NYC tourism could reach new highs, Cuomo’s bridge-naming scandal, and more

NYC tourism is expected hit another record high

New York City tourism is expected to reach a record high in 2017, with close to 62 million selfie stick-touting visitors expected to roam the Big Apple this year. That’s 1 million more than last year, the sixth consecutive record-high year for tourism in the city and the first year where visitors broached the 60 million mark.

The estimate for this year comes in today’s installment of Big City, in which New York Times columnist Ginia Bellafonte wonders “How much tourism is too much?” The article begrudges the impingement of tourists on traditionally sleepy neighborhoods like the author’s own, pointing a finger at Airbnb and “its promise of a more intimate experience of hospitality than modern times have typically permitted.”

The city’s moving on expanding its tourism office—even Queens has a tourism council now—that’s pushing tourists to visit destinations like St. George on Staten Island. (Cue New Yorker shudders.) Someone’s gotta go there, right?

Tappan Zee Bridge loses its name

There’s nothing that politicians love more than naming infrastructure projects after each other. (Remember the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is actually the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, though you’d be hard-pressed to find a New Yorker who actually calls it that.) At that, the new Tappan Zee Bridge, which is actually already named after former Governor Malcolm Wilson, will be renamed for another politician—none other than Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York and father to current governor Andrew.

The New York Post reports that the New York state Assembly passed legislation before midnight on Thursday to rename the span, following the same move by the state Senate. The move has some folks fuming, including Wilson’s daughter. “As soon as that bridge opened, he put my mother, me and my sister in the car, and we drove from our home to Buffalo," Katherine Wilson Conroy told the Democrat & Chronicle. "He was enormously proud of it and excited by it."

Under the approved legislation, the new $3.9 billion span will lose both the Tappan Zee and Wilson monikers, becoming the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

Now taking bets on which infrastructure project will come to bear Andrew Cuomo’s name. The new and improved LaGuardia Airport, perhaps?

Co-living firm expands to Queens

Common is on a roll. The co-living firm for folks who would rather pay high rent than buy their own towels has announced that it will be expanding into Queens, The Real Deal reports. The firm will be opening its doors in Ridgewood at 1663 Cornelia Street in July. The building’s 18 bedrooms, which come fully furnished and with access to amenities like a shared backyard and kitchen, will have rents starting at $1,700/month and topping out at about $2,000/month.

Common

Common has its perks: potlucks and other occasional events, a Slack channel, and never having to buy your own toilet paper, are but a few. But something else about the “flexible, community-driven housing” solution appears to be catching on. Common Cornelia marks the brand’s eighth New York City property. Its largest is Common Baltic in Boerum Hill with 140 apartments. Common also has properties in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

REBNY announces a StreetEasy competitor

Just days after Zillow-owned listings website StreetEasy announced that it would begin charging brokers $3 per day per rental listing advertised on its website, the Real Estate Board of New York has announced that it’s launching its own listings syndication feed.

The service will be free to REBNY member firms. “[T]his plan for syndication directly addresses a critical challenge facing New York City residential real estate brokers and salespeople,” REBNY co-chair Diane Ramirez said in a statement.

REBNY is hailing the service as a means for agents to more efficiently list properties and deliver them to consumers. REBNY is seeking to launch the feed on August 1. BOND New York, Brown Harris Stevens, Citi Habitats, Compass, The Corcoran Group, CORE, Fox Residential Group, Halstead Property, Leslie J. Garfield & Co., Stribling & Associates, TOWN Residential, and Warburg Realty have all already signed on to list with the service.