Cityscape

Curbed
best of new york

Best of New York 2021

 Reintroducing a 36-year-old New York magazine franchise. By The Editors
  1. A Rare Brooklyn Townhouse Listing: Unrenovated, Unstaged, and Filled to the Brim “Literal crime scene” or just someone’s messy home? Either way, it will sell.
    By Kim Velsey
  2. The Green New Deal for Public Schools Goes Way Beyond Classrooms Including fruit trees, solar panels, lead-free pipes, and community-resiliency centers.
    By Diana Budds
  3. The Nightmarish Subway Floods in China Could Be Our Future Is this what commuting under climate change will look like?
    By Willy Blackmore
  4. The Seed Collector Who Roams the City’s Marshes Patrick Over works to conserve New York’s native plants.
    By Caroline Spivack
  5. Inside a 22-Person Pandemic Pod in a Hudson Valley Hotel “The inn was a boat. And then it became a life raft.”
    By Jessica Chappe
  6. A Super-Streetery Comes to Koreatown Maiden Korea riffs on Seoul’s street-food stalls.
    By Diana Budds
  7. The Look Book Goes to a Dimes Square Clothing Rack Trying on Armani pants and rare Tiffany & Co. caps at Chad Senzel’s vintage pop-up, which appears most Saturdays at Canal and Ludlow Streets.
    By Louis Cheslaw and Daniel Varghese
  8. ‘I Saw My Best Friend, All Covered in Black, and Her Face Was Red With Blood’ After the LAPD fireworks explosion, this South L.A. resident is demanding answers.
    By Alissa Walker
  9. The Brooklyn Skyline Is About to Change Forever with 9 DeKalb Everything we know about the borough’s first supertall.
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  10. Are We Ever Going to Get a Place to Sit Down in Moynihan Station? The corporation behind the Penn Station expansion says more seating is coming.
    By Diana Budds
  11. Bensonhurst Went Berserk Yesterday After Italy’s Football Win Pictures from the celebration on 18th Avenue.
    By Christopher Bonanos
  12. Even a Starchitect’s Homeless Housing Project Won’t Sway Venice Beach NIMBYs “What they are working towards is a de facto gated beach community.”
    By Alissa Walker
  13. Subway Flooding Is Here to Stay During intense rainfall in the city, water can end up just about anywhere.
    By Willy Blackmore
  14. Subway Geysers and Jet Skis: See the Flooded Mess of Yesterday’s Storm The deluge is the latest preview of what climate change has in store for New York.
    By Caroline Spivack
  15. Apartment Hunting With a Criminal Past Is Nearly Impossible Three New Yorkers talk about trying to find a place to live after prison.
    By Caroline Spivack
  16. The Look Book Goes to a Financial District Dig Inn Workers who have gone back into the office — and some who never left — stopped by to pick up their Friday lunch.
    By Daniel Varghese and Louis Cheslaw
  17. The Man Behind L.A.’s Megamansions Ramtin Ray Nosrati is a developer for our new Gilded Age.
    By Adrian Chen
  18. Developers Will Finally Have to Assess Who Gets Displaced by Rezonings New legislation will require racial-equity reports for many major developments.
    By Caroline Spivack
  19. Twilight of the Liveaboards A renovation that’s also an eviction looms at the 79th Street Boat Basin.
    By Kim Velsey
  20. The Subway Booth Cash Clash A new federal bill could force attendants to accept dollars and cents.
    By Caroline Spivack
  21. The Bronx Could Get a Salsa Museum in the Kingsbridge Armory The borough, where the genre was born, would be a perfect home.
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  22. La Central May Be the Best Affordable Housing Your Taxes Can Buy And that’s a problem.
    By Justin Davidson
  23. How India Walton Convinced Buffalo Voters They Wanted Police Reform The socialist mayoral candidate didn’t run a “defund” campaign, but that’s the direction she’ll take the department.
    By Danielle Tcholakian
  24. No, You Can’t Recycle a Bowling Ball (But People Sure Keep Trying) The hard truth is these things are going to live longer than we are.
    By Eleanor Cummins
  25. Hell by the Sea What it’s like on the pile that was once Champlain Towers South.
    By Atena Sherry
  26. The Rent Guidelines Board Kind of Approved a Rent Hike, and Everybody Hates It Rents will remain frozen for the first six months, and then go up by 1.5 percent in the second half of a one-year lease.
    By Caroline Spivack
  27. It’s Time for New York City to Bring Back SROs A solution to high rents, empty hotels, and the homelessness crisis.
    By Karrie Jacobs
  28. Meet the Frontline Defender of Section 8 Renters Angela Stovall is the city worker hundreds of New Yorkers turn to when they’re blocked from seeing apartments.
    By Caroline Spivack
  29. Richmond’s Confederate Monuments, One Year Later Protests brought down most of the statues on Monument Avenue — except Robert E. Lee’s.
    By Chris Cynn
  30. What Would It Take to Strip New York City of Slaveholders’ Names? They’re everywhere, from streets to schools, and there’s a lot of red tape involved in changing that.
    By Caroline Spivack
  31. The Look Book Goes to Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market Locals and out-of-towners alike shop for custom dresses, crystals, and mud cloth at the daily African crafts and textiles market.
    By Louis Cheslaw and Daniel Varghese
  32. City Council Candidate Jaslin Kaur Interviews Her Cabdriver Father The candidate and her father talk about the medallion crisis that inspired her run and her platform to improve conditions for all drivers.
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  33. What Is Going On in Washington Square Park? A 48-hour diary of a ten-acre park where everything in the city seems to be happening at once.
    By Daniel Arnold and Daniel Galicia
  34. Restaurants May Finally Get Relief From Grubhub and Uber’s Automatic Sign-ups Delivery services routinely add restaurants to their apps without asking them. Legislators want to make that illegal.
    By Kevin T. Dugan
  35. The American Dream Mall Is Ridiculous Yet Not Ridiculous Enough They’ve stripped the dazzle paint from Xanadu.
    By Justin Davidson
  36. The Homeless-to-Hotels Program Is Ending, and Nobody’s Ready Advocates fear mass eviction; hoteliers say their businesses are still in crisis.
    By Kevin T. Dugan
  37. Eric Adams Gave a Tour of His Apartment; Everyone’s Still Asking Where He Lives It’s a lived-in apartment. That much is clear.
    By Christopher Bonanos
  38. Helmet Laws Are Not What New York City Cyclists Need Right Now Elected officials keep proposing more rules for bicycles and scooters instead of fixing streets.
    By Alissa Walker
  39. A Slice of the Sky The supertall 111 West 57th is what the ruling class builds for itself.
    By Justin Davidson
  40. The Lower East Side Seniors Who Organized Their Own T’ai Chi Class “T’ai chi helps with memory,” one says. “It’s important, at our age, to keep our minds alert.”
    By Valeria Ricciulli
  41. 20 New Yorkers (From Fran Lebowitz to Ron Kim) On Ranking The Mayoral Candidates Fran Lebowitz, Ron Kim, Chelsea Manning, and more weigh in on the mayoral primary candidates.
  42. An Epic New York City Reopening Concert Is Coming to Central Park Who’ll headline? Who cares: We’ll be there.
    By Christopher Bonanos
  43. After MoMA, the Black Reconstruction Collective Plots Its Future in Architecture Its members talk institutional change, practicing refusal, and what comes next.
    By Diana Budds
  44. Weeknight Parties, Weekend Clampdowns, and Angry Neighbors in Washington Square Monday through Thursday, the revelry goes on.
    By Tim Donnelly
  45. Why Your Uber Ride Is Suddenly Costing a Fortune Driver shortage, customer surplus, and harsh financial reality.
    By Alissa Walker
  46. Get Ready for Flat-Rat Summer Rodents and cars do not mix.
    By Willy Blackmore
  47. Look! Books! The Tired Old Mid-Manhattan Library Gets a Sharp New Renovation An understated top-to-bottom rehab puts open access — and open books — front and center (and a café on the roof).
    By Justin Davidson
  48. Buildings Want to Require Vaccinations. The Doormen’s Union Says No. The union, along with many buildings, are encouraging doormen to get the jab. But requiring it for the job is where it draws the line.
    By Daniel Clemens
  49. The Free Food Pantry Gets the Subscription Box Treatment Wellfare is delivering jackfruit chips, grass-fed turkey jerky sticks, and other snacks and drinks to NYCHA residents in Williamsburg and Bushwick.
    By Caroline Spivack
  50. Co-working Is Back, But This Time It’s Really Boring Commercial real-estate developers are plowing money in new, utilitarian shared office spaces.
    By Allegra Hobbs
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