1) From 110 Central Park South to Richard Meier's 165 Charles Street to Avalon Chrystie Place (right), it's all about the models, man. Developers are tricking out their model apartments with over $400,000 in furnishings, with the belief being modeled lines will sell and rent far more quickly than unmodeled ones. At 165 Charles, there's an interior designer and a curator to install art on the walls. And no detail is too small, according to interior designer Nancy Ruddy: "In a downtown apartment, we might put magazines like Details or Wallpaper. Uptown it would be Town and Country and books by Tom Wolfe. Items that someone just left there reinforce the fantasy that, 'This could be me, even if I can't afford it.'" [NYTimes]
2) North Bergen, New Jersey, gets in on the "hotel amenities" trend with a new building called The Watermark, which opens next year. The condo building has a pool, sun deck, barbecue space, putting green, health club, complimentary morning coffee in the lobby and two guest suits that rent for between $75-$150 per night. Wait, doesn't that just make it an actual hotel? [NYPost]
3) The Times shines the bubble spotlight on East New York, the crime-plagued section of Brooklyn where the late, great Ol' Dirty Bastard was raised. Since 1995, the average price for a two-family home in the neighborhood tripled, from $122,524 to $351,561. [NYTimes]
4) Speaking of the Wu-Tang Clan?as we often are, here at Curbed HQ?The Hunt forces a family to explain to the world why in God's name they moved to Staten Island. Money quote: "Staten Island didn't seem as dense as Queens and Brooklyn, even though they say it is being overpopulated and overdeveloped," Mrs. Gontha said. "We didn't get that sense at all. Then Glenn said, 'I think I love Staten Island.' It was the most hilarious thing." [Joyce Cohen/The Hunt]
5) A young Postian pounds the pavement to find a decent one-bedroom in sizzling, scandalous Harlem, using some unconventional apartment-hunting means. It's kind of like a throwback to the dark days before the Internet, when Craig Newmark was but a speck in his father's loins. [NYPost]
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