1) About 30 years ago a group of squatters took over an abandoned and burned-out East Village tenement, fixed it up at their own expense, turned it into a thriving arts center and helped make the East Village safe for Momofuku Ko to charge $200 for dinner. And now that the "Bullet Space" squatters have finally been given legal ownership of their building, the Post calls them criminals and tries to drum up outrage, even though the only people they get to speak out are a former parks commissioner and some guy who ran for mayor in 1993. Photo via EV Grieve. ['Space Invaders Pay Diddly Squat']
2) Eighty-five percent of neighborhoods worst hit by foreclosures (where the default rate is at least double the area average) have mostly minority homeowners, and if you've been following the monthly foreclosure reports, you know that means neighborhoods like Jamaica are most affected by the subprime mess. Says one City Councilman from Queens: "My district feels like ground zero. In military terms, we are being pillaged." ['Minorities Affected Most as New York Foreclosures Rise']
3) Recession or not, here comes the wave of graduates ready to relocate to the city and seek out their first apartment. What they'll find this year: Deals! Especially in Brooklyn, Queens and Harlem. In Hamilton Heights, a trio of young teachers ("Initially I was unsure about Harlem, because you don't hear the best things about it as an outsider") offer their three-bedroom, washer/dryer loaded, $2,195-per-month apartment as an example of a bargain. ['Not a Dive After All']
4) The City section this week rolls out a package of short essays called, "Her Tales of the City: Young Women and the Metropolis," and one of the more curious entries is "What the Doorman Sees," in which the writer poetically recounts her Morningside Heights doorman trash-talking other tenants and maybe advising her to boost the promiscuity a bit. [The City/'What the Doorman Sees']
5) In this week's Hunt, a woman does the depressing Upper East Side studio crawl and eventually settles into a newly-renovated place near Carl Schurz Park with carpeted common areas perfect for her blind cat. [The Hunt/'The $100 Difference']
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