Policy

Inspired by Dumpster Living, Kasita Is the Micro-Apartment You Can Take Anywhere
October 7, 2015

Inspired by Dumpster Living, Kasita Is the Micro-Apartment You Can Take Anywhere

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Jeff Wilson's new design, Kasita, is a radical approach to apartment living. Now like never before you can literally move your entire apartment from one city to the next with the push of a button. The design of the tech-packed home was inspired by Wilson's radical experiment in apartment living when he spent the better part of a year living in a converted dumpster. The alternative lifestyle was supposed to provide commentary on the excessiveness of the typical single-family house, but it did far more than that.
More about Kasita Here
City Will Use Eminent Domain to Seize Coney Island Land for New Amusements

Image © Daniel Fleming

September 28, 2015

City Will Use Eminent Domain to Seize Coney Island Land for New Amusements

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Eminent domain, defined as "the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use," is typically enacted to build projects such as bridges, highways, or schools. But the De Blasio administration plans to use it to erect an amusement park. According to the Post, the city is "frustrated by stubborn Coney Island landowners" and "plans to seize property under the city’s rarely used power of eminent domain in order to spur long-stalled economic development in the People’s Playground." The land in question is three vacant beachfront sites and two smaller adjacent sites on West 12th and West 23rd Streets that total 75,000 square feet, largely comprised of the 60,000-square-foot site where the original Thunderbolt once stood (immortalized in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall"). Under the plan, the Parks Department will oversee new amusements and amenities, details of which haven't been shared.
READ MORE
Building More Housing for the Homeless Would Save Us Money in the Long Run

Image via Wiki Commons

September 21, 2015

Building More Housing for the Homeless Would Save Us Money in the Long Run

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Today, proponents of building more supportive housing will meet with the de Blasio administration to convince them that New York is in dire need of 35,000 new housing units statewide—and both the state and city should fund it. Currently, there are over 80,000 individuals without homes, including a number here in the city who are employed but still have salaries too small to afford NYC's skyrocketing rents. While there has been plenty of talk about how the issue needs remedying, action has yet to be taken. In an op-ed written this morning for Crain's, Enterprise Community Partners' Judi Kende sounds off on why, though we may think that building all these homes is way too expensive, ignoring the problem will cost us more financially in the long run.
More on what she said here
Egloo’s Terracotta Dome Will Heat a 215-Square-Foot Room for Just 10 Cents a Day
September 18, 2015

Egloo’s Terracotta Dome Will Heat a 215-Square-Foot Room for Just 10 Cents a Day

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Egloo was created to offer people a more efficient alternative to the traditional methods of heating one's home. The candle-powered terracotta dome takes advantage of the material's natural ability to store heat, then gradually releases it by radiation even after the candle is no longer burning. The structure consist of four elements: the base, grill and two domes.
More here
New Report Says Landmarked Districts Don’t Protect Affordable Housing

Historic brownstones in Brooklyn Heights via City Realty

September 15, 2015

New Report Says Landmarked Districts Don’t Protect Affordable Housing

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The war wages on between the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and citywide preservationists. Many thought the contention between the groups over whether or not historic districts lessen affordable housing was a personal sentiment of former REBNY president Steven Spinola. But his successor John Banks has released a new report that claims landmarking doesn't protect affordable housing. The report looks at the number of rent-stabilized units in landmarked and non-landmarked districts between 2007 and 2014, finding that "citywide, landmarked properties lost rent stabilized units (-22.5%) at a much higher rate (-5.1%) than non-landmarked properties." Of course preservationists quickly fired back. Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) calls the study "bogus" and says it does nothing to address how many units would have been lost had these areas not been landmarked.
More on the report
Times Square Characters and Performers May Get Confined to Designated ‘Activity Areas’

Map courtesy of the Times Square Alliance

September 11, 2015

Times Square Characters and Performers May Get Confined to Designated ‘Activity Areas’

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It looks like Mayor de Blasio's wish of coralling the costumed characters and topless performers in Times Square may be coming true. The Daily News reports that the Times Square Alliance has endorsed the "Times Square Commons" plan, which Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmen Daniel Garodnick and Corey Johnson publicized in an op-ed in the paper yesterday. The proposal would rezone Times Square's pedestrian plaza so that instead of being mapped as a street it would become a special district called Times Square Commons. This area would be divided into three zones: general civic zones, which would feature tables and chairs and arts events; pedestrian traffic flow zones, areas to walk with no physical obstructions; and the aforementioned designated activity zones, small slivers of space that "would allow any activity involving the immediate exchange of money for goods, services or entertainment."
More this way
Get a Personalized Pattern by Punching Your Address Into This App
September 2, 2015

Get a Personalized Pattern by Punching Your Address Into This App

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Nope, this isn't some kind of spam mail scheme. Called A Place to Departure, this incredible app harnesses the power of Google Maps and pairs it with a clever algorithm to generate a pattern, unique to you, based on your location. With results ranging from leafy designs to Rubik's cube-like motifs, you're likely to find yourself inputting your entire address book before you know it.
Find out more here
Building Permits Decline by 90 Percent Following Changes to the 421-a Program
September 1, 2015

Building Permits Decline by 90 Percent Following Changes to the 421-a Program

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Early last month, we reported that building permits were soaring to levels not seen since the 1960s. Now Crain's tells us that the trend has taken a sharp decline with permits plunging a whopping 90 percent from June. The numbers, which were pulled from the latest stats released by the U.S. Census Bureau, point to changes in the very generous tax breaks provided by the 421-a tax abatement program as the culprit.
READ MORE
SUNplace: A Solar-Powered Mobile BBQ Concept for Cooking Al Fresco
August 27, 2015

SUNplace: A Solar-Powered Mobile BBQ Concept for Cooking Al Fresco

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Want to throw a Labor Day barbecue, but don't have any outdoor space? This mobile grill can be transported to the beach or park for the perfect al-fresco dinner party. SUNplace is a contemporary BBQ powered by the most basic, clean, and accessible source of free energy we have -- the sun. Conceptualized by the creative duo Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Waithe, together making up the design firm Lanzavecchia-Wai, the table highlights both technical cooking and the social aspect that comes with it.
Learn more about this sun-powered grill
This $9 Device Can Save Drivers from the Much-Loathed Parking Ticket
August 25, 2015

This $9 Device Can Save Drivers from the Much-Loathed Parking Ticket

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After driving around for what seems like an eternity, you finally find a parking spot. You read all the signs, double check that there's no yellow curbs or fire hydrants nearby, feed the meter, and go on your merry way. A few hours later, you walk back up to your car and see that tiny orange rectangle (the infamous NYC parking ticket) taunting you from the windshield. If this sounds familiar, here's your chance to stop shelling out $65 for being one minute over your last quarter. AwareCar, a smartphone app and Bluetooth device, keeps drivers in check by reminding them where they parked, when the meter is expiring, and at what time they need to leave to head back to their vehicle (h/t CityLab). And all this will only set you back $9.
Find out how this genius technology works
Estate of Huguette Clark, Famous Reclusive Heiress, Loses $95M Suit Against Beth Israel

In her middle years, Clark liked to take “self portraits” of herself at home; here, in her Fifth Avenue apartment. Photo: Estate of Huguette Clark from EmptyMansionsBook.com

August 25, 2015

Estate of Huguette Clark, Famous Reclusive Heiress, Loses $95M Suit Against Beth Israel

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Copper heiress Huguette Clark did not live the life of luxury like so many other wealthy New Yorkers in her shoes. The famously reclusive figure died in 2011 at the age of 104, but instead of spending her last 20 years in her palatial, Gilded-Age co-op at 907 Fifth Avenue (which was filled to the brim with her doll, dollhouse, and art collections), she decided to live in a tiny hospital room at Beth Israel. Clark admitted herself to the hospital in 1991 for operable skin cancer, but then refused to leave. According to Gothamist, her estate, "made up of nineteen of Huguette's distant relatives, a private foundation in Huguette's name, and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.," didn't buy the hospital's story and sued Beth Israel in 2013 for $95 million. The suit claimed the hospital spent millions of dollars on unnecessary medical care and by forming "fake friendships" with the heiress who was known for writing out checks on a whim to people she just met. However, last week, Manhattan Surrogate Court Justice Nora Anderson ruled that the statute of limitations had run out on the case.
More on the ruling and Huguette Clark's legacy
Mayor de Blasio Proposes Ripping Out Times Square’s Pedestrian Plazas
August 21, 2015

Mayor de Blasio Proposes Ripping Out Times Square’s Pedestrian Plazas

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There are a lot of nuisances to be found in Times Square, but apparently for Mayor de Blasio, none are as bothersome as the topless women and aggressive Elmos traipsing around the area's overly lit streets. As the NYDN reports, de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have formed a special task force aimed at ridding the bustling tourist destination of its "jiggly panhandlers." And the solution at the top of their list is tearing up the pedestrian plazas and letting cars back in.
Find out more on the issue here, as well as alternative plans
Park Slope Pavilion Condo Plans Met With Resistance From Neighbors, Landmarks Commission

Rendering of Hidrock Realty’s proposed design for a five-story residential building next to the historic Pavilion Theater.

August 19, 2015

Park Slope Pavilion Condo Plans Met With Resistance From Neighbors, Landmarks Commission

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Hidrock Realty, developer of a five-story condo building next to the historic Pavilion Theater on Prospect Park West, was told by the Landmarks Preservation Commision to make changes to the proposed design after neighbors expressed concerns, DNAinfo reports. Park Slope neighbors in attendance at an LPC hearing Tuesday voiced disapproval for the Morris Adjmi-designed five-story beige brick residential building, fearing that it would "open the door to out-of-character development up and down Prospect Park West."
Find out what the neighbors are afraid of
This Chair Helps Break Smartphone Addiction by Blocking All Cellular and Wireless Service
August 13, 2015

This Chair Helps Break Smartphone Addiction by Blocking All Cellular and Wireless Service

By
As much as most of us hate to admit it, we're completely addicted to our smartphones. We eat dinner with a fork in one hand, iPhone in the other. We walk down busy streets like zombies. We even found a way to project a touch screen onto our bare arms. But there's still hope for curing these nasty habits, and a good first step might come in the form of a chair. First spotted by designboom, the Offline Chair by Polish product and furniture designer Agata Nowak looks fairly simple at first glance, but it's actually a brilliant piece of technology. An exterior "offline pocket" blocks all Wi-Fi and mobile signals to the device inside, leaving the phone owner free to sit sans scrolling and typing.
Find out more about the Offline Chair
Morpholio’s New Journal App Is the Digital Sketchbook You Never Knew You Needed
August 4, 2015

Morpholio’s New Journal App Is the Digital Sketchbook You Never Knew You Needed

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Whether you carry around notebooks for sketching, journaling, or keeping a running grocery list, one thing is for certain; we'd be lost without these little pads of paper. They quickly become a part of our lives, holding ideas and thoughts, even if is just a reminder to buy toilet paper. Today The Morpholio Project, the innovative creators behind Mood Board and Crit, launches a brand new app to their suite: Journal. This free app for iPhones and iPads redefines the sketchbook as a catch-all for your photos, drawings, ideas, and thoughts. Think of it as your trusty notebook, but just way more intuitive. Now creatives of all mediums can write, draw, sketch, collage, paint, or color on anything, anywhere.
Sketch your way over here
Want to Enter an Affordable Housing Lottery? You’ll Be up Against 696 Other Applicants

Photo via Wiki Commons

August 4, 2015

Want to Enter an Affordable Housing Lottery? You’ll Be up Against 696 Other Applicants

By
Photo via Wiki Commons According to a new report from the Daily News, for every affordable apartment offered through the city's housing lotteries since 2013, there were 696 applicants, leaving you with a measly 0.14 percent chance of being selected. "All told, there were 2.9 million applications for 4,174 affordable units available from 72 lotteries run by the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)," says the News, yet another signifier that average New Yorkers are struggling to pay ever-increasing rents.
Find out more here
July 29, 2015

POLL: Should the MTA Get Money from the State Before LaGuardia Airport?

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Yesterday, we learned of Governor Cuomo’s plans for a major, $4 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport. The project includes consolidating the four terminals, moving the entire facility south, introducing a 24-hour ferry service, and launching AirTrain service that’ll connect travelers to the 7 line in Willet’s Point. Today, however, the revelry took a turn when it […]

Airbnb Is Gobbling Up 20 Percent of Apartments in Popular Manhattan and Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Photo courtesy of Airbnb via Facebook

July 29, 2015

Airbnb Is Gobbling Up 20 Percent of Apartments in Popular Manhattan and Brooklyn Neighborhoods

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As if it wasn't challenging enough to find a reasonable apartment in New York City, Airbnb is now taking up 20 percent of available units in popular Manhattan and Brooklyn zip codes, reports the Daily News. According to a study from New York Communities for Change and Real Affordability For All, the East Village is the most affected, with 28 percent of its apartments being rented as illegal hotel rooms on Airbnb. Additionally, the 20 most popular neighborhoods on the room sharing site "have lost 10% of their available housing units to Airbnb."
Find out more here
Should NYC Implement San Francisco’s ‘Pee-Proof’ Paint to Deter Public Urination?

Image via YouTube/St. Pauli Peeback

July 27, 2015

Should NYC Implement San Francisco’s ‘Pee-Proof’ Paint to Deter Public Urination?

By
Normally, urinating in public comes with a hefty fine, but in San Francisco, offenders might be spending their money instead on a new pair of clothes and shoes. The problem has apparently gotten so out of hand in the city that the Public Works Department is implementing "pee-proof" paint on walls that are hot spots for people to relieve themselves. The special superhydrophobic coating called Ultra-Ever Dry is liquid repellent, and therefore splashes the urine right back on the person.
More details and a video on the technology
IKEA Is Selling a Placemat with a Pocket for Your Phone
July 27, 2015

IKEA Is Selling a Placemat with a Pocket for Your Phone

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We're having a hard time deciding whether this design is brilliant or just plain depressing. These new placemats come courtesy of IKEA and are part of their upcoming SITTNING collection, a limited edition series made up of 40 pieces focused in on "the joys of sharing a meal with those you love." The new mats—which will reportedly be called "Logged Out"—will feature a convenient little pouch for you to tuck your smartphone away so you can finally enjoy a meal with your friends without checking Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, email...
More on IKEA's new design here
6sqft Behind the Scenes: Take a Tour of MakerBot’s New 3D Printer Factory in Brooklyn
July 23, 2015

6sqft Behind the Scenes: Take a Tour of MakerBot’s New 3D Printer Factory in Brooklyn

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MakerBot has officially opened its brand new factory in Industry City in Brooklyn's Sunset Park. The 170,000-square-foot space spans three floors, with the main production lines on the third floor of the building. The new location is four times larger than the company's previous Industry City location and will allow the company to double its production of 3D printers. This is far cry from the garage it started out in nearly two and a half years ago. MakerBot kicked off the opening of its new locale yesterday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that featured MakerBot CEO Jonathan Jaglom and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. We were on the scene to capture this latest milestone for the 3D printer company.
Have a closer look here
City Will Have to Pay Another $368M for Hudson Yards
July 23, 2015

City Will Have to Pay Another $368M for Hudson Yards

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In November, 2014, we reported that the 26-acre Hudson Yards mega-development had cost the city nearly $650 million in subsidies, coming straight out of the pockets of taxpayers. We also noted that it wasn't going to stop there; a review by the city’s Independent Budget Office said even more would be needed through 2019 to complete the “next great commercial district.” And now the new figures are in. According to DNAinfo, the city will shell out an additional $368 million through 2019, bringing their total payout for Hudson Yards to more than $947 million.
Find out more here
Buyers of Luxury Condos Can No Longer Hide Behind Shell Companies
July 21, 2015

Buyers of Luxury Condos Can No Longer Hide Behind Shell Companies

By
Earlier this year the Times made waves in the real estate industry with a lengthy exposé zooming in on the growing trend of foreigners—many the subject of government inquiries ranging from environmental violations to financial fraud—using LLCs as a way to scoop up luxury properties and stash their cash while avoiding taxes. Now the paper reports that the De Blasio administration has imposed new disclosure requirements on those who intend to use shell companies as a vehicle to buy and sell property in the city. Under the new rules, these shell companies must now provide to the city both the names and tax IDs of all members involved in a transaction.
Find out more here
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