Cityscape

Curbed
best of new york

Best of New York 2021

 Reintroducing a 36-year-old New York magazine franchise. By The Editors
  1. In Conversation With Dianne Morales, the Tenants’ Candidate “I’m not promising to take New York City back to normal. I’m promising something new.”
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  2. MoMA’s ‘Reconstructions’ Show Changed My Relationship to Space and Cities Should Black designers revise a history that erased them? Or should they revolt?
    By Kimberly Drew
  3. Lincoln Center Wants You to Lie Down on Its Plaza How comfortable will that plastic grass really be?
    By Christopher Bonanos
  4. Does the Metaverse Need a Zoning Board? As new crypto investments flood online worlds, conflicts between virtual neighbors are on the rise.
    By Sophie Haigney
  5. What It Takes to Open a Bar in a Subway Station Multiple agency approvals, and unlocking a door that’s been sealed since the 1970s.
    By Willy Blackmore
  6. The Look Book Goes to the Rockaway YMCA Checking in with masked members at the gym.
    By Jane Starr Drinkard and Brock Colyar
  7. Mr. Cyclone Is Back in the Front Car At 5:30 this morning, the roller coaster’s first rider of the season arrived for his 15th opening day.
    By Caroline Spivack
  8. A Brooklyn Building Is Screeching. We Asked an Acoustician Why. Wind is creating an effect like “when you blow over the top of an empty soda bottle.”
    By Caroline Spivack
  9. Barbara Kavovit’s Plan for Rikers Sounds Uncomfortably Like an Internment Camp A colony for the homeless, isolated on an island in the East River.
    By Caroline Spivack
  10. Volunteers Are Funding Open Streets Programs. Why Isn’t the City? Locals and donors are doing the day-to-day work of making it happen.
    By Caroline Spivack
  11. The Bronx Bodega Founded by a Former Music Executive “You have to support the people who support you.”
    By Caroline Spivack
  12. A Pop-up Bookstore Honors a Man Who Intended to Give It All Away Tom Burgess’s immense library of books gets recirculated.
    By Camille Baker
  13. Geffen Hall’s Renovation Will Be Finished Two Years Early The pandemic closure allowed Lincoln Center to fast-track the rebuilding of the Philharmonic’s main auditorium.
    By Justin Davidson
  14. Immigrant Cleaners Are Tired of Working On Their Hands and Knees A new campaign by women day laborers is pushing for better working conditions, cleaning supplies, and PPE.
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  15. MoMA’s First Show on Race in Architecture Chooses Lofty Ideas Over Pragmatism “Why settle for the probable when we could instead imagine what is possible?”
    By Justin Davidson
  16. Whitney Hu’s Favorite Spots in Sunset Park Yemeni breakfast, unlimited hot pot, and the perfect parking lot for events.
    By Amy Zhang
  17. The Chinatown Block Watch, One Year Later Including local grandmothers and men in combat gear, this 40-member patrol watches for anti-Asian attacks in the neighborhood.
    By Eveline Chao
  18. The Best Housepainters in New York An architect favorite who has been likened to Jackson Pollock, a downtown go-to with a knack for color combinations, and more.
    By Trupti Rami
  19. The Best Upholsterers in New York For restoring mid-century chairs, pattern-matching a couch, and more.
    By Trupti Rami
  20. The Best Therapists in New York We asked 31 notable New Yorkers about their therapists and are publishing their referrals in their own words.
    By Louis Cheslaw and Liza Corsillo
  21. The Best Playgrounds in New York Giant geodesic climbing nets, ravines full of sprinklers, and a variety of slides.
    By Caroline Spivack
  22. The Best Custom Woodworkers in New York Whether you want a Judd-like plywood bench, a full wall of bookshelves made of rift-cut oak, or just some simple, inexpensive cabinets.
    By Diana Budds
  23. Smorgasburg Will Take Over the Former Hester Street Fair Space And it will now be called Hester Flea.
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  24. The Best Toy Stores in New York A Harlem fixture owned by a former schoolteacher, the packed-to-the-gills shop in Cobble Hill, and more.
    By Lauren Ro
  25. The Best Homeware Stores in New York Affordable vintage furniture, Japanese gifts, Brimfield-quality quilts, and more.
    By Hilary Reid and Louis Cheslaw
  26. Is a Covid Vaccine Worth Schlepping to Staten Island For? (No offense to anyone who lives there.)
    By Willy Blackmore
  27. The Best Exterminators in New York Including Chloë Sevigny’s pest guy.
    By Charlotte Klein
  28. The Best Colorists in New York Where to go for Scarlett Johansson’s seasonal highlights, bubblegum-pink buzz cuts, “hot girl” hair, and more.
    By Rio Viera-Newton
  29. The Best Caterers in New York Individual peking-duck buns from Nom Wah Tea Parlor, racks of ribs from Hometown Bar-B-Que, bissap mojitos from Teranga, and more.
    By Kaitlin Menza
  30. ‘Six Generations, and We Ended Up in the Same Place 150 Years Later’ A mother and daughter on their family’s history in Chinatown and returning to Columbus Park to protest anti-Asian racism.
    By Eveline Chao
  31. Did the Texas Blackouts Reveal Austin’s New Real-Estate Hot Spots? Communities that helped each other through a crisis may now be threatened by a new real-estate marketing perk: critical-load zones.
    By Michael Agresta
  32. The Best Psychics in New York A palm reading by a psychotherapist, chakra balancing with body treatments, access to your ancestors, and more.
    By Kaitlin Menza
  33. The Best Fitness Instructors in New York For $10 pilates, a mind-body workout, “1,000-calorie burn” sessions, and more.
    By Karen Iorio Adelson
  34. The Best Florists in New York Where to find bodega roses that will last two weeks, Anna Wintour-approved arrangements, inexpensive marigolds, and more.
    By Maura Kutner Walters
  35. Last Night in Echo Park On the scene as the LAPD evicted an enormous community of unhoused residents from the shore of Echo Park Lake.
    By Alissa Walker
  36. Meet the Teen Who Hates 432 Park More Than Anyone She’s an 11th-grader in Vancouver.
    By Brock Colyar
  37. Intrepid Museum, Unlike You, Will Not See a Rent Increase for the Next 30 Years The museum has been paying $1 a year since 1982.
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  38. Mutual Aid Groups Are Now Booking Vaccine Appointments Too Expanding from grocery drop-offs to hitting refresh on TurboVax and getting people to shot clinics.
    By Caroline Spivack
  39. ‘You Will End Up in the Back of a Garbage Truck’: Vero Lawsuit Claims Harassment According to court filings, the tactics escalated from aggressive to scary.
    By Victoria Bekiempis
  40. A New York Window Washer Who, After 28 Years, Still Thinks About Falling “We are always listening for strange sounds on the scaffold.”
    By Craig Taylor
  41. Evanston’s Reparations Program Is Pioneering, But Limited Significant restrictions on eligibility and a modest pool of cash.
    By Jeff Andrews
  42. Radio City Music Hall Will Finally Get Its Roof Garden After 90 Years It goes back to the original plans for Rockefeller Center, in which nearly all the rooftops were landscaped.
    By Christopher Bonanos
  43. Here’s Everyone Running for New York City Mayor (So Far) Forty-plus and counting.
    By Caroline Spivack
  44. The Healer That Real-Estate Agents Call to Clear Their Cursed Apartments “It looks like I’m just walking around mumbling to myself. I don’t put on a big show, like they do on TV.”
    By Craig Taylor
  45. Hudson Yards Has Landscaped Out the Food Vendors “I’m not selling drugs. I’m a hot-dog guy.”
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  46. The Things a New York Elevator Repairman Has Seen (and Smelled) Heaps of dead mice, sludge everywhere, and sometimes “a blast of piss gas right up in your face.”
    By Craig Taylor
  47. HECTOR Imagines a Monumental Party Ramp for a Disability Activist Part 15 of 15 proposals to help us remember the pandemic’s toll.
    By Diana Budds
  48. Michael Sorkin Taught Me How to Look at New York Remembering the critic and architect — who died a year ago this week — and revisiting his book Exquisite Corpse.
    By Hugo Lindgren
  49. Leni Schwendinger Makes a Lightscape of the Evening Streetery Scene Part 14 or 15 proposals to help us remember the pandemic’s toll.
    By Audrey Wachs
  50. Yeju & Chat Assembles Street-Vendor Umbrellas Into Community Message Boards Part 13 of 15 proposals to help us remember the pandemic’s toll.
    By Eva Hagberg
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