project, FeedingNYC, steps in. Since 2001, FeedingNYC has been on a mission to help families in shelters celebrate the holiday by providing them with all of the Thanksgiving essentials. What started out as 75 meals in shelters has turned into 3,000 dinners delivered each year, for a total of 35,000 meals over the program's 14 years. And to make this happen, it takes a lot of fundraising, numerous partnerships and a wonderful group of volunteers. Pernell Brice, executive director of Dream Big Foundation, is responsible for growing and expanding this important project, and every year he makes sure it goes off without a hitch. 6sqft recently spoke with Pernell to learn more about FeedingNYC and what it takes to get all those meals out to those who need them.
6sqft's interview with Pernell this way

November 19, 2015

Think You Can Design a Better NYC Subway System? Try It With Mini Metro

The New York subway system is a complex but pretty efficient network that (for the most part) gets us to where we need to get when we need to get there. But that's not to say there aren't some neighborhoods that wouldn't benefit from a few more stations—and better connections from one line to another. Well, if you're a savvy straphanger that thinks that you can engineer a far more efficient system than the MTA, the game Mini Metro is the perfect place to flex your dormant urban planning skills.
Where to try out the game here

November 19, 2015

Mapping All 1.1 Billion NYC Taxi Trips Since 2009

That's 183,333,333 trips a year; 15,277,777 a month; and roughly 510,000 a day. And it likely took software developer Todd W. Schneider a long time to put all of that data into this stunning map of taxi pickups and drop offs over the past six years. Green boro taxis are represented in their signature color and traditional yellow cabs in white, with brighter areas representing more taxi activity. As Gothamist first noted, "Yellow cab pickups are concentrated south of Central Park in Manhattan, while drop offs spread north and east into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx; drop off and pickup activity snakes like a glowworm from Manhattan to the airports: along the Van Wyck Expressway to JFK, and by 278 and 495 to La Guardia." Using the TLC's public data, Schneider also created charts and maps that show taxi travel compared with uber rides; weekend destinations of bridge-and-tunnelers; a late-night taxi index; how weather affects taxi trips; weekday drop-offs at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup; airport traffic; cash versus credit card payments; and the dramatic increase in North Williamsburg taxi activity.
Get a look at the data here

Craig Ward Creates Prints of Bacteria Found in NYC Subways

E. Coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and mold (the big fuzzy blobs) on the D train

November 17, 2015

Craig Ward Creates Prints of Bacteria Found in NYC Subways