Search Results for: gentrification

July 15, 2015

One57 Received $66M in Tax Breaks in Exchange for Just 66 Units of Affordable Housing

If you need more proof that there are some serious flaws with the 421-a program, once again, look no further than One57. As reported by the Journal, the super-luxe tower was the beneficiary of a whopping $65.6 million tax cut, an abatement granted in exchange for a paltry $5.9 million contribution to help cover the cost of 66 affordable apartments in the Bronx. That means your tax dollars subsidized apartments at nearly $1 million per unit—the highest known subsidy under the program—when affordable units on average cost a mere $179,000 apiece. It's estimated that the generous cut could have provided for 367 affordable apartments. The findings came from the latest review by the city’s Independent Budget Office (IBO).
FInd out more here
July 14, 2015

INTERVIEW: Historian Francis Morrone on the Changing City, Modern Architecture and Why He Loves the ’50s

For the man who knows seemingly everything about New York City history, look no further than Francis Morrone. Francis is an architectural historian best known for his writings and walking tours of New York. Of his 11 books, he wrote the actual guidebook to New York City architecture—aptly titled "The Architectural Guidebook to New York City"—as well as the "Guide to New York City Urban Landscapes," "An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn," and "10 Architectural Walks In Manhattan." For six and a half years, Francis served as an art and architecture critic for the New York Sun, and he now teaches architectural and urban history at the New York University School of Professional Studies. As for walking tours, Francis was named by Travel + Leisure magazine as one of the 13 best tour guides in the world. You can catch his various tours, which sell out quickly and cover everything from "Midtown Manhattan's Side Streets" to the "Architecture and Changing Lifestyles in Greenwich Village," through the Municipal Art Society. We caught up with Francis recently after he published a much buzzed-about article for the Daily News entitled, "No, New York City Is Not Losing Its Soul," to talk about his life and work in the city, his opinions on modern architecture and development, and his favorite time period of New York City history.
Our conversation with Francis this way
July 13, 2015

ATTENTION: Walk Faster or You’ll Be Banned from NYC for Five Years

If you're a resident of New York, you know that this is no city for strolling. We all have places to be and we can't be bothered trying to sidestep slow walkers—and we certainly don't have time for niceties like "excuse me." As such, the NYC Department of Pedestrian Etiquette has a new set of rules to keep slow pokes, sidewalk blockers and the entirely un-self-aware off the streets: "Effective April 1, 2016, all new residents and visitors to New York City [o]ver the age of 16 will be required to take a mandatory training session on Proper Etiquette for navigating the sidewalks and streets of the greater metropolitan area."
Click here to read the whole memo
July 11, 2015

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks from the 6sqft Staff

Katie Holmes and Suri Renting a $25,000 Penthouse in Chelsea Construction Update: NYC’s First Micro Apartment Complex Is Now Fully Stacked Jet-Setting Fashionista’s Sprawling Tribeca Loft Shines with Bold Decor VIDEO: Port Authority Was Considered a ‘Milestone of the Century’ When It Opened Construction Update: Robert A.M. Stern’s 220 Central Park South Begins Race into […]

July 8, 2015

Lawsuit Against City Wants to End Affordable Housing Allotments to Certain Communities

Currently, the city allots half of its new affordable housing stock to residents of the specific community district where the project is being built and who meet the income requirements. But the Anti-Discrimination Center says this "community preference" policy violates the 1968 Fair Housing Act, "which prohibits discrimination in housing sales, rentals and financing based on race or national origin," according to an article today in the Wall Street Journal. The New York-based group filed a suit against the city on these grounds, claiming that it adds to existing segregation patterns. If they are successful, the verdict would undoubtedly impact Mayor de Blasio's plan of adding 80,000 new affordable housing units in the next ten years.
More details ahead
June 12, 2015

Opponents of the Pier 55 Floating Park Slap Barry Diller with a Lawsuit

As with any major project ready to make waves in NYC, we were just counting the days until Barry Diller's plan for a futuristic floating park would run into legal trouble. Today, the Times reports that opponents of the $130 million project have joined together to sue Diller and The Hudson River Park Trust (who approved the plans to build) in order to stop construction. The civic group, known as City Club of New York, are saying that the parties have failed to throughly evaluate the environmental impact of the park, and they want Pier 55 to undergo a new environmental review while also obtaining approval from the State Legislature.
More on the lawsuit here
June 11, 2015

Photographer Bob Estremera Shows Us That Greenwich Village Is Still Full of Character

When we talk about the allure of Greenwich Village, we're often referring to it in past tense, reminiscing about the good old days of folk music, ridiculously cheap apartments for artists, and the free-spirited bohemians that transformed the enclave into a cultural hub. And when we do talk about the Village in present tense, it's often because we're examining gentrification, whining about those pesky NYU students, or looking at the ever-rising rents. But if we stop feeling bitter about the fact that we can't get a $600/month studio there anymore, the Village still has plenty of charming and quirky storefronts, buildings, and characters. Photographer Bob Estremera captured this essence of the neighborhood in an impromptu rainy-day photo shoot that reminds us to take the time to look around and appreciate the small things.
See all the amazing black-and-white photos here
June 10, 2015

Go Inside NYC’s Oldest Home; When Your Couch Won’t Fit Through the Doorway

Tour the Lent-Riker-Smith homestead, the oldest “inhabited private dwelling” in the city, and possibly the country. [Curbed] Watch an intricate pen-and-ink illustration of New York City get completed in just three minutes. [BK Mag] These “depressingly hilarious” cartoons show why life in your 20s and 30s isn’t that different. [WP] How two Vice Media employees live as roommates […]

June 9, 2015

Are Yuccies the New Hipsters?

Yuccies = Young Urban Creatives. And according to Mashable, they're the new iteration of hipsters. The author describes his self-created and self-describing class as "a slice of Generation Y, borne of suburban comfort, indoctrinated with the transcendent power of education, and infected by the conviction that not only do we deserve to pursue our dreams; we should profit from them." Just think of your friends moving to Brooklyn these days. They probably work for a startup rather than as a furniture maker and they likely do Flywheel instead of hot yoga. It's a new type of free spiritedness, the love child of yuppie and hipster that is rooted in personal fulfillment while still maintaining a successful lifestyle (and Instagraming it along the way).
More on the yuccie trend ahead
June 5, 2015

Ten Arquitectos Develop All-Purpose ‘Casitas’ for Community Gardens Around the City

Over the past year, "casitas" have been sprouting up in community gardens from Puerto Rico to the South Bronx. These "little houses" are the result of a collaboration between the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and the Urban Air Foundation (UAF) to develop an adaptable structure for community gardens. Taking on former mayor Mike Bloomberg's post-Sandy challenge to create resilient infrastructure throughout the city, the two organizations partnered with Ten Arquitectos to create the shed-like structures. The modular timber casitas are multi-functional and can be converted to food preparation stations, performance stages, storage spaces, or just a spot for shade.
More design details here
May 26, 2015

The Lost Dakota Stables; What Makes NY Bagels So Good?

Looking back at the lost Dakota Stables, built for the use of the Dakota tenants, as well as the UWS neighborhood. [Daytonian in Manhattan] Take a day trip upstate to Kykuit, the 40-room mansion and impressive sculpture garden that were once the Rockefeller family estate. [Curbed] Does NYC have the best bagels because of its soft water? Find […]

May 4, 2015

Will the Bronx Be the Next Branded Borough? This Hot Sauce Says Yes

Just about everything from artisanal mayonnaise to scented candles has branded itself as “Brooklyn,” so much so that we recently wrote an entire feature on the made-in-Brooklyn trend. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that another borough is now looking to get in on the action. The Bronx Hot Sauce is a locally made product that gives back and […]

April 25, 2015

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks from the 6sqft Staff

Interior Pictures Revealed for Demi Moore’s $75M San Remo Penthouse Subway Rent Map Shows Manhattan Rental Prices Along Each Train Line City’s First Micro-Apartment Project ‘MY Micro NY’ Ready for Stacking Charming ‘Back House’ Apartment Is a Tiny Treasure in the West Village New Renderings Revealed for 217 West 57th Street, the Will-Be Tallest Residential […]

April 24, 2015

Infographic: Here’s NYC’s Immigration Patterns over 387 Years

We often talk about specific neighborhoods' immigration history–Little Germany in the East Village, El Barrio in East Harlem, or the capital of Jewish America on the Lower East Side. But when we look at the city as a whole, there's been some pretty interesting immigration patterns over its nearly-400-year history. To visualize this timeline, the data gurus over at Metrocosm have put together an interactive infographic that shows the change in these immigration waves from 1626 to 2013 and how they relate to world events regarding these given countries.
READ MORE
April 23, 2015

Billionaire Wins Deposit Back After Ditched Penthouse Purchase; LGA’s $4B Revamp Could Be Delayed Again

A billionaire who canceled his purchase of a $27.5M penthouse at 1107 Fifth Avenue—which also happens to be NYC’s first-ever penthouse—will get his $2.75M deposit refunded to him. Carlos Rodriguez Pastor didn’t want to share his terrace with neighbors in the building. [NYDN] If the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey doesn’t pick a winning […]

April 16, 2015

See the Last Days of Streit’s Matzo Factory Through Somber Black-and-White Photos

Whether you celebrate Passover or not, you've undoubtedly seen the pink boxes of Streit's Matzo in the grocery store each spring. For 90 years, Streit's has been churning out this iconic product at the rate of almost 900 pounds of matzo an hour on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side. But at the beginning of the year, New Yorkers received the sad news that the last family-owned matzo factory in the U.S. was purchased by a developer and the company would be moving its operations to New Jersey (a move also echoed this week by Junior's Cheesecake). But before they head across the Hudson, photographer Joseph O. Holmes has captured the final days of this fifth-generation working-class landmark, which Fast Co. Design aptly describes as "New York's Jewish Willy Wonka Factory." His black-and-white photos are somber, telling of his personal feelings about the loss of Streit's and the gentrification of the Lower East Side.
See all the photos here
April 11, 2015

Weekly Highlights: Top Picks from the 6sqft Staff

Interior Renderings for SHoP’s 111 West 57th Street Tower Revealed Los Angeles Has Designed the Perfect Parking Sign–Can NYC Take Note? Bill Ackman Closes on One57 Penthouse for $91.5M, Second Most Expensive Condo Sale Ever VIDEO: Meet the ‘Pimps and Hos’ of Seedy ’70s Times Square You Can Now Tour the Gowanus Canal Without Catching […]

April 10, 2015

Preservation Award Winners Announced; NYC Libraries Open Less than Anywhere in the State

See Staten Island like you’ve never seen it before during tomorrow’s Tour de Staten Island bike ride. [Transportation Alternatives] Then and now: The Brooklyn Eagle Building. [Brownstoner] Winners announced for the 25th Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards. El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109, Kings Theatre, and the Times’ Streetscapes columnist Christopher Gray are among the recipients. […]

April 8, 2015

My 500sqft: Artist Hector Castaneda Invites Us into His Spanish Harlem One-Bedroom ‘Museum’

Located in an unassuming low-rise walk-up in Spanish Harlem is a tiny apartment with no views, a small living room, and thousands of pieces of one-of-a-kind art from around the world. Its owner, Hector Castaneda, is a world traveller who's visited more than 50 countries over the last 15 years. While most folks are happy simply snapping a few photos and heading home after a week or two, Hector is all about immersion and spends months at a time in some of the world's most exotic and extreme locales. As Hector travels the world he picks up art, tapestry, sculptures, furniture, and musical instruments from every country, which today magically fill every nook and cranny of his 500-square-foot apartment. "He is the only person I know who can turn a dingy walk-up building apartment into a work of art—it's really a private New York Museum and Hector is the curator," his friend Lisa Monroig told us. Once we heard that, we knew we had to pay him a visit.
Tour this miniature museum in the heart of Spanish Harlem here
April 6, 2015

Can a Thai Restaurant Convince New York Hipsters to Move to Detroit?

Can a Detroit Thai restaurant's New York City marketing campaign convince East Coast hipsters to move to the Motor City? That's what Philip Kafka of Prince Media Co., the boutique billboard company behind the campaign, is hoping. Business Insider reports that New York-based Kafka is a partner in a forthcoming Thai restaurant in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood called KATOI, and he's looking to hire between 15 and 20 people. Of course, the publicity for his new venture can't hurt, but he said it's really a separate campaign "to encourage people–particularly artists and young creatives–to move to the financially troubled city," where he owns property and feels a renaissance is occurring among millennials.
Check out the billboards here
April 2, 2015

Revealed: East Harlem Rental Building by Gerald J. Caliendo Architects Rising at 2183 Third Avenue

Here's our first look at 2183 Third Avenue, an under-construction mixed-use project in East Harlem being developed by Sharon Kahen and Haim Levi's East 119th Street Development LLC. The parcel at the northeast corner of East 119th Street and Third Avenue is giving rise to a 12-story, 64,000-square-foot building designed by the prolific Gerald J. Caliendo Architects. The building will contain 59 rental units, retail space, and a medical facility at ground level. In 2003, East Harlem underwent a 57-block rezoning spearheaded by the Bloomberg administration's City Planning chair Amanda Burden. The revision, the neighborhood's first in 40 years, increased density allowances along First, Second, and Third Avenues, while preserving the human-scaled midblocks in between. Over the past decade, more than a dozen residential mid-rises, roughly 8-12 stories, have blossomed along the area's wide, well-trafficked corridors. Recent developments spurred by the rezoning include Barry Rice's 119th & Third, Hunter College's Silberman School of Social Work, and Kahen and Levi's own CL Tower at Third Avenue and East 121st Street, two blocks north of their current project site.
More details on the new project here