Upper East Siders Rail Against Trash; Couple Ends Long Search

Welcome to It Happened One Weekend, our weekly roundup of The New York Times real estate section...

1) Rich people. What are they spending millions of dollars on? What are they complaining about? This is What's Up With Rich People?
Nobody likes garbage. Other than certain trashcan-dwelling creatures, you're never going to find someone giddy with excitement upon walking by a steaming dumpster on a hot summer day. Still, rich people—especially on the Upper East Side—hate garbage to a fanatical degree. In a classic NIMBY scenario, the residents of East End Avenue have expressed purse-lipped discontent with the city's $240 million plan to build a garbage transfer station on East 91st Street. "I feel it is almost criminal to destroy what is such a beautiful area," laments local trash-hater Dr. Monica Weinberg. It's probably worth mentioning that the project is part of the city's plan to limit the number of garbage trucks carrying trash through poorer neighborhoods, as Manhattan has no waste management stations, but yeah, utterly criminal. ['East End Avenue: A Gated State of Mind'; photo by Chris Goldberg]

2) Every "The Hunt" column begins with the Hunters describing the apartment they want, and ends with them rationalizing whatever they came away with. This is The Hunt: Dreams vs. Reality
The Hunters: a couple with a young daughter seeking a two-bedroom
Price
Dream: around $800,000
Reality: $775,000
Neighborhood
Dream: Cobble Hill or Carroll Gardens
Reality: Park Slope
Amenities
Dream: good school district, space
Reality: good school district, space, washer/dryer, balcony
Summary
This Hunt sounds like it was an absolute nightmare. A Greenwich Village couple wanted to move out of their tiny one-bedroom before their daughter was born. Five years later, they only just moved into their new Park Slope two-bedroom. In that space of time, they had to deal with a cutthroat market, sneaky listings, reluctant sellers—oh, and a recession. Still, the apartment they settled on is nice and they're happy...but at what cost? A pyrrhic victory, at best. [The Hunt/"In Park Slope, an End to Here-We-Go-Again"]