Tag: Featured

What Is the City But the People?

The Downtown Alliance has released its yearly analysis, “Lower Manhattan Real Estate Year in Review 2017,” which functions as a de facto report card on the Downtown economy as a whole, as well as significant demographic trends. Among the welter of statistics contained in the paper is one startling metric: the square mile below Chambers...
If the local masses seem of late to be a bit more huddled than usual, it's not your imagination: A new report from the Downtown Alliance indicates that one out of 18 jobs everywhere in New York City (and one out of 33 for the State as a whole) are located in the square mile below Chambers Street.

The 10th Anniversary Season of the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra Begins

On Saturday night, February 10, the Winter Garden was filled long before the musicians took the stage. The audience came to see Elizabeth Pitcairnplay her Red Violin, a Stradivarius from 1720; they came to applaud Preet Bharara, the former District Attorney for the Southern District of New York as he spoke the stirring words of Abraham Lincoln...
Elizabeth Pitcairn

In Search of a Lost Time

The Historic Districts Council (HDC) — a non-profit that advocates for the preservation of significant historic neighborhoods, buildings and public spaces throughout New York City — has shortlisted the Lower West Side of Manhattan as an area worthy of protection. “Prior to the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and the World Trade Center, the...
This map from 1899 highlights the area of the Lower West Side known as "Little Syria", which the Historic Districts Council now wants to protect.

Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer’s Lens

An exhibition of contemporary photography is now on display at China Institute Gallery. Now through December 2, Art of the Mountain: Through the Chinese Photographer’s Lens features the work of more that 20  photographers. Large images with exquisite detail, tonality and a respect for the great mountain ranges in China grace the new exhibit rooms of the...
Zhang Jiaxuan, Huangshan: Flower Blooming on a Magic Brush Tip

‘So Help Me God’

A crowd of several hundred friends, family members, political allies and supporters assembled at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights on Sunday, for the ceremonial swearing-in of Brian Kavanagh as the New York State Senator representing the 26th District which includes parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. (Because the Albany legislative session began several weeks...
KavanaghOathofOffice.jpg

If Buildings Go Higher, Will Rents Get Lower?

The Regional Plan Association (RPA) — an independent, not-for-profit civic group that develops ideas to improve the economy, environment, and quality of life in the New York metropolitan area — is calling upon the City to repeal its Floor Area Ratio (FAR) cap. This limit, which currently restricts residential buildings to a total square footage...
A map from the RPA report, with shaded areas indicating the communities where the group argues that real estate developers should be permitted to build taller, bulkier towers.