In the summer of 1989 I was taking a subway home with some friends
that I co-founded an environmental non-profit with here in Brooklyn. I
remember complaining about how tired I was of having to search and buy
eco products in mail order catalogs (this was pre-internet days).
Basic eco-products like toilet paper made from recycled and non-chlorine bleached paper.
Back
then there were no stores in NYC that sold it. In order to get it, you
had to buy a case via mail order. A case of 96 rolls.
I remember complaining, "What am I going to do with 96 rolls of toilet paper in my small apartment!"
And
that is when it hit me. What about having a retail store that screened
all its products for their environmental impact? The task of researching
and learning about the environmental (and social) issues that go into
making products can overwhelm most customers.
I asked them, "So
what if we created a store that did that for the customer? And you did
not need to buy 96 rolls of something to get it."
At the age of 25, that was the beginning of Earth General, which opened two years later in 1991.
Within
six years Earth General grew to being one of the largest environmental
retail stores in the country with over 3,000 products all screened for
their environmental impact. Things like organic cotton clothing, natural
body care, green cleaning products, recycled office supplies and
stationery, all natural gardening products and so on.
Yet while
our stores were popular in New York City, the concept was a bit ahead of
its time and my investors and I closed them in 1998. Today, 10 years
later, they would probably do quite well.
In fact today, most
things (authentically) "going green" are looking very promising. For
example, one of the mainstream issues on everyone's mind is energy. And
of the many things being developed in the energy sector, one segment to
really watch in the very short term is nanotechnology.
If you are
not familiar with nanotechnology, you need to be, as it looks likely to
be dramatically changing our lives within the next couple of years.
According
the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) Nanotechnology is the
engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. It is all
about building things and using materials at a very small level. From
this things like new, lighter, yet sturdier materials can be built.
For
example, imagine cars made from materials as light as plastic, yet
sturdier than steel. Lighter materials in our automobiles mean more
energy efficiency, which in turn means more miles per gallon.
For
more about this as well as a sense of the many, many applications
currently being researched in nanotechnology, read "GreenBiz" recent
article, Sweating the Small Stuff: A Market Opportunity.
Still
need convincing that going green is a wise choice? On May 12th, The Wall
Street Journal published an excellent story, Does Being Ethical Pay?
While
the authors found consumers would be willing to pay a premium for
ethical products, they also found consumers would also punish an
unethical company... to a much greater degree (by only buying that
company's products at a steep discount.)
Perhaps it's time for you to consider ramping up your green factor?
10 Steps to Determining Your Green Product / Service:
1.
Pick your passion- what about the environment are you most passionate
about? What do you notice really "burns your bacon"? For help, refer to
January 30th's Power Boost: Top 10 Business Issues into Environmental
Opportunities.
2. Define your target-who is your market? What customer base are you most comfortable serving?
3.
Get in their head-what is the need of that customer base? What are
their pains? Remember to relate this to what you are most passionate
about in the environment (remember my frustration that created Earth
General?)
4. Relief is on the way!-what is your solution to your
target market's pain and to their needs? Especially if they do not even
know they have it! Be clear as possible on this one. Make it really
stand out.
5. Support is the key-who is on your team? What
expertise do you need and who will have it? What are these people's
motivations for working with you (hint: your vision on where you would
like to take your business.)
6. Name the players-who is your
competition? How are you better and/or different? How can you
authentically show your strengths over them? No competition, then your
product/service niche is too small!
7. Be a hurdle jumper-what are
the barriers to entry for competition to join you down the road? Is it
difficult to gain entry? If not, how can you make it difficult or how
will you retain customer loyalty (hint: focus on the green/social impact
of what you do!)
8. Keep clearing those hurdles-how to keep in
front of the barriers to entry. As the market continues to develop, what
new, cool, authentic green (and social) components can you add to the
mix? Stay ahead of the pack. Stay on top of your market research.
9.
It's all in the girth-and how scalable your product/service is. Compare
it with how big you want to go with this idea. Look to balance the two.
It's OK if you want to stay small, just get clear before you take off.
10.
Review your passion-how do you feel about your product/service? If you
feel something is off, you must address it before moving forward. If
not, it will bite you in the butt later. Don't step over this. Find
solutions to what is keeping you from really playing full out.
Once
you've worked through these 10 steps, you should be ready to rock. I'd
love to hear what cool, unreasonable green business you're ready to
launch.
Action Steps for the Week:
Whether you're working for the man or the man is working for you, it might behoove you to examine your green business game plan.
If
you have one, review it again and see what of the 10 steps (from above)
might need some refining. And if you're new to the subject, really take
inventory on how and what to implement into your business.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Tips and Ideas on How to Decorate Your Office Space
Your office is the place where you spend a lot of your time, and
many people consider their offices to be a home away from home. What
this means is that in order for you to feel comfortable in your office
space, you should find an office that suits you perfectly, and then
decorate it according to your own taste and needs. For example, if you
need to rent office space in New York City, and you are not sure how to
pick an office, just go with your hunch and choose the office that
provokes the best feelings in you. After this, you will need to start
thinking about how you will decorate your office space, and here we will
give you some great tips and ideas on how you can do this quickly and
easily.
Reaching the Perfect Balance between Home and Office
If you want to feel great in your office, you will have to make it resemble your home. However, many people go too far and end up with an office that doesn't look at all professional. So, it is important to find a good balance between that comfort you have in your home and the level of professionalism you have to maintain in your office.
Light Brings Success and Productivity
If you do a simple online search, you will see that all the offices designed by well known architects are very well-lit. Also, you have probably seen those movies with big offices looking down on city lights, and all of these offices have very big windows, or even walls made from glass. Natural light is the key in decorating your office, and you should keep this in mind at all times!
Add Plants to Bring Life
Plants will not only bring more oxygen to your office space, but they will also bring the green color. This color is responsible for making you feel better, as well as for resting your eyes. If you have enough space and enough life, having a few plants around your office is a very good idea.
Enhance Your Office Walls
Most offices have four walls, and out of these four walls, two will probably be bare when you move in. Typically, one wall will be occupied by windows, and another will be occupied either by your desk, or by some other furniture. However, you will in most cases be able to enhance the two bare walls, as well as the one that is somewhat occupied by furniture. So, you should first think about painting your walls, and then you should invest some money in a few pictures, or even a framed company logo.
Comfortable Furniture
Finally, you should make sure to buy furniture that is comfortable enough for you. Remember that you will be spending a good part of every working day in your work chair, so do not try to save money when shopping for office furniture. Also, by not saving up on your office furniture, you are sending your clients a message that you are a serious businessman.
Reaching the Perfect Balance between Home and Office
If you want to feel great in your office, you will have to make it resemble your home. However, many people go too far and end up with an office that doesn't look at all professional. So, it is important to find a good balance between that comfort you have in your home and the level of professionalism you have to maintain in your office.
Light Brings Success and Productivity
If you do a simple online search, you will see that all the offices designed by well known architects are very well-lit. Also, you have probably seen those movies with big offices looking down on city lights, and all of these offices have very big windows, or even walls made from glass. Natural light is the key in decorating your office, and you should keep this in mind at all times!
Add Plants to Bring Life
Plants will not only bring more oxygen to your office space, but they will also bring the green color. This color is responsible for making you feel better, as well as for resting your eyes. If you have enough space and enough life, having a few plants around your office is a very good idea.
Enhance Your Office Walls
Most offices have four walls, and out of these four walls, two will probably be bare when you move in. Typically, one wall will be occupied by windows, and another will be occupied either by your desk, or by some other furniture. However, you will in most cases be able to enhance the two bare walls, as well as the one that is somewhat occupied by furniture. So, you should first think about painting your walls, and then you should invest some money in a few pictures, or even a framed company logo.
Comfortable Furniture
Finally, you should make sure to buy furniture that is comfortable enough for you. Remember that you will be spending a good part of every working day in your work chair, so do not try to save money when shopping for office furniture. Also, by not saving up on your office furniture, you are sending your clients a message that you are a serious businessman.
Innovative Interior Design Ideas For Your Home Remodeling Project
Are you all set to launch your home remodeling project? Here are
10 interior design ideas to expand your horizons and help you on your
quest.
Color Me Beautiful
Break out of the white, off-white, and beige, and let some color in your life (and on your walls)! Hit Designer Dave Bromstad, winner of HGTV Design Star and host of HGTV's new show, Color Splash, is big on color. "I think brown is a great color because it looks great in a lot of combinations: brown and yellow, brown and blue, brown and orange. It's been hot for the last five years and will continue to be hot. Whites and blues are also big, and you can make a big impact with reds and oranges," says the rising star. But he also cautions to not be too matchy-matchy. If you decide to go for red walls, there is no need for a red comforter on your bed!
Rock the Casbah
Moroccan design is welcoming, warm, inexpensive and relatively easy to pull together, all wonderful traits for those interested in Moroccan-style home decorating. "Moroccan styles are timeless," says interior designer Vanessa De Vargas. Morocco is known for its handmade works like carved doors and columns, hand-woven carpets, intricately painted tiles, lanterns, leather goods and silver tea sets. The color palette is warm yet cool. Earth tones combined with various shades of blue and pink are common, as are texture and pattern.
A modernized version of Moroccan style is popular in the U.S. because it successfully takes classic Moroccan-design motifs, materials and styles and gives them a fresh spin. Traditional Moroccan design is heavier and more ornate.
Back to Nature
Use Indoor plants to bring nature into your home!
During the 1970s, there was a new appreciation for the great outdoors. Consequently interior decorating incorporated macramé, redwood and anything in shades of oatmeal, green or brown. In keeping with the back-to-nature movement, homeowners did what they could to bring the outdoors in. Although the days of green and brown printed wallpaper are long gone (or so we hope), plants and flowering plants are still the rage in interior design.
Wallpaper is Back!
Wallpaper has been getting some really bad press in the past few years, while solid colors and wall patterns were hip and in. It seems like wallpaper is coming back, bigger and better than ever! Traditional block printed 'paper' wallpaper isn't the only option. Fabric wallpaper is also available and will add a luxurious touch to any room. Other materials include those with a metallic luster and paper that gives the appearance of silk.
According to Karen Beauchamp from Cole & Son, we are exploring new ways to use wallpaper. Here are some suggestions on how to bring more patterns into your surroundings:
* Cover only one wall (its trendy, and you can be more adventurous).
Putting wallpaper on panels can be a great color addition to doors and cabinets. Choose the scale of the pattern carefully though: if the space is too small and the scale too large, the pattern will get lost.
* For the really adventurous, add a twist on tradition by wallpapering a ceiling. This works particularly well with high ceilings, such as those in period properties.
Everyone Feng Shui!
Take the mystical out of Feng Shui design and learn its practical uses. Decorating using these principles will help you create a simple, balanced living environment. Real Feng Shui is extraordinarily specific, and complex. The only way to do real Feng Shui is either to become a student of this art, and painstakingly learn the many principals and subtleties it requires, or to hire a professional to do an analysis and work over of your home. However, Feng Shui does teach us something that is very useful when decorating your home.
* Color: Pay attention to how colors make you feel. Color is known to have an enormous effect of people's moods and energy levels, however it is also very individual. You may be the type of person who is comfortable in dark colors, while other people may find it depressing. Colors also affect the nature of interactions, and when you enter a new space you should always pay attention to the way people behave to one another. If there is a room in your home where people tend to get into arguments, reassess the colors in that room. Bright or extreme colors can irritate people's eyes and increase their metabolism, making them more likely to fight. Darker rooms can put people in a bad mood and make them lethargic.
* Flow: In traditional Feng Shui, the goal is to maximize the flow of positive chi in an area. While you will probably not be able to detect the essence of the energy of a space, you can increase the feeling of flow in a room by paying attention to the way people and objects move through the space. The flow you want to achieve is in the essence of the room. You want there to be easy access for people moving through the room, as well as in and out of it. You want objects to be able to move from their storage, into use, and back without adding to clutter. This kind of flow is a mixture of organization and design that focuses on removing blockages and allowing easy movement through every area.
Island Fantasies
Whether you make yearly pilgrimages to the white-sand beaches of the tropics or merely travel via daydreams, interiors inspired by the ocean, sand, and gentle sea breezes bring the feeling home. Simply designed rooms, filled with light and fresh air, enchant the senses and have the ability to transport you to another headspace. Think of it as an exotic take on spring cleaning.
Imperial Beds
The Four-Poster bed is a timeless piece in any bedroom design. To avoid being heavy, new four-poster beds have thin posts, and are airy enough to be considered modern. Since four-poster beds are the most romantic of beds, a romantic design, soft, comfortable, and inviting, is highly recommended to accompany this fantastic traditional bed.
Classic White
The purpose of creating a white monochrome elegant space is to feel peaceful, serene and sophisticated. In a white on white room, you have more freedom to do things differently. "Clutter is kept away, everything should be hidden," says Ammie Kim, a Beverly Hills designer. All unnecessary items or things with colors should be moved. It's a very sophisticated and minimal look.
Kitchen Freestyle
Because we're spending more and more time in our kitchens and baths, there is a move away from the all-or-nothing "fitted" look of continuous counters. Look for more freestanding pieces of furniture or features with furniture-like qualities. These details won't be fussy but will further the notion that the kitchen is a room to be lived in.
Country Living in the City
Do you miss the open spaces, the country roads, and the peace and quiet that comes from being away from New York for more than a week? Why not transform your city apartment and go country? Combine the best of city sophistication and country rustic, and see how much nicer it feels to eat in that dining room you never use!
Color Me Beautiful
Break out of the white, off-white, and beige, and let some color in your life (and on your walls)! Hit Designer Dave Bromstad, winner of HGTV Design Star and host of HGTV's new show, Color Splash, is big on color. "I think brown is a great color because it looks great in a lot of combinations: brown and yellow, brown and blue, brown and orange. It's been hot for the last five years and will continue to be hot. Whites and blues are also big, and you can make a big impact with reds and oranges," says the rising star. But he also cautions to not be too matchy-matchy. If you decide to go for red walls, there is no need for a red comforter on your bed!
Rock the Casbah
Moroccan design is welcoming, warm, inexpensive and relatively easy to pull together, all wonderful traits for those interested in Moroccan-style home decorating. "Moroccan styles are timeless," says interior designer Vanessa De Vargas. Morocco is known for its handmade works like carved doors and columns, hand-woven carpets, intricately painted tiles, lanterns, leather goods and silver tea sets. The color palette is warm yet cool. Earth tones combined with various shades of blue and pink are common, as are texture and pattern.
A modernized version of Moroccan style is popular in the U.S. because it successfully takes classic Moroccan-design motifs, materials and styles and gives them a fresh spin. Traditional Moroccan design is heavier and more ornate.
Back to Nature
Use Indoor plants to bring nature into your home!
During the 1970s, there was a new appreciation for the great outdoors. Consequently interior decorating incorporated macramé, redwood and anything in shades of oatmeal, green or brown. In keeping with the back-to-nature movement, homeowners did what they could to bring the outdoors in. Although the days of green and brown printed wallpaper are long gone (or so we hope), plants and flowering plants are still the rage in interior design.
Wallpaper is Back!
Wallpaper has been getting some really bad press in the past few years, while solid colors and wall patterns were hip and in. It seems like wallpaper is coming back, bigger and better than ever! Traditional block printed 'paper' wallpaper isn't the only option. Fabric wallpaper is also available and will add a luxurious touch to any room. Other materials include those with a metallic luster and paper that gives the appearance of silk.
According to Karen Beauchamp from Cole & Son, we are exploring new ways to use wallpaper. Here are some suggestions on how to bring more patterns into your surroundings:
* Cover only one wall (its trendy, and you can be more adventurous).
Putting wallpaper on panels can be a great color addition to doors and cabinets. Choose the scale of the pattern carefully though: if the space is too small and the scale too large, the pattern will get lost.
* For the really adventurous, add a twist on tradition by wallpapering a ceiling. This works particularly well with high ceilings, such as those in period properties.
Everyone Feng Shui!
Take the mystical out of Feng Shui design and learn its practical uses. Decorating using these principles will help you create a simple, balanced living environment. Real Feng Shui is extraordinarily specific, and complex. The only way to do real Feng Shui is either to become a student of this art, and painstakingly learn the many principals and subtleties it requires, or to hire a professional to do an analysis and work over of your home. However, Feng Shui does teach us something that is very useful when decorating your home.
* Color: Pay attention to how colors make you feel. Color is known to have an enormous effect of people's moods and energy levels, however it is also very individual. You may be the type of person who is comfortable in dark colors, while other people may find it depressing. Colors also affect the nature of interactions, and when you enter a new space you should always pay attention to the way people behave to one another. If there is a room in your home where people tend to get into arguments, reassess the colors in that room. Bright or extreme colors can irritate people's eyes and increase their metabolism, making them more likely to fight. Darker rooms can put people in a bad mood and make them lethargic.
* Flow: In traditional Feng Shui, the goal is to maximize the flow of positive chi in an area. While you will probably not be able to detect the essence of the energy of a space, you can increase the feeling of flow in a room by paying attention to the way people and objects move through the space. The flow you want to achieve is in the essence of the room. You want there to be easy access for people moving through the room, as well as in and out of it. You want objects to be able to move from their storage, into use, and back without adding to clutter. This kind of flow is a mixture of organization and design that focuses on removing blockages and allowing easy movement through every area.
Island Fantasies
Whether you make yearly pilgrimages to the white-sand beaches of the tropics or merely travel via daydreams, interiors inspired by the ocean, sand, and gentle sea breezes bring the feeling home. Simply designed rooms, filled with light and fresh air, enchant the senses and have the ability to transport you to another headspace. Think of it as an exotic take on spring cleaning.
Imperial Beds
The Four-Poster bed is a timeless piece in any bedroom design. To avoid being heavy, new four-poster beds have thin posts, and are airy enough to be considered modern. Since four-poster beds are the most romantic of beds, a romantic design, soft, comfortable, and inviting, is highly recommended to accompany this fantastic traditional bed.
Classic White
The purpose of creating a white monochrome elegant space is to feel peaceful, serene and sophisticated. In a white on white room, you have more freedom to do things differently. "Clutter is kept away, everything should be hidden," says Ammie Kim, a Beverly Hills designer. All unnecessary items or things with colors should be moved. It's a very sophisticated and minimal look.
Kitchen Freestyle
Because we're spending more and more time in our kitchens and baths, there is a move away from the all-or-nothing "fitted" look of continuous counters. Look for more freestanding pieces of furniture or features with furniture-like qualities. These details won't be fussy but will further the notion that the kitchen is a room to be lived in.
Country Living in the City
Do you miss the open spaces, the country roads, and the peace and quiet that comes from being away from New York for more than a week? Why not transform your city apartment and go country? Combine the best of city sophistication and country rustic, and see how much nicer it feels to eat in that dining room you never use!
Top Ten Dinner Restaurants in New York City to Go With Friends
New York City offers you some of the best restaurants in the
world. You get the priciest as well as the cheapest meals in the NYC.
The restaurants in NYC remain open all the time were you can enjoy with
your friends. You can stay out and relish your food late at night as
having dinner early may sound strange, unless you have some other plan.
The Celebs keep visiting some of these best restaurants in NYC as these restaurants serve the finest cuisine and is the best hang out place. Some of such restaurants are:
Buddha Bar: From the moment you enter, you will be delighted. The help, the décor, the services and most significantly the food are excellent. It can be the best place to be with friends.
Gramercy Tavern: The Tavern can be the finest place to meander late at night. The awesome food, comfortable services and the great martinis can be the best restaurant to have dinner with friends. The mouthwatering pork with the implausible parsley sauce is the best cuisine served their.
Sapa: If your friend circle demands fun and noise, Sapa can be the best restaurant in New York City to visit. The dinning room is always crammed with fresh flowers. The steak frites offered by this restaurant is an unforgettable cuisine.
Lattanzi: This is a classy restaurant that serves food very similar to the home made stuff. It is always very crowded, so it's advisable to book your table well in advance in order to avoid last minute hassle. The décor is awesome with high quality food.
Tao: It is an excellent restaurant for the people who love sea food. The drinks served are among the best and selected ones from all over the world. The desserts like giant cookie overflowing with milk chocolate mousses can be a real treat.
Few more restaurants like, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Mr. K's, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Tavern on the Green and Rosa Mexicano are also very famous. They serve the best cuisine with a perfect atmosphere to relax and enjoy with friends.
New York is blessed with a lot of restaurants that have its own unique style to represent a classic décor and leaves you missing a word as you enjoy the food which is oh, so tasty!
The Celebs keep visiting some of these best restaurants in NYC as these restaurants serve the finest cuisine and is the best hang out place. Some of such restaurants are:
Buddha Bar: From the moment you enter, you will be delighted. The help, the décor, the services and most significantly the food are excellent. It can be the best place to be with friends.
Gramercy Tavern: The Tavern can be the finest place to meander late at night. The awesome food, comfortable services and the great martinis can be the best restaurant to have dinner with friends. The mouthwatering pork with the implausible parsley sauce is the best cuisine served their.
Sapa: If your friend circle demands fun and noise, Sapa can be the best restaurant in New York City to visit. The dinning room is always crammed with fresh flowers. The steak frites offered by this restaurant is an unforgettable cuisine.
Lattanzi: This is a classy restaurant that serves food very similar to the home made stuff. It is always very crowded, so it's advisable to book your table well in advance in order to avoid last minute hassle. The décor is awesome with high quality food.
Tao: It is an excellent restaurant for the people who love sea food. The drinks served are among the best and selected ones from all over the world. The desserts like giant cookie overflowing with milk chocolate mousses can be a real treat.
Few more restaurants like, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Mr. K's, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Tavern on the Green and Rosa Mexicano are also very famous. They serve the best cuisine with a perfect atmosphere to relax and enjoy with friends.
New York is blessed with a lot of restaurants that have its own unique style to represent a classic décor and leaves you missing a word as you enjoy the food which is oh, so tasty!
The Top 10 Home Improvements That Could Devalue Your Home
Sometimes, making an improvement to your home could actually hurt you when you try to sell it. Here are the top 10 home improvements that can make your home harder to sell:
1. Kitchen Renovation. Any renovation of a kitchen that is too taste-specific or extreme in design. For example, a kitchen equipped with a restaurant-level stove or multiple refrigerators may not appeal to the buyer who is a simple cook. You want to appeal to the broadest range of buyers when selling a home, and if a buyer thinks they need to spend money re-doing what you've done, they will offer less.
2. Bathroom Renovations. The same can be said for bathroom renovations. Any design that is over the top could detract from the value of the home. It is best to avoid garish sinks, faucets, and tiles. And skip the heart-shaped bathtub!
3. Painting. Painting the walls is a great way to freshen up a space prior to putting your home on the market, but painting with bold colors such as red, orange, purple or even black (I've seen this) is a sure way to turn off a potential buyer. Buyers want to feel like they can move right in and not have to re-paint the walls to match their own tastes and their existing furniture. The same goes for painting the exterior of the home - no bright blues, yellows or greens please!
4. Water Features. Having an in-ground pool, hot tub, waterfall or pond can also devalue a home, as buyers may perceive these as extra maintenance expenses they don't want to incur. Also, buyers with small children may be fearful of these as well. The only exception of an in-ground pool definitely adding value is if the home is an investment property in a resort area where renters find homes with a pool to be more desirable.
5. "Wasted" Square Footage. Taking valuable square footage in a house and using it for a specific, personalized purpose can make the house harder to sell and/or detract from its value, for example, turning a garage into a gym. Also, on the Bravo TV show, Nine By Design, the hosts of the show were trying to sell their NYC townhouse. The ground floor was taken up by a basketball/squash court because the owners liked to play these games. However, most buyers would see this as wasted space and an expensive project ahead to change.
6. Redecorating. Redecorating in a highly taste-specific style, such as Asian, country clutter or extreme modern can turn-off potential buyers. When selling your home, you want to appeal to the broadest range of buyers, so it's important that the furniture and decor is neutral and broadly appealing.
7. Illegal home improvements. Decks, driveways, expansions, etc. not approved by the local town authorities can devalue the home as you will probably be forced to correct the situation prior to selling which could result in something as extreme as actually removing it.
8. Laminated Wood Flooring. Installing laminated wood flooring instead of solid wood in an upscale home can also cause a buyer to think "I've got to rip this out"! Better to refinish existing hardwood floors, if any, or cover floors with new but inexpensive wall-to-wall carpeting.
9. DIY (Do It Yourself) Home Repairs. While needed repairs and maintenance should be done to a home before putting it on the market, doing these yourself could end up costing you money in the end as buyers perceive your shoddy workmanship as something they have to spend money correcting, and therefore offering you a lower price.
10. Gardens and Landscaping. A high-maintenance garden and landscaping could also lower the value of a home. If buyers are not avid gardeners or don't want to spend money watering or on hiring someone to constantly weed, trim and rotate your plantings, this could be a real turn-off.
1. Kitchen Renovation. Any renovation of a kitchen that is too taste-specific or extreme in design. For example, a kitchen equipped with a restaurant-level stove or multiple refrigerators may not appeal to the buyer who is a simple cook. You want to appeal to the broadest range of buyers when selling a home, and if a buyer thinks they need to spend money re-doing what you've done, they will offer less.
2. Bathroom Renovations. The same can be said for bathroom renovations. Any design that is over the top could detract from the value of the home. It is best to avoid garish sinks, faucets, and tiles. And skip the heart-shaped bathtub!
3. Painting. Painting the walls is a great way to freshen up a space prior to putting your home on the market, but painting with bold colors such as red, orange, purple or even black (I've seen this) is a sure way to turn off a potential buyer. Buyers want to feel like they can move right in and not have to re-paint the walls to match their own tastes and their existing furniture. The same goes for painting the exterior of the home - no bright blues, yellows or greens please!
4. Water Features. Having an in-ground pool, hot tub, waterfall or pond can also devalue a home, as buyers may perceive these as extra maintenance expenses they don't want to incur. Also, buyers with small children may be fearful of these as well. The only exception of an in-ground pool definitely adding value is if the home is an investment property in a resort area where renters find homes with a pool to be more desirable.
5. "Wasted" Square Footage. Taking valuable square footage in a house and using it for a specific, personalized purpose can make the house harder to sell and/or detract from its value, for example, turning a garage into a gym. Also, on the Bravo TV show, Nine By Design, the hosts of the show were trying to sell their NYC townhouse. The ground floor was taken up by a basketball/squash court because the owners liked to play these games. However, most buyers would see this as wasted space and an expensive project ahead to change.
6. Redecorating. Redecorating in a highly taste-specific style, such as Asian, country clutter or extreme modern can turn-off potential buyers. When selling your home, you want to appeal to the broadest range of buyers, so it's important that the furniture and decor is neutral and broadly appealing.
7. Illegal home improvements. Decks, driveways, expansions, etc. not approved by the local town authorities can devalue the home as you will probably be forced to correct the situation prior to selling which could result in something as extreme as actually removing it.
8. Laminated Wood Flooring. Installing laminated wood flooring instead of solid wood in an upscale home can also cause a buyer to think "I've got to rip this out"! Better to refinish existing hardwood floors, if any, or cover floors with new but inexpensive wall-to-wall carpeting.
9. DIY (Do It Yourself) Home Repairs. While needed repairs and maintenance should be done to a home before putting it on the market, doing these yourself could end up costing you money in the end as buyers perceive your shoddy workmanship as something they have to spend money correcting, and therefore offering you a lower price.
10. Gardens and Landscaping. A high-maintenance garden and landscaping could also lower the value of a home. If buyers are not avid gardeners or don't want to spend money watering or on hiring someone to constantly weed, trim and rotate your plantings, this could be a real turn-off.
An Overview on Taxi Driver Jobs in New York City
Taxi driver jobs in the city of New York have been prevalent
since more than eight decades using the very popular yellow cab. Those
who are looking for employment as taxi drivers in New York City should
bear certain factors in mind. Being a taxi driver in the city of New
York is not that simple. This profession is a viable option for earning a
stable and substantial income even during times of recession since the
demand for cabs is always consistent.
Taxi driving is not exactly like any other job. It is more like a business where you have to put in some amount of commitment and dedication. You will require investing somewhere from four hundred to almost a thousand dollars for receiving your driving license for qualifying for a taxi driver's job in New York City.
Getting such a job is not so easy because every yellow cab driver requires passing the exam of New York City and a majority of candidates are not really experts in terms of the topography of this city. Being home to scores of highways and bridges, five boroughs, hundreds of theaters, museums, parks, schools, hospitals, schools, relevant landmarks and a lot more, taxi driving can be quite challenging here.
In order to be best prepared for the test of taxi driver jobs would mean to be well prepared to drive any yellow taxi in New York City. For most potential taxi drivers, especially those of whom have been out of school for a few decades or those coming from other parts of the world or belonging to local suburbs or even different regions of U.S.A, extensive navigation and geography preparation becomes mandatory.
Some popular taxi companies of NYC are New York Water Taxi that provides tourism and commuter services for the entire region of Manhattan and Michelin the Green Guide New York City. There are two major regulatory offices for taxis in NYC.
Every taxi, car and limousine service in NYC is regulated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission - Financial District and the Taxi and Limousine Commission - Long Island City. All complaints about and taxis are reported here. The website NYCabbie is dedicated to taxi drivers of NYC while the site NYC Taxi Cabs provides information resource on NYC taxi service that includes taxi tips and fares.
Taxi driving is not exactly like any other job. It is more like a business where you have to put in some amount of commitment and dedication. You will require investing somewhere from four hundred to almost a thousand dollars for receiving your driving license for qualifying for a taxi driver's job in New York City.
Getting such a job is not so easy because every yellow cab driver requires passing the exam of New York City and a majority of candidates are not really experts in terms of the topography of this city. Being home to scores of highways and bridges, five boroughs, hundreds of theaters, museums, parks, schools, hospitals, schools, relevant landmarks and a lot more, taxi driving can be quite challenging here.
In order to be best prepared for the test of taxi driver jobs would mean to be well prepared to drive any yellow taxi in New York City. For most potential taxi drivers, especially those of whom have been out of school for a few decades or those coming from other parts of the world or belonging to local suburbs or even different regions of U.S.A, extensive navigation and geography preparation becomes mandatory.
Some popular taxi companies of NYC are New York Water Taxi that provides tourism and commuter services for the entire region of Manhattan and Michelin the Green Guide New York City. There are two major regulatory offices for taxis in NYC.
Every taxi, car and limousine service in NYC is regulated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission - Financial District and the Taxi and Limousine Commission - Long Island City. All complaints about and taxis are reported here. The website NYCabbie is dedicated to taxi drivers of NYC while the site NYC Taxi Cabs provides information resource on NYC taxi service that includes taxi tips and fares.
Best Markets in New York City for Tourists
One of the most important cities in the US, New York City offers
tourists looking to shop on a tight budget a large number of market
places. Tourists will find plenty of markets in the city, including
several flea markets, green markets and heritage markets. Regular
shoppers who live in and around New York City flock to these
marketplaces along with tourists who frequent these markets for great
bargains and memorable shopping experiences.
The five boroughs of New York City - Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island - have greenmarkets like Bowling Green, City Hall, Lafayette Street, Jackson Heights, Lincoln Hospital and Windsor Terrace where farmers sell fresh fruits, vegetables and other farm produce. Held on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays between 8 am and 6 pm, the Union Square Greenmarket is among the most famous of NYC's greenmarkets. The temporary kiosks of the Union Square Holiday Market held between November 23 and December 24 are an annual attraction.
Other well-known markets include the Whole Foods Market that sells natural and organic products, and Chelsea Market stretching from Ninth to Tenth Avenue and 15th to 16th Street.
At flea markets like Hell's Kitchen Flea Market, Antiques Garage, Brooklyn Flea and Williamsburg Flea Market, one can find second-hand wares ranging from designer clothing to vintage records and high-end furniture, home decor items, beauty products and handmade jewellery.
One of the very best markets and one which tends not to get very much press coverage or is rarely mentioned in tourist literature is Bronx Market. The market is located just inside the Bronx and is quite easily accessible via the subway system and this market is one which provides many excellent bargains.
Some of the permanent indoor markets are also well worth considering and there are dozens scattered throughout New York City. Greenmarket in Union Square is in a great location and this is one of the most popular indoor markets with both locals and tourist visitors to the area. With over 120 fixed traders in the market, you can buy pretty much anything in Greenmarket
The five boroughs of New York City - Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island - have greenmarkets like Bowling Green, City Hall, Lafayette Street, Jackson Heights, Lincoln Hospital and Windsor Terrace where farmers sell fresh fruits, vegetables and other farm produce. Held on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays between 8 am and 6 pm, the Union Square Greenmarket is among the most famous of NYC's greenmarkets. The temporary kiosks of the Union Square Holiday Market held between November 23 and December 24 are an annual attraction.
Other well-known markets include the Whole Foods Market that sells natural and organic products, and Chelsea Market stretching from Ninth to Tenth Avenue and 15th to 16th Street.
At flea markets like Hell's Kitchen Flea Market, Antiques Garage, Brooklyn Flea and Williamsburg Flea Market, one can find second-hand wares ranging from designer clothing to vintage records and high-end furniture, home decor items, beauty products and handmade jewellery.
One of the very best markets and one which tends not to get very much press coverage or is rarely mentioned in tourist literature is Bronx Market. The market is located just inside the Bronx and is quite easily accessible via the subway system and this market is one which provides many excellent bargains.
Some of the permanent indoor markets are also well worth considering and there are dozens scattered throughout New York City. Greenmarket in Union Square is in a great location and this is one of the most popular indoor markets with both locals and tourist visitors to the area. With over 120 fixed traders in the market, you can buy pretty much anything in Greenmarket
Top 10 Things to Do in New York City
New York City is a truly amazing city. Everyone who has been
there can testify to this. If you haven't yet had a chance to visit New
York City you should start planning a visit, right now! The city has got
an energy, a pulse which is hard to describe to anyone who has not been
to NYC. Go there and you will understand.
New York City is not the cheapest city in the world to visit. Below we have listed the top ten things to do in NYC, which most are free things to do in New York City. There are plenty of things to do in New York City all year around, the city does not have a particular season when visiting is best. Most New Yorkers however enjoy summer and think its the best season to see NYC.
New York City has many nicknames, some of them are: The Big Apple, Gotham, The City That Never Sleeps, The Capital of The World, The Empire City, The City So Nice They Named It Twice.
We believe these are the top 10 things to do in NYC, things which should be on every visitor's must-do list.
1. Central Park- the green oasis and NYC breathing hole. A must visit! In winter you can go ice-skating and in summer you can lay on a blanket in the sun.
2. Ground Zero- the memorial site of the WTC towers.
3. Empire State Building- Scenic views of New York City from up here. EST is now the highest building in NYC.
4. Times Square- the neon buzzing Time Square close to Broadway where everything is happening.
5. Brooklyn Bridge- an engineering marvel with scenic views over lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. A walk across the bridge is a must.
6. Statue of Liberty- the iconic statue of liberty and freedom. Go here and you understand democracy is a great thing.
7. Metropolitan Museum of Art- "The Met" has some of the best art in the world. If you are into art this is a must visit too.
8. United Nations Building- the epicenter of world diplomacy. Home of world politics and democracy.
9. Guggenheim Museum- is "The" place in NYC for modern art. If you are into art this is a must visit too.
10. Grand Central Terminal- busy travel hub full of references to popular culture; movies, music and TV shows.
Go and enjoy NYC, life is too short so start planning today!
New York City is not the cheapest city in the world to visit. Below we have listed the top ten things to do in NYC, which most are free things to do in New York City. There are plenty of things to do in New York City all year around, the city does not have a particular season when visiting is best. Most New Yorkers however enjoy summer and think its the best season to see NYC.
New York City has many nicknames, some of them are: The Big Apple, Gotham, The City That Never Sleeps, The Capital of The World, The Empire City, The City So Nice They Named It Twice.
We believe these are the top 10 things to do in NYC, things which should be on every visitor's must-do list.
1. Central Park- the green oasis and NYC breathing hole. A must visit! In winter you can go ice-skating and in summer you can lay on a blanket in the sun.
2. Ground Zero- the memorial site of the WTC towers.
3. Empire State Building- Scenic views of New York City from up here. EST is now the highest building in NYC.
4. Times Square- the neon buzzing Time Square close to Broadway where everything is happening.
5. Brooklyn Bridge- an engineering marvel with scenic views over lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. A walk across the bridge is a must.
6. Statue of Liberty- the iconic statue of liberty and freedom. Go here and you understand democracy is a great thing.
7. Metropolitan Museum of Art- "The Met" has some of the best art in the world. If you are into art this is a must visit too.
8. United Nations Building- the epicenter of world diplomacy. Home of world politics and democracy.
9. Guggenheim Museum- is "The" place in NYC for modern art. If you are into art this is a must visit too.
10. Grand Central Terminal- busy travel hub full of references to popular culture; movies, music and TV shows.
Go and enjoy NYC, life is too short so start planning today!
Architecture - Why Choose Preservation?
Reuse, reinvest, and retrofit... or demolish?
1. It's Good for the Community
Preservation of older structures adds to a sense of identity, educating the community about its history and helping it citizens to amplify their collective historical heritage and culture. In the case of architecture, context often matters. Keeping buildings on their original sites can contribute to an understanding of how and why the community and its character developed.
2. It's Good for the Economy
We can look to the reuse of the High Line Rail in NYC as a model for what preservation, the use of embodied energy, and reuse of the abandoned elevated train artery can do for a local economy. The West Chelsea neighborhood restaurants, shops, galleries, and other businesses in this largely forgotten area of NYC have profited immensely from recent increased usage, traffic, and tourism to the area after High Line was reopened as a walkway and native plant preserve. Substantially different buildings in bulk, form, scale and arrangement are emerging, while still preserving key visual features through restoration and reuse of abandoned existing buildings in the neighborhood. This contributes to employment density and a new pool of patrons for the businesses.
"Dollar for dollar, rehabilitation creates more jobs than new construction. One study in the US, for example, found that $1 million invested in the rehabilitation of an existing building creates 9-13 more jobs than the same $1 million invested in new construction. Why? Because rehabilitation is more labor-intensive than new construction - that is, it requires more man-hours and fewer materials. An economy that is more labor-intensive and less materials-intensive is a greener economy," says Richard Moe of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
3. It Makes Good Economic Sense
In many cases, remodeling or rehabilitation of an existing structure can be far less expensive than demolishing and building a completely new structure.
4. It's Good for the Environment
Most professionals in the construction industry are aware of and agree with the current trends in the use of green materials and practices in new construction. But, the green movement has largely disregarded the inherent advantages of building reuse, including the primary one-embodied energy. At the core of sustainability practices should be the question: does the structure that currently exists on the property where I plan to build still have value and will it continue to sustain its value? It doesn't matter how much energy you save if you're carting the structure off to a landfill in 1-2 generations. Rehabilitating old and inefficient buildings can save energy through embodied energy and reduce energy consumption. And with a few sustainability practices, also improve the health and well being of its occupants. New construction - even when done in an environmentally friendly way - still requires the use of irreplaceable natural resources. And the consumption of those resources has real, measurable impacts. For example, a recent study by the UK's Empty Homes Agency found that it takes 35-50 years for a new energy-efficient single-family home to recover the carbon expended during its construction.
5. It Preserves Techniques and Heirlooms That Can No Longer Be Duplicated
There are valuable lessons in preservation that can inform current building decisions and that we cannot learn in any other way. Lasers, computers, and high tech equipment can't replicate early construction techniques, many of which have been lost or are underappreciated. These early techniques yield a product highly different in character, texture, and appearance than new ones. Many families learn about the character and culture of their ancestors through the observation of their early built environment.
1. It's Good for the Community
Preservation of older structures adds to a sense of identity, educating the community about its history and helping it citizens to amplify their collective historical heritage and culture. In the case of architecture, context often matters. Keeping buildings on their original sites can contribute to an understanding of how and why the community and its character developed.
2. It's Good for the Economy
We can look to the reuse of the High Line Rail in NYC as a model for what preservation, the use of embodied energy, and reuse of the abandoned elevated train artery can do for a local economy. The West Chelsea neighborhood restaurants, shops, galleries, and other businesses in this largely forgotten area of NYC have profited immensely from recent increased usage, traffic, and tourism to the area after High Line was reopened as a walkway and native plant preserve. Substantially different buildings in bulk, form, scale and arrangement are emerging, while still preserving key visual features through restoration and reuse of abandoned existing buildings in the neighborhood. This contributes to employment density and a new pool of patrons for the businesses.
"Dollar for dollar, rehabilitation creates more jobs than new construction. One study in the US, for example, found that $1 million invested in the rehabilitation of an existing building creates 9-13 more jobs than the same $1 million invested in new construction. Why? Because rehabilitation is more labor-intensive than new construction - that is, it requires more man-hours and fewer materials. An economy that is more labor-intensive and less materials-intensive is a greener economy," says Richard Moe of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
3. It Makes Good Economic Sense
In many cases, remodeling or rehabilitation of an existing structure can be far less expensive than demolishing and building a completely new structure.
4. It's Good for the Environment
Most professionals in the construction industry are aware of and agree with the current trends in the use of green materials and practices in new construction. But, the green movement has largely disregarded the inherent advantages of building reuse, including the primary one-embodied energy. At the core of sustainability practices should be the question: does the structure that currently exists on the property where I plan to build still have value and will it continue to sustain its value? It doesn't matter how much energy you save if you're carting the structure off to a landfill in 1-2 generations. Rehabilitating old and inefficient buildings can save energy through embodied energy and reduce energy consumption. And with a few sustainability practices, also improve the health and well being of its occupants. New construction - even when done in an environmentally friendly way - still requires the use of irreplaceable natural resources. And the consumption of those resources has real, measurable impacts. For example, a recent study by the UK's Empty Homes Agency found that it takes 35-50 years for a new energy-efficient single-family home to recover the carbon expended during its construction.
5. It Preserves Techniques and Heirlooms That Can No Longer Be Duplicated
There are valuable lessons in preservation that can inform current building decisions and that we cannot learn in any other way. Lasers, computers, and high tech equipment can't replicate early construction techniques, many of which have been lost or are underappreciated. These early techniques yield a product highly different in character, texture, and appearance than new ones. Many families learn about the character and culture of their ancestors through the observation of their early built environment.
59th Street Lexington Subway Platforms Show Best Why American Civilization is Ending
Nothing illustrates the economic and moral bankruptcy of the country
that calls itself a superpower better than the midtown Manhattan subway
complex on Lexington avenue. I recently had the misfortune to find
myself there after a light rain. Above the station, the area is filled
with rather impressive corporate high rise structures and large window
stores. The stores seem to be large corporate middlemen chains that
satisfy American desire for goods that their economic/political system
is unable to provide. They link foreign manufacturers with shoppers
eager to try on things made in Italy, China, and even Malaysia. These
large open chains are staffed with local peoples such as minorities
living on the outskirts of New York and white college graduates unable
to find employment in their field. But that's a story for another day. I
am mentioning the flashy above ground consumer bazaars to provide a
contrast to what goes on underground. After all, midtown Manhattan is
not only one of the supposedly most sophisticated areas of American
civilization, but one of the wealthiest to live in.
I descend about 2 floors down and find myself on a platform where local trains stop. The air got noticeably stuffier and less pleasant. I see that the instead of columns going to the ceiling there are just steel beams that are just recoated with paint occasionally. I am distracted however and find that I am on the wrong platform for the uptown headed train. I find an underpass and go through it. The underpass is rather rather narrow and filthy. There's various dirty doors on each side. If somebody was shown a picture of such a passage, they would think they are looking at a hallway of a third world local holding prison. It definitely had an oppressive yellowish atmosphere of a structure where the authorities don't care if its underfunded since the people using it don't matter. Considering it's just a quick underpass I really didn't give it much thought as I emerged on the other side.
Missing an uptown local train leaving the station, as a mob of people squeezed into it with great urgency, I decided to try my luck with the uptown express train. I followed the sign leading to its stairwell. It turned out that the express platform is much deeper underground (compared to the cheap trench construction American standard) and even has an escalator. Escalators are absent on most other stations throughout the city and even this seemingly deep tunnel only had one up escalator. However, there do seem to be elevators at some points for pregnant women, those with baby carriages, and the elderly. As I descended the air got more oppressive and I began to feel this urge to almost go back up due to the increasingly stuffiness and dankness around me. I saw people begin to ride the escalator from below. Great, another train missed. That gave me a great educational opportunity to observe that lay ahead of me in great detail.
As I exit on the uptown express platform, the first thing that strikes my eye is how low the ceilings are. They are already low as a rule of thumb in NYC, but this deepest station takes the cake. As I look on what is just a few feet above me, I see brown rust and grime stretching in all directions covering everything. Huge protruding paint flakes covered with layers of industrial dust are everywhere and are rather uniform. It doesn't appear to be just one patch but every single bit of the ceiling. It then occurred to me that the garbage and dirt above me is not an isolated incident or result of some construct project. It appeared to have been the NORMAL state of the platform. Unlike the thick steel beams every few meters, authorities didn't care enough or didn't have the funds to pay anybody to rip off the flakes and throw some paint on the ceiling. Such state of disrepair perhaps can be expected in underground sewage systems, old Soviet factories, or unused World War 2 bunker hallways and such. It was incredible sight to see at a mass transit hub. My entire attention was transfixed on the dark flaky garbage colored ceiling. The sheer unpleasantness of it was mesmerizing since it was everywhere without contrast to "repaired" patches or something resembling a ceiling of an often used complex.
My gaze slowly drifted down to the metal wall separating the two train tracks. The uneven rust and thick cover of industrial dust did not end. Visualize one of the large machines working at a landfill to scoop or bulldoze the garbage and dirt. The texture and color of both the ceiling and separator walls was same as the bulldozer's unwashed blade. It had similar clumps of unidentifiable matter stuck on to it. If one takes into account the floor and track (to which I'll get to in a moment), over 75% of the surface at a Manhattan midtown subway station was the same as one within a garbage compactor.
Numbly I turn my attention down and see water and garbage.
No I am not in Mumbai, Tbilisi, or Mexico City. This is an important city in United States and home to thousands of millionaires. There were literally pools of water and piles of garbage a couple yards away from me alongside the entire length of the visible train tracks. There was probably more water there than usual because of the rain but I have come across subway stations where water is always present regardless of conditions outside. I thought to myself that at least there's no water dripping onto the platform itself. As I walked further where there was a cluster of waiting people, there was liquid dripping from some source in the ceiling onto the waiting area. The ghastly visual was complete with a large crushed cockroach by the stairwell opening and a rat that scurried amidst the garbage and water bottles by the tracks. Some of the water bottles in question had such a thick layer of industrial dirt on them and seemed to be so embedded into the ground to suggest possibility of weeks or even months of being there.
What brought a nauseating feeling was not the fact of being in a dungeon the interior of which is not even suited for an overcrowded prison in Pakistan or Iran. It was the fact that such a garbage filled filthy dungeon is totally accepted by millions of transit users in one of the richest cities of a supposed superpower. Millions of people spend thousands of hours of their life waiting down there and enjoying the scenery with all of their 5 senses. I had a strong urge to videotape and take photographs of these scenes just in case they get closed down tomorrow because of some public health decree. Of course they wont disappear since they've been getting slightly more filthy every year due to continual fiscal situation within NYC governance. And then an absurd realization came over me that if people were to stand with their gaping mouths while taking many pictures, they could theoretically get stopped by the authorities. I am not sure whether post-911 camera photography ban is still in place but the mere legalistic possibility added to the absurdity.
The people at the platform were not he happiest looking bunch. Their facial expressions were those of downright misery and hopelessness. There was some unfriendly anger scattered on the faces of the business suit wearing whites in their 30s, but most in the waiting cluster had a resigned unhappy look. Importance of portable music is clearly on display here. It is amazing that residents of New York City ( city that the world thinks itself very familiar with from endless movies and overfly shots of the skyscrapers) could come to a point where they accept the squalor of their infrastructure. Their faces tell that they feel it, are subconsciously unnerved by it, but have trained to suppress it and become resigned. Some individuals, finding nothing pleasant to look at, fidgeted and paced while occasionally leaning to look for the train. There were no overhanging electronic screens like in London (which doesn't have the best subway in the world mind you) to notify when the next train is coming or when any trains are coming. It seemed we've spent a long time down there but it was just a few minutes.
It's a wonder that the MTA transit strikes don't happen more often considering the average salary of about 50 grand for those toiling for years in the garbage and rodent filled darkness. Perhaps the threats of fining a million dollar per day against the unions and other Giuliani era tactics work after all.
The train that arrived was the new silver model used on the green line. It was already caked with splotches of brown dirt and it seemed unthinkable that there could be an older model in its place. Of course most NYC trains are indeed the older dimmer lit models used more often to service connections to minority neighborhoods. Those trains don't have the cutting edge technology of telling you what time it is or what the next stop is without the occasional barking from the wired audio. The people on the train weren't much happier and greeted the newcomers with looks of downright hostility. The whole miserable experience was only ended with climbing out into the rainy street outside.
I descend about 2 floors down and find myself on a platform where local trains stop. The air got noticeably stuffier and less pleasant. I see that the instead of columns going to the ceiling there are just steel beams that are just recoated with paint occasionally. I am distracted however and find that I am on the wrong platform for the uptown headed train. I find an underpass and go through it. The underpass is rather rather narrow and filthy. There's various dirty doors on each side. If somebody was shown a picture of such a passage, they would think they are looking at a hallway of a third world local holding prison. It definitely had an oppressive yellowish atmosphere of a structure where the authorities don't care if its underfunded since the people using it don't matter. Considering it's just a quick underpass I really didn't give it much thought as I emerged on the other side.
Missing an uptown local train leaving the station, as a mob of people squeezed into it with great urgency, I decided to try my luck with the uptown express train. I followed the sign leading to its stairwell. It turned out that the express platform is much deeper underground (compared to the cheap trench construction American standard) and even has an escalator. Escalators are absent on most other stations throughout the city and even this seemingly deep tunnel only had one up escalator. However, there do seem to be elevators at some points for pregnant women, those with baby carriages, and the elderly. As I descended the air got more oppressive and I began to feel this urge to almost go back up due to the increasingly stuffiness and dankness around me. I saw people begin to ride the escalator from below. Great, another train missed. That gave me a great educational opportunity to observe that lay ahead of me in great detail.
As I exit on the uptown express platform, the first thing that strikes my eye is how low the ceilings are. They are already low as a rule of thumb in NYC, but this deepest station takes the cake. As I look on what is just a few feet above me, I see brown rust and grime stretching in all directions covering everything. Huge protruding paint flakes covered with layers of industrial dust are everywhere and are rather uniform. It doesn't appear to be just one patch but every single bit of the ceiling. It then occurred to me that the garbage and dirt above me is not an isolated incident or result of some construct project. It appeared to have been the NORMAL state of the platform. Unlike the thick steel beams every few meters, authorities didn't care enough or didn't have the funds to pay anybody to rip off the flakes and throw some paint on the ceiling. Such state of disrepair perhaps can be expected in underground sewage systems, old Soviet factories, or unused World War 2 bunker hallways and such. It was incredible sight to see at a mass transit hub. My entire attention was transfixed on the dark flaky garbage colored ceiling. The sheer unpleasantness of it was mesmerizing since it was everywhere without contrast to "repaired" patches or something resembling a ceiling of an often used complex.
My gaze slowly drifted down to the metal wall separating the two train tracks. The uneven rust and thick cover of industrial dust did not end. Visualize one of the large machines working at a landfill to scoop or bulldoze the garbage and dirt. The texture and color of both the ceiling and separator walls was same as the bulldozer's unwashed blade. It had similar clumps of unidentifiable matter stuck on to it. If one takes into account the floor and track (to which I'll get to in a moment), over 75% of the surface at a Manhattan midtown subway station was the same as one within a garbage compactor.
Numbly I turn my attention down and see water and garbage.
No I am not in Mumbai, Tbilisi, or Mexico City. This is an important city in United States and home to thousands of millionaires. There were literally pools of water and piles of garbage a couple yards away from me alongside the entire length of the visible train tracks. There was probably more water there than usual because of the rain but I have come across subway stations where water is always present regardless of conditions outside. I thought to myself that at least there's no water dripping onto the platform itself. As I walked further where there was a cluster of waiting people, there was liquid dripping from some source in the ceiling onto the waiting area. The ghastly visual was complete with a large crushed cockroach by the stairwell opening and a rat that scurried amidst the garbage and water bottles by the tracks. Some of the water bottles in question had such a thick layer of industrial dirt on them and seemed to be so embedded into the ground to suggest possibility of weeks or even months of being there.
What brought a nauseating feeling was not the fact of being in a dungeon the interior of which is not even suited for an overcrowded prison in Pakistan or Iran. It was the fact that such a garbage filled filthy dungeon is totally accepted by millions of transit users in one of the richest cities of a supposed superpower. Millions of people spend thousands of hours of their life waiting down there and enjoying the scenery with all of their 5 senses. I had a strong urge to videotape and take photographs of these scenes just in case they get closed down tomorrow because of some public health decree. Of course they wont disappear since they've been getting slightly more filthy every year due to continual fiscal situation within NYC governance. And then an absurd realization came over me that if people were to stand with their gaping mouths while taking many pictures, they could theoretically get stopped by the authorities. I am not sure whether post-911 camera photography ban is still in place but the mere legalistic possibility added to the absurdity.
The people at the platform were not he happiest looking bunch. Their facial expressions were those of downright misery and hopelessness. There was some unfriendly anger scattered on the faces of the business suit wearing whites in their 30s, but most in the waiting cluster had a resigned unhappy look. Importance of portable music is clearly on display here. It is amazing that residents of New York City ( city that the world thinks itself very familiar with from endless movies and overfly shots of the skyscrapers) could come to a point where they accept the squalor of their infrastructure. Their faces tell that they feel it, are subconsciously unnerved by it, but have trained to suppress it and become resigned. Some individuals, finding nothing pleasant to look at, fidgeted and paced while occasionally leaning to look for the train. There were no overhanging electronic screens like in London (which doesn't have the best subway in the world mind you) to notify when the next train is coming or when any trains are coming. It seemed we've spent a long time down there but it was just a few minutes.
It's a wonder that the MTA transit strikes don't happen more often considering the average salary of about 50 grand for those toiling for years in the garbage and rodent filled darkness. Perhaps the threats of fining a million dollar per day against the unions and other Giuliani era tactics work after all.
The train that arrived was the new silver model used on the green line. It was already caked with splotches of brown dirt and it seemed unthinkable that there could be an older model in its place. Of course most NYC trains are indeed the older dimmer lit models used more often to service connections to minority neighborhoods. Those trains don't have the cutting edge technology of telling you what time it is or what the next stop is without the occasional barking from the wired audio. The people on the train weren't much happier and greeted the newcomers with looks of downright hostility. The whole miserable experience was only ended with climbing out into the rainy street outside.
Rent Control in New York City
Throughout this essay, I will expound on the background of Rent
Control in New York City; the debate/controversy over it in New York
City, including historical and present opposition to as well as
historical and present support for it. In addition, I will discuss
opposition and support for it in other U.S. cities; my opinion of the
opposition as well as support for Rent Control.
What is Rent Control? It is a program administered by the New York City Office of Rent Administration, which is responsible for regulating rents in about 1.2 million privately owned rental units statewide under four laws: the Emergency Housing Rent Control Law, the Local Emergency Tenant Control Act, the Rent Stabilization Law, and the Emergency Tenants Protection Act (ETPA). The preceding four laws are the foundation of the rent regulation systems commonly known as "Rent Control" and rent stabilization (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). However, the focus of this essay will be centered on New York City because of the limited scope of this paper.
Rent Control usually applies to residential buildings constructed before February 1947 in 55 municipalities (including New York City, Albany, Buffalo and various cities, towns, and villages in Albany, Erie, Nassau, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Westchester counties), that have not declared an end to the postwar rental housing emergency (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). The rules are as follows: for an apartment to be rent controlled, the tenant (or his/her parents) must have been living in that apartment continuously since before July 1, 1971. If a rent controlled apartment should become vacant, it will either become rent stabilized, or, if it is in a building with fewer than six units, it is generally removed from regulation. In addition, an apartment in a one- or two-family house without commercial units must have a tenant in continuous occupancy since March 31, 1953 in order for it to be legally rent controlled. Once it is vacated after March 31, 1953, it is no longer subject to regulation. Previously controlled apartments are usually decontrolled on various other grounds (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
Rent Control restricts the right of an owner to evict tenants and limits the rent an owner may charge for an apartment. It also requires the owner to provide essential services and equipment. For example, the owner must provide and maintain all services furnished or required to be furnished on the base date of May 1, 1950 for rent controlled apartments outside of NYC, and March 1, 1943 for those within NYC. Moreover, modifications required and essential services may have been ordered thereafter, with an appropriate adjustment in rent. The essential services may include, but are not limited to: repairs; maintenance; the furnishing of light; heat; hot and cold water; elevator service; kitchen ; bath and laundry facilities and privileges; janitor service, and removal of refuse (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), outside NYC, determines maximum allowable rates of rent increases under the aforementioned regulation. Periodically, owners may apply for these increases. On the other hand, the said regulation operates under the Maximum Base Rent (MBR) system in NYC. MBR allows a maximum base rent to be established for each apartment which is adjusted every two years to reflect changes in operating costs. Furthermore, owners who certify that they are providing essential services and have removed violations may raise rents by up to 7.5% each year until the MBR limit is reached (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). In turn, tenants may challenge the increase on the grounds that the building has violations or the owner's expenses do not warrant an increase. They may do so by filing Challenge Re: Maximum Base Rent Order (DHCR Form RA-94 MBR). Owners may challenge Maximum Base Rent Orders by filing DHCR Form RA-94 MBR, also (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
"Rents may be increased in other ways: (1) if the owner increases services or substantially rehabilitates a building or installs a major capital improvement; (2) hardship; (3) increased labor costs; (4) in NYC, increased fuel costs (passalongs)" (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). In turn, DHCR may decrease rents in certain cases: substantial, uncorrected code violations and reductions in services including facilities, space or equipment, or ancillary services (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
The preceding paragraphs depict the background and the law of rent controlled housing which contribute to the debate/controversy of it. The main argument of the opposition to the regulation is that it prevents developers from building new housing as illustrated in the following quote,
"It is hard to find any economist who supports rent restraints. Price controls, even if laboriously tweaked, inevitably produce inefficiencies, reduce supply and cause bad side-effects. Black markets and bribery thrive. Building maintenance is often ignored. Landlords and tenants find themselves in poisonous relationships, since they are linked by law rather than by voluntarily renewable contracts. Unscrupulous property owners go to dangerous lengths to evict tenants in order to get higher-paying replacements; as a result, tenant-protection laws have been enacted that make it almost impossible to evict even a scoundrel" (Economist.com, 2003, para 10).
In turn, the main argument of the support for the law is that it creates stability as illustrated by the following quote,
"Now, in principle I think rent control is great-- people shouldn't be driven out of their homes because the neighborhood gets richer and they don't. Landlords getting the profits from increased real estate values is a bit of a scam to begin with since they are benefitting [sic] from social progress in a neighborhood, not their own efforts" (Newman, 2003, para 1).
If we describe supporters of price control on the renting of residential housing as good and opponents of it as bad.... Do we call greedy, opportunistic and hypocritical flip floppers ("do as I say but don't do as I do" on Rent Control) - ugly? So is the case of Robert Nozick, author of the 1974 National Book Award winner: "Anarchy, State and Utopia" which solidified the Harvard philosophy professor's reputation as the intellectual hero of libertarians. Dr. Nozick preaches the supremacy of free markets being the key to a successful society and capitalism should be given a free hand to operate without external interference such as the economic interventionism of contemporary liberals (Tucker, 2003). However, like his conservative cousins (T.V. evangelists) - Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart: preachers of the ugliness of sin - Dr. Nozick doesn't always practice what he preaches.... Then, again, he is a living testament to the adage: "there's no atheist in a foxhole because everyone prays to God when their life (self-interest) is on the line."
Case in point: Professor Nozick - an eminent anti-price control advocate successfully used price control laws on the renting of residential housing in Cambridge, Massachusetts against his landlord, the renowned classical scholar and author of "Love Story" - Eric Segal. Eric Segal was forced to settle the lawsuit, in order, to get Professor Nozick to move out of his condominium apartment (Tucker, 2003).
The above paragraphs illustrate the make-up of the debate/controversy of rent-control. Let's continue with the opposition to such control in New York City by starting with its historical roots. According to Economist.com (2003,) - an anti-price control advocate, the law on the renting of residential housing was one of many price controls brought in during the grim, panicky period between the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 and America's move to a full wartime economy in 1943. Like rubber, petroleum, coffee and shoes, housing was looked upon as a vital commodity that needed to be regulated for 'the good of the citizens' during a time of war. The Economist.com article (2003) mentioned above continued to lament that by 1947 all the price controls were phased out, except property-price regulations. Specifically, the website pointed out that most cities eventually scrapped the preceding market distortions except the capital of capitalism - New York City (Economist.com, 2003).
From its inception to its current form, the rent ordinance is vitriolically resisted by its opponents - mainly landlords and free market economists. For example, Swedish Economist Assar Lindbeck compared the effects of the ordinance on a city to a city destroyed by bombing. Walter Block, holder of the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics at Loyola University's Joseph A. Butt, S. J. College of Business Administration, offered an anecdote on his website, illustrating that it is worse than bombing (Block, 2002). (Seriously, I wondered if Dr. Block considers it to be more destructive on an urban center than the Nagasaki and Hiroshima's nuclear bombing or Washington, D.C. and New York City's 9/11 attacks)?
The main complaints against ceiling on rents in New York City seem to be centered on the following.... First, it is a government-mandated price control which is a law that places a maximum price (rent ceiling) on what landlords may charge tenants. In turn, rent ceiling causes shortages, diminution in the quality of the product, and queues, as in the case of other price ceilings (Block, 2002).
Second, it diverts new investment, which would otherwise have gone to rental housing, toward other profitable ventures. Thus, the diversion leads to housing deterioration, to fewer repairs and less maintenance. For example, price ceiling has destroyed entire sections of sound housing in New York's South Bronx whereas it has led to decay and abandonment throughout the entire five boroughs of the city (Block, 2002).
Third, it often benefits the wealthy and politically connected long term tenants instead of tenants who need it most - lower middle class and working class tenants. For example, multimillionaire Ed Koch currently resides in a rent-controlled apartment which he maintained while living in City Hall as the Mayor of New York City.
Let's take a look at the support for rent law in New York City by starting with its historical roots. The rent ceiling program in New York City, like most major cities in Western Europe and North America during World War I, was introduced to mitigate disruptive effects of the War and to prevent profiteering. Subsequently, in some cities, the programs were discontinued after the War while they lingered on in other cities. In World War II, rent freezes were imposed throughout the major cities of Western Europe and North America. Again, all North American cities were fully decontrolled by about 1950 with the exception of New York City (Arnott, 1997).
From its inception to its current form, the housing law is steadfastly supported by its supporters - mainly tenants, and liberal and socialist leaning organizations and politicians. For example, Rachel Treichler (an avid supporter) - the Green Party candidate for New York Attorney General in 2006 made it in New York City and affordable housing in general as one of her major planks in her campaign platform (Voterachel.org). Another example is Betsy Gotbaum - Public Advocate for the City of New York who vociferously campaigned against rent deregulation prior to the expiration of New York City said housing laws in 2003 (Pubadvocate.nyc.gov, 2003).
The main praises for laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing in New York City seem to be centered on the following.... First, it allows working class families and retirees to live in good neighborhoods in N.Y.C. For example, a minimum wage earner would have to work 154 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at market rent. Second, New York City depends on the diverse work force for her economy; without Rent Control, working class families would have to relocate to other affordable cities. Third, it minimizes tough decisions by working class and retired tenants, such as choosing between rent and food or medication (Pubadvocate.nyc.gov, 2003).
In other cities, opponents and supporters of laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing voiced similar arguments. In Hoboken, New Jersey, its advocates are able to successfully maintain the status quo despite their community undergoing a major gentrification. In Santa Monica, California, its advocates were able to introduce rent control to the community while simultaneously electing pro-rent control City council members in 1979. In Baltimore, Maryland, its advocates developed a citywide housing organization after a pro-rent control law was struck down as unconstitutional by state courts. In San Francisco, California, its advocates eventually won a rent control law despite many hurdles engineered by opponents (Policylink.org, 2006). In Cambridge, Massachusetts, its opponent Jerry Calen of Narsil.org (2003) reported that the effort to re-impose rent control in Cambridge was defeated by slightly more than a 3 to 2 margin.
I personally unabashedly support laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing in New York City for all the reasons and arguments by its advocates reported depicted in this essay, despite being a homeowner. My opinion of the positions taken by its opponents is similar to my opinion of the positions taken by opponents of the Minimum Wage. For example, opponents like Dr. Nozick base their opinions in their own self-interest instead of the interest of the common good.
Another personal example of the housing ordinance is illustrated in the case of my former professor and an assistant department chair (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) who co-authored a textbook with another of my former professors (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The textbook, like most economics textbooks, is highly critical of rent ceiling because of its relationship to the odiousness of price controls. Nonetheless, the professor maintains a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan along with his privately owned house in Upstate New York. Is my professor's case similar to Dr. Nozick's case? I think not ...although my answer is very biased. From my personal experience, my professor's ethics are impeccable and he is of an irreproachable character. He is one of my best former professors (along with the other mentioned professor). Continuing my disclosure, I earned an A in one of his honor classes because of his superb teaching skills. He, also, selected me to be on a college academic team that earned third place in a nationwide economics competition. OK, so what is my point? My point is rent ceiling like Minimum Wage has a gray area that is situated between the extremes of 'black' (opponents) and 'white' (supporters) - a gray area best illustrated by the following quote:
"Rent control has been presented to fifty years of economics students as
an object lesson in bad policy. Over that period, however, the nature of rent control has changed from a rent freeze to rent regulation which allows each jurisdiction to choose its policy from an extensive menu of provisions. At the same time, economic theory has become more sophisticated and sensible while the standards for the empirical testing of theory have increased enormously. As a result, expert opinion on the effects of modern rent control policies has become increasingly agnostic" (Arnott, 1997).
What is Rent Control? It is a program administered by the New York City Office of Rent Administration, which is responsible for regulating rents in about 1.2 million privately owned rental units statewide under four laws: the Emergency Housing Rent Control Law, the Local Emergency Tenant Control Act, the Rent Stabilization Law, and the Emergency Tenants Protection Act (ETPA). The preceding four laws are the foundation of the rent regulation systems commonly known as "Rent Control" and rent stabilization (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). However, the focus of this essay will be centered on New York City because of the limited scope of this paper.
Rent Control usually applies to residential buildings constructed before February 1947 in 55 municipalities (including New York City, Albany, Buffalo and various cities, towns, and villages in Albany, Erie, Nassau, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Westchester counties), that have not declared an end to the postwar rental housing emergency (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). The rules are as follows: for an apartment to be rent controlled, the tenant (or his/her parents) must have been living in that apartment continuously since before July 1, 1971. If a rent controlled apartment should become vacant, it will either become rent stabilized, or, if it is in a building with fewer than six units, it is generally removed from regulation. In addition, an apartment in a one- or two-family house without commercial units must have a tenant in continuous occupancy since March 31, 1953 in order for it to be legally rent controlled. Once it is vacated after March 31, 1953, it is no longer subject to regulation. Previously controlled apartments are usually decontrolled on various other grounds (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
Rent Control restricts the right of an owner to evict tenants and limits the rent an owner may charge for an apartment. It also requires the owner to provide essential services and equipment. For example, the owner must provide and maintain all services furnished or required to be furnished on the base date of May 1, 1950 for rent controlled apartments outside of NYC, and March 1, 1943 for those within NYC. Moreover, modifications required and essential services may have been ordered thereafter, with an appropriate adjustment in rent. The essential services may include, but are not limited to: repairs; maintenance; the furnishing of light; heat; hot and cold water; elevator service; kitchen ; bath and laundry facilities and privileges; janitor service, and removal of refuse (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), outside NYC, determines maximum allowable rates of rent increases under the aforementioned regulation. Periodically, owners may apply for these increases. On the other hand, the said regulation operates under the Maximum Base Rent (MBR) system in NYC. MBR allows a maximum base rent to be established for each apartment which is adjusted every two years to reflect changes in operating costs. Furthermore, owners who certify that they are providing essential services and have removed violations may raise rents by up to 7.5% each year until the MBR limit is reached (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). In turn, tenants may challenge the increase on the grounds that the building has violations or the owner's expenses do not warrant an increase. They may do so by filing Challenge Re: Maximum Base Rent Order (DHCR Form RA-94 MBR). Owners may challenge Maximum Base Rent Orders by filing DHCR Form RA-94 MBR, also (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
"Rents may be increased in other ways: (1) if the owner increases services or substantially rehabilitates a building or installs a major capital improvement; (2) hardship; (3) increased labor costs; (4) in NYC, increased fuel costs (passalongs)" (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006). In turn, DHCR may decrease rents in certain cases: substantial, uncorrected code violations and reductions in services including facilities, space or equipment, or ancillary services (New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal, 2006).
The preceding paragraphs depict the background and the law of rent controlled housing which contribute to the debate/controversy of it. The main argument of the opposition to the regulation is that it prevents developers from building new housing as illustrated in the following quote,
"It is hard to find any economist who supports rent restraints. Price controls, even if laboriously tweaked, inevitably produce inefficiencies, reduce supply and cause bad side-effects. Black markets and bribery thrive. Building maintenance is often ignored. Landlords and tenants find themselves in poisonous relationships, since they are linked by law rather than by voluntarily renewable contracts. Unscrupulous property owners go to dangerous lengths to evict tenants in order to get higher-paying replacements; as a result, tenant-protection laws have been enacted that make it almost impossible to evict even a scoundrel" (Economist.com, 2003, para 10).
In turn, the main argument of the support for the law is that it creates stability as illustrated by the following quote,
"Now, in principle I think rent control is great-- people shouldn't be driven out of their homes because the neighborhood gets richer and they don't. Landlords getting the profits from increased real estate values is a bit of a scam to begin with since they are benefitting [sic] from social progress in a neighborhood, not their own efforts" (Newman, 2003, para 1).
If we describe supporters of price control on the renting of residential housing as good and opponents of it as bad.... Do we call greedy, opportunistic and hypocritical flip floppers ("do as I say but don't do as I do" on Rent Control) - ugly? So is the case of Robert Nozick, author of the 1974 National Book Award winner: "Anarchy, State and Utopia" which solidified the Harvard philosophy professor's reputation as the intellectual hero of libertarians. Dr. Nozick preaches the supremacy of free markets being the key to a successful society and capitalism should be given a free hand to operate without external interference such as the economic interventionism of contemporary liberals (Tucker, 2003). However, like his conservative cousins (T.V. evangelists) - Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart: preachers of the ugliness of sin - Dr. Nozick doesn't always practice what he preaches.... Then, again, he is a living testament to the adage: "there's no atheist in a foxhole because everyone prays to God when their life (self-interest) is on the line."
Case in point: Professor Nozick - an eminent anti-price control advocate successfully used price control laws on the renting of residential housing in Cambridge, Massachusetts against his landlord, the renowned classical scholar and author of "Love Story" - Eric Segal. Eric Segal was forced to settle the lawsuit, in order, to get Professor Nozick to move out of his condominium apartment (Tucker, 2003).
The above paragraphs illustrate the make-up of the debate/controversy of rent-control. Let's continue with the opposition to such control in New York City by starting with its historical roots. According to Economist.com (2003,) - an anti-price control advocate, the law on the renting of residential housing was one of many price controls brought in during the grim, panicky period between the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 and America's move to a full wartime economy in 1943. Like rubber, petroleum, coffee and shoes, housing was looked upon as a vital commodity that needed to be regulated for 'the good of the citizens' during a time of war. The Economist.com article (2003) mentioned above continued to lament that by 1947 all the price controls were phased out, except property-price regulations. Specifically, the website pointed out that most cities eventually scrapped the preceding market distortions except the capital of capitalism - New York City (Economist.com, 2003).
From its inception to its current form, the rent ordinance is vitriolically resisted by its opponents - mainly landlords and free market economists. For example, Swedish Economist Assar Lindbeck compared the effects of the ordinance on a city to a city destroyed by bombing. Walter Block, holder of the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics at Loyola University's Joseph A. Butt, S. J. College of Business Administration, offered an anecdote on his website, illustrating that it is worse than bombing (Block, 2002). (Seriously, I wondered if Dr. Block considers it to be more destructive on an urban center than the Nagasaki and Hiroshima's nuclear bombing or Washington, D.C. and New York City's 9/11 attacks)?
The main complaints against ceiling on rents in New York City seem to be centered on the following.... First, it is a government-mandated price control which is a law that places a maximum price (rent ceiling) on what landlords may charge tenants. In turn, rent ceiling causes shortages, diminution in the quality of the product, and queues, as in the case of other price ceilings (Block, 2002).
Second, it diverts new investment, which would otherwise have gone to rental housing, toward other profitable ventures. Thus, the diversion leads to housing deterioration, to fewer repairs and less maintenance. For example, price ceiling has destroyed entire sections of sound housing in New York's South Bronx whereas it has led to decay and abandonment throughout the entire five boroughs of the city (Block, 2002).
Third, it often benefits the wealthy and politically connected long term tenants instead of tenants who need it most - lower middle class and working class tenants. For example, multimillionaire Ed Koch currently resides in a rent-controlled apartment which he maintained while living in City Hall as the Mayor of New York City.
Let's take a look at the support for rent law in New York City by starting with its historical roots. The rent ceiling program in New York City, like most major cities in Western Europe and North America during World War I, was introduced to mitigate disruptive effects of the War and to prevent profiteering. Subsequently, in some cities, the programs were discontinued after the War while they lingered on in other cities. In World War II, rent freezes were imposed throughout the major cities of Western Europe and North America. Again, all North American cities were fully decontrolled by about 1950 with the exception of New York City (Arnott, 1997).
From its inception to its current form, the housing law is steadfastly supported by its supporters - mainly tenants, and liberal and socialist leaning organizations and politicians. For example, Rachel Treichler (an avid supporter) - the Green Party candidate for New York Attorney General in 2006 made it in New York City and affordable housing in general as one of her major planks in her campaign platform (Voterachel.org). Another example is Betsy Gotbaum - Public Advocate for the City of New York who vociferously campaigned against rent deregulation prior to the expiration of New York City said housing laws in 2003 (Pubadvocate.nyc.gov, 2003).
The main praises for laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing in New York City seem to be centered on the following.... First, it allows working class families and retirees to live in good neighborhoods in N.Y.C. For example, a minimum wage earner would have to work 154 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at market rent. Second, New York City depends on the diverse work force for her economy; without Rent Control, working class families would have to relocate to other affordable cities. Third, it minimizes tough decisions by working class and retired tenants, such as choosing between rent and food or medication (Pubadvocate.nyc.gov, 2003).
In other cities, opponents and supporters of laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing voiced similar arguments. In Hoboken, New Jersey, its advocates are able to successfully maintain the status quo despite their community undergoing a major gentrification. In Santa Monica, California, its advocates were able to introduce rent control to the community while simultaneously electing pro-rent control City council members in 1979. In Baltimore, Maryland, its advocates developed a citywide housing organization after a pro-rent control law was struck down as unconstitutional by state courts. In San Francisco, California, its advocates eventually won a rent control law despite many hurdles engineered by opponents (Policylink.org, 2006). In Cambridge, Massachusetts, its opponent Jerry Calen of Narsil.org (2003) reported that the effort to re-impose rent control in Cambridge was defeated by slightly more than a 3 to 2 margin.
I personally unabashedly support laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing in New York City for all the reasons and arguments by its advocates reported depicted in this essay, despite being a homeowner. My opinion of the positions taken by its opponents is similar to my opinion of the positions taken by opponents of the Minimum Wage. For example, opponents like Dr. Nozick base their opinions in their own self-interest instead of the interest of the common good.
Another personal example of the housing ordinance is illustrated in the case of my former professor and an assistant department chair (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) who co-authored a textbook with another of my former professors (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The textbook, like most economics textbooks, is highly critical of rent ceiling because of its relationship to the odiousness of price controls. Nonetheless, the professor maintains a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan along with his privately owned house in Upstate New York. Is my professor's case similar to Dr. Nozick's case? I think not ...although my answer is very biased. From my personal experience, my professor's ethics are impeccable and he is of an irreproachable character. He is one of my best former professors (along with the other mentioned professor). Continuing my disclosure, I earned an A in one of his honor classes because of his superb teaching skills. He, also, selected me to be on a college academic team that earned third place in a nationwide economics competition. OK, so what is my point? My point is rent ceiling like Minimum Wage has a gray area that is situated between the extremes of 'black' (opponents) and 'white' (supporters) - a gray area best illustrated by the following quote:
"Rent control has been presented to fifty years of economics students as
an object lesson in bad policy. Over that period, however, the nature of rent control has changed from a rent freeze to rent regulation which allows each jurisdiction to choose its policy from an extensive menu of provisions. At the same time, economic theory has become more sophisticated and sensible while the standards for the empirical testing of theory have increased enormously. As a result, expert opinion on the effects of modern rent control policies has become increasingly agnostic" (Arnott, 1997).
Things to Consider in Kitchen Remodeling
The thought of doing some kitchen remodeling in your New York
City home or apartment might have crossed your mind a dozen times. But
you keep putting off the idea because you do not know where to begin.
As in every project, the key to a successful kitchen remodeling in New York is planning. Create an outline of the steps you need to take. Below are the things you have to consider before turning on the green light on your renovation project and hiring an NYC contractor:
1- Set your budget. Your kitchen remodeling budget must be set before you start your project. In line with that, be sure that you will be able to manage your budget wisely all throughout the renovation process to avoid having to stop the project with an unfinished kitchen.
2- Gather ideas. With all the media sources available nowadays, there are a lot of ways to gather ideas for remodeling your kitchen. Do a lot of research! Check out magazines, watch lifestyle channels with home improvement shows and search the Internet for the latest innovations that you might want to have in your kitchen. Jot down your notes and hold on to them. They will prove themselves useful during the planning.
3- Know your wants and needs. This is the step where you narrow down the ideas you have jotted down to fit in to your taste, your needs and budget.
4- Request an estimate. Contractors in NYC offer quotes or estimates for renovation projects, including, but not limited to, kitchen remodeling. While requesting for an estimate cost, be sure to bring up your budget, your ideas, and the set up of your home or apartment.
5- Hiring a contractor. When choosing a contractor for your NYC home or apartment to do your kitchen remodeling project, be sure to get one that is made of a team of experts in their fields. New York General Contractor, for instance, is a one-stop-shop for all renovation needs. They also give you advise on the constantly changing building codes to inform you whether or not what you wish to construct and/or renovate is according to the city regulations.
6- Design. Be comfortable to discuss everything you want and need for your kitchen with your contractor and designers. Communicate every single detail - from the backsplash, cabinets and countertops to tiles, sinks and faucets. Should you wish to spice up your kitchen with accessories, your designers will certainly put them in place that will perfect the look of your kitchen.
Kitchen remodeling in a big city like New York may be a tedious and daunting task. Having a skilled NYC contractor will definitely ease you off your worries and help you achieve the kitchen you have always wanted. The best thing about renovation projects, particularly kitchen remodeling in NYC, is that it adds a hefty percentage on your property value, which guarantees a good investment from every penny you spent.
As in every project, the key to a successful kitchen remodeling in New York is planning. Create an outline of the steps you need to take. Below are the things you have to consider before turning on the green light on your renovation project and hiring an NYC contractor:
1- Set your budget. Your kitchen remodeling budget must be set before you start your project. In line with that, be sure that you will be able to manage your budget wisely all throughout the renovation process to avoid having to stop the project with an unfinished kitchen.
2- Gather ideas. With all the media sources available nowadays, there are a lot of ways to gather ideas for remodeling your kitchen. Do a lot of research! Check out magazines, watch lifestyle channels with home improvement shows and search the Internet for the latest innovations that you might want to have in your kitchen. Jot down your notes and hold on to them. They will prove themselves useful during the planning.
3- Know your wants and needs. This is the step where you narrow down the ideas you have jotted down to fit in to your taste, your needs and budget.
4- Request an estimate. Contractors in NYC offer quotes or estimates for renovation projects, including, but not limited to, kitchen remodeling. While requesting for an estimate cost, be sure to bring up your budget, your ideas, and the set up of your home or apartment.
5- Hiring a contractor. When choosing a contractor for your NYC home or apartment to do your kitchen remodeling project, be sure to get one that is made of a team of experts in their fields. New York General Contractor, for instance, is a one-stop-shop for all renovation needs. They also give you advise on the constantly changing building codes to inform you whether or not what you wish to construct and/or renovate is according to the city regulations.
6- Design. Be comfortable to discuss everything you want and need for your kitchen with your contractor and designers. Communicate every single detail - from the backsplash, cabinets and countertops to tiles, sinks and faucets. Should you wish to spice up your kitchen with accessories, your designers will certainly put them in place that will perfect the look of your kitchen.
Kitchen remodeling in a big city like New York may be a tedious and daunting task. Having a skilled NYC contractor will definitely ease you off your worries and help you achieve the kitchen you have always wanted. The best thing about renovation projects, particularly kitchen remodeling in NYC, is that it adds a hefty percentage on your property value, which guarantees a good investment from every penny you spent.
How to Have a Delicious Barbecue Experience
Barbecue tastes good all year round, wherever you are, whether
you're at a New York barbecue restaurant or a South Carolina one. There
is certain protocol to follow, however, when enjoying this most American
of foods. Read on to learn how to best appreciate good barbecue.
Firstly, don't worry about how you'll look bibbing yourself. If you're really going to enjoy your meat, you may get messy. Expect it and prepare for it. If you feel self-conscious about wearing a napkin as a bib, make sure you have plenty of napkins, or preferably even a wet napkin nearby. If you're eating ribs, you may have to use your hands, unless the meat is so tender it falls off the bone. Even then you may want to suck the morsels and fat from the bone. This is rude most of the time, but when you're eating barbecue, society makes exceptions.
Next, let's talk about your options. Ribs are traditional barbecue fare, and if you're out at a restaurant, you may consider getting them since they're so hard to make well at home. Fried chicken is another popular restaurant item, as are BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, wings and catfish. Some BBQ restaurants offer jumbo fried shrimp and beef brisket too. The latter is also tricky to do right in your kitchen, so judge accordingly. Burgers can be satisfying, but remember, you can get a burger anywhere - you're at a barbecue restaurant - act like it.
Sides are just as important, if not more so, than the meat itself. Corn on the cob is a good vegetable, but even better, are collard greens, turnip greens or ramps, another form of slightly bitter greens, often cooked with pork for flavor. When it comes to carbs, mashed potatoes, potato salad, candied yams, mac and cheese or French fries are all a good choice; it depends on your personal preference. But baked beans and cornbread are, or at least should be, standard in all barbecue meals.
As far as desert goes, if you possibly have room after such a stuff-fest, think pie a la mode, preferably apple with vanilla ice cream. But sweet potato or pecan pies are delicious, as is a good old peach cobbler.
When you work with the restaurant to eat their best items, you will be most satisfied. This article should have helped, and if you have any more questions, draw on the waiter for some Southern Hospitality and advice on what to order.
Firstly, don't worry about how you'll look bibbing yourself. If you're really going to enjoy your meat, you may get messy. Expect it and prepare for it. If you feel self-conscious about wearing a napkin as a bib, make sure you have plenty of napkins, or preferably even a wet napkin nearby. If you're eating ribs, you may have to use your hands, unless the meat is so tender it falls off the bone. Even then you may want to suck the morsels and fat from the bone. This is rude most of the time, but when you're eating barbecue, society makes exceptions.
Next, let's talk about your options. Ribs are traditional barbecue fare, and if you're out at a restaurant, you may consider getting them since they're so hard to make well at home. Fried chicken is another popular restaurant item, as are BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, wings and catfish. Some BBQ restaurants offer jumbo fried shrimp and beef brisket too. The latter is also tricky to do right in your kitchen, so judge accordingly. Burgers can be satisfying, but remember, you can get a burger anywhere - you're at a barbecue restaurant - act like it.
Sides are just as important, if not more so, than the meat itself. Corn on the cob is a good vegetable, but even better, are collard greens, turnip greens or ramps, another form of slightly bitter greens, often cooked with pork for flavor. When it comes to carbs, mashed potatoes, potato salad, candied yams, mac and cheese or French fries are all a good choice; it depends on your personal preference. But baked beans and cornbread are, or at least should be, standard in all barbecue meals.
As far as desert goes, if you possibly have room after such a stuff-fest, think pie a la mode, preferably apple with vanilla ice cream. But sweet potato or pecan pies are delicious, as is a good old peach cobbler.
When you work with the restaurant to eat their best items, you will be most satisfied. This article should have helped, and if you have any more questions, draw on the waiter for some Southern Hospitality and advice on what to order.
The Importance of Taking Your Biz Carbon Negative
Yesterday morning I was listening to Al Gore on CNN being grilled on all the hoopla around climate change:
Is it really man-made? (Today less Americans think so than a few years ago.)
Are environmentalists hypocritical for changing their position on nuclear power?
What about ClimateGate? (The recent stolen e-mails from scientists in regards to climate change.)
And as you probably well know, the reason these questions are so hot right now is this week started the UN's Climate Change summit in Copenhagan, Denmark. Over 90 heads of state will be attending and putting in their special interests, including Obama's next week.
In the interview today Gore did well keeping the conversation focused on the core issue: excessive carbon in the atmosphere has already started cooking us. Little credible scientific evidence disputes this.
How does this relate to small business?
Simple: when we can demonstrate how to make money removing carbon from the atmosphere, there will be a stampede of entrepreneurs heading for 'dem hills!
To do this will take carbon negative companies.
Examples of carbon negative companies here in NYC:
Alive Structures - green roofs and walls as well as ecological and container gardens.
Gotham Green - Urban rooftop farming using hydroponics (just water, no soil.)
re:char - bio fuel and fertilizers using biochar and pyrolysis technologies.
Rooftop farms - Urban rooftop vegetable farms.
These green technology companies are really state-of-the-art.
I have personally met with and/or worked with these guys and some have been successful raising substantial dollars from outside sources to get their businesses to the next level.
Yet the early adopters that jump on board and mold these technologies to today's market are the ones that are most likely to do extremely well.
A sustainable carbon negative company takes:
a) Profitability (or for non-profits, financial stability.)
b) Carbon sequestration-the conversion of carbon into oxygen, via photosynthesis, or its long-term storage in biomass or underground or underwater.
c) A program for taking care of your stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, community, etc.)
d) A plan for reducing your business' carbon footprint.
While this can be technical stuff and is just now starting to be done, already some are showing very promising results.
Meanwhile, back in Copenhagen, I, along with many others, have a beef. The agenda is reviewing some fairly complicated and somewhat convoluted suggestions for dealing with companies that are belching out carbon into the atmosphere.
Cap and trade, which includes carbon credits, trading and offsets is the key model being considered right now. But it has some serious flaws and most likely will not be successful.
To learn the basics on Cap & Trade from an excellent brand new video, check out The Story of Cap & Trade by Annie Leonard.
A model I (as well as many others) feel would be much more successful is a simple one: to tax carbon emitters. All of them/us!
So the leaders are in Copenhagen along with their financial experts trying and figure out how to manage the carbon crisis. And I prefer to stay here in NYC helping small businesses build a solution from the ground up.
My two companies, BEST Coaches and The Shift Group are launching a pilot program The Green Business Mastery Program for early next year. We will be working with green companies, helping increase their revenue by $100,000 and get fully funded while going carbon negative.
We intend to produce Unreasonable results much faster than what is expected to come out of Copenhagen.
Action Steps for the Week
Review your business model. Calculate your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon you are producing)? Even if you have a service based company. And then how to reduce your carbon.
Next, look to see how you can actually convert carbon into oxygen. As mentioned above, you can best do this using photosynthesis (live, green, leafy plants and trees). How can you build this up in your home, office and community?
Perhaps you can make it a mission for your business to do this on the side? If so, how can you then leverage it to gain attention to your commitment to carbon reduction on the planet?
Perhaps you can partner with a company to help you do this program. Who can you contact for this...
...today?
Is it really man-made? (Today less Americans think so than a few years ago.)
Are environmentalists hypocritical for changing their position on nuclear power?
What about ClimateGate? (The recent stolen e-mails from scientists in regards to climate change.)
And as you probably well know, the reason these questions are so hot right now is this week started the UN's Climate Change summit in Copenhagan, Denmark. Over 90 heads of state will be attending and putting in their special interests, including Obama's next week.
In the interview today Gore did well keeping the conversation focused on the core issue: excessive carbon in the atmosphere has already started cooking us. Little credible scientific evidence disputes this.
How does this relate to small business?
Simple: when we can demonstrate how to make money removing carbon from the atmosphere, there will be a stampede of entrepreneurs heading for 'dem hills!
To do this will take carbon negative companies.
Examples of carbon negative companies here in NYC:
Alive Structures - green roofs and walls as well as ecological and container gardens.
Gotham Green - Urban rooftop farming using hydroponics (just water, no soil.)
re:char - bio fuel and fertilizers using biochar and pyrolysis technologies.
Rooftop farms - Urban rooftop vegetable farms.
These green technology companies are really state-of-the-art.
I have personally met with and/or worked with these guys and some have been successful raising substantial dollars from outside sources to get their businesses to the next level.
Yet the early adopters that jump on board and mold these technologies to today's market are the ones that are most likely to do extremely well.
A sustainable carbon negative company takes:
a) Profitability (or for non-profits, financial stability.)
b) Carbon sequestration-the conversion of carbon into oxygen, via photosynthesis, or its long-term storage in biomass or underground or underwater.
c) A program for taking care of your stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, community, etc.)
d) A plan for reducing your business' carbon footprint.
While this can be technical stuff and is just now starting to be done, already some are showing very promising results.
Meanwhile, back in Copenhagen, I, along with many others, have a beef. The agenda is reviewing some fairly complicated and somewhat convoluted suggestions for dealing with companies that are belching out carbon into the atmosphere.
Cap and trade, which includes carbon credits, trading and offsets is the key model being considered right now. But it has some serious flaws and most likely will not be successful.
To learn the basics on Cap & Trade from an excellent brand new video, check out The Story of Cap & Trade by Annie Leonard.
A model I (as well as many others) feel would be much more successful is a simple one: to tax carbon emitters. All of them/us!
So the leaders are in Copenhagen along with their financial experts trying and figure out how to manage the carbon crisis. And I prefer to stay here in NYC helping small businesses build a solution from the ground up.
My two companies, BEST Coaches and The Shift Group are launching a pilot program The Green Business Mastery Program for early next year. We will be working with green companies, helping increase their revenue by $100,000 and get fully funded while going carbon negative.
We intend to produce Unreasonable results much faster than what is expected to come out of Copenhagen.
Action Steps for the Week
Review your business model. Calculate your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon you are producing)? Even if you have a service based company. And then how to reduce your carbon.
Next, look to see how you can actually convert carbon into oxygen. As mentioned above, you can best do this using photosynthesis (live, green, leafy plants and trees). How can you build this up in your home, office and community?
Perhaps you can make it a mission for your business to do this on the side? If so, how can you then leverage it to gain attention to your commitment to carbon reduction on the planet?
Perhaps you can partner with a company to help you do this program. Who can you contact for this...
...today?
Hi, my name is Stefan Doering. Since 1987, I've been pioneering
new approaches to environmental business and sustainability. After
having started one of the first green retail businesses in the country
and growing it to one of the largest, I now have coached hundreds of
green businesses as well as teach green entrepreneurism for various NYC
programs and at Columbia University's Center for Environmental Research
and Education. I focus on three major areas:
1) Innovating powerful green business models,
2) Crafting and implementing marketing and positioning strategies for bringing green to mainstream, and
3) Creating a consistently profitable and sustainable business.
1) Innovating powerful green business models,
2) Crafting and implementing marketing and positioning strategies for bringing green to mainstream, and
3) Creating a consistently profitable and sustainable business.
New York City Tours - 7 Ways to Visit Famous NYC Film Locations
New York City and the movies - they go together like romantic and comedy, like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, like been there and done that.
There are so many attractions in New York City - the beautiful, the
busy, the rare, the grandiose. Here is a list of 7 ways to design your
New York City tour around the films we all know and love.
1. There are several ready-made entertainment-based tours in New York City. One of the newest is the Sex and the City tour. This is a tour for the girlfriends. We're talking cupcakes, shopping, and girls-night-out. The tour is designed by On Location Tours and takes you and your friends to the places made famous by Carrie, Samantha, Charolotte, and Miranda. The tour now includes locations from the movie as well.
2. On Location Tours also designs our next two choices. Central Park is so crowded with film locations, you'll think you've been there before. A Central Park Movie Walking Tour breaks it down for you and guides you through the famous Trump-Wollman rink featured in several films, the Boathouse Cafe and the Bethesda Fountain from films like When Harry Met Sally and One Fine Day, and Tavern on the Green not just featured in films but frequented by real life celebrities. The tour lasts about 2 hours, and remember - it's a walking tour, so change out of those Sex and the City heels before you begin.
3. If you wax more nostalgic over the Cosby Show and those six famous friends than you do over full-length films, then try On Location's New York TV and Movie Sites tour. Their website tells you to come ready to sing t.v. theme songs as they show you the apartment building famous as Monica and Chandler's, the diner way-too-often frequented by Seinfeld and his friends, and yes, you can sit on the steps of Cosby's townhouse. Wear an extra-large brightly-colored sweater if you'd like and sort out the meaning of parenthood and curfews. Television nostalgia is what this tour is all about.
4. Don't let the pros do it all for you. Central Park and the entire NBC line-up for the 80s and 90s could be a bit overwhelming on your own and better managed with a tour guide, but you could self-design your own movie tour and enjoy the sites of New York City your way. Personally, I think someone should design a Nora Ephron movie tour. Ephron is synonymous with New York City films and romantic comedies. Try two of the You've Got Mail locations for a quieter view of New York City. The 91st Street Garden is a privately maintained section of Riverside Garden along the Hudson and the scene for the beautiful finale between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the movie. After the garden - and I do recommend this site in the late spring or summer months, go to 201 W. 83rd and have coffee and a croissant at Cafe Lalo where the characters had intended to meet as internet soul mates. "The only thing pleasant about her was the way her hair fell across her forehead," Joe Fox said, but you'll find all kinds of pleasant things at Cafe Lalo with the classical and jazz music and specialty drinks and snacks.
5. How about some romance? Just try to watch Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's without getting a dreamy perspective on the famous jewelry store's window displays and little blue boxes. "Nothing bad could happen to you there," she believes. To actually eat breakfast there, you'll have to do it as she did: Order from somewhere else and eat it on the street outside. My favorite view of this store, however, comes from a movie with a different state in the name when in Sweet Home Alabama Patrick Dempsey's character ushers Reese Witherspoon through the back door, points to the many display cases and urges, "Pick one." Now that's a romantic trip to Tiffany's. After window shopping - if that's all you can manage - at Tiffany's, meet your romantic-other on the top of the Empire State Building, a romantic gesture made famous by An Affair To Remember and repeated several times in other films, including Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle. I really think this pair of locations should end up in somebody's home video collection labeled, "The night we got engaged."
6. If you're not ready for the engagement, though, I have the perfect date idea based on another New York City romantic comedy, Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. First you do a little shopping at Bloomingdale's located at 1000 3rd Avenue. This is where our couple first meets in the film while shopping for . . . gloves apparently. The store is located between 59th and 60th on which street you will find your next location, Serendipity 3, the ice cream shop-slash-novelty store where the couple visits next. The line at Serendipity's can be a bit daunting, so maybe this date should be an early morning shopping venture with a late brunch to beat the crowds.
7. If you're not looking for romance at all, I have the perfect duo for just plain New York city fun. There is a hot dog you absolutely must try if you visit New York City to celebrate films. The characters in You've Got Mail eat them, but the Gray's Papaya hot dog was immortalized I believe in the Matthew Perry/Salma Hayek film, Fools Rush In. Part restaurant, part street vendor, and dripping with New York City charm, the Gray's Papaya hot dog will set the perfect tone for fun and movie adventure in New York City. After that, it's quite a jog to the next location (which could be beneficial after that hot dog) but how about the giant toy store, F.A.O. Schwartz? You know you want to dance on that giant floor piano made famous by Tom Hanks in the movie, Big. Two stories of toys and the knowledge that you've played Chopsticks with your toes just like Tom. That's what these movie tours are all about.
Guaranteed - Hollywood will never stop filming in this amazingly versatile city. Consider writers and directors your personal tour guides for New York - without the corny jokes and accompanied by your favorite stars and stories.
1. There are several ready-made entertainment-based tours in New York City. One of the newest is the Sex and the City tour. This is a tour for the girlfriends. We're talking cupcakes, shopping, and girls-night-out. The tour is designed by On Location Tours and takes you and your friends to the places made famous by Carrie, Samantha, Charolotte, and Miranda. The tour now includes locations from the movie as well.
2. On Location Tours also designs our next two choices. Central Park is so crowded with film locations, you'll think you've been there before. A Central Park Movie Walking Tour breaks it down for you and guides you through the famous Trump-Wollman rink featured in several films, the Boathouse Cafe and the Bethesda Fountain from films like When Harry Met Sally and One Fine Day, and Tavern on the Green not just featured in films but frequented by real life celebrities. The tour lasts about 2 hours, and remember - it's a walking tour, so change out of those Sex and the City heels before you begin.
3. If you wax more nostalgic over the Cosby Show and those six famous friends than you do over full-length films, then try On Location's New York TV and Movie Sites tour. Their website tells you to come ready to sing t.v. theme songs as they show you the apartment building famous as Monica and Chandler's, the diner way-too-often frequented by Seinfeld and his friends, and yes, you can sit on the steps of Cosby's townhouse. Wear an extra-large brightly-colored sweater if you'd like and sort out the meaning of parenthood and curfews. Television nostalgia is what this tour is all about.
4. Don't let the pros do it all for you. Central Park and the entire NBC line-up for the 80s and 90s could be a bit overwhelming on your own and better managed with a tour guide, but you could self-design your own movie tour and enjoy the sites of New York City your way. Personally, I think someone should design a Nora Ephron movie tour. Ephron is synonymous with New York City films and romantic comedies. Try two of the You've Got Mail locations for a quieter view of New York City. The 91st Street Garden is a privately maintained section of Riverside Garden along the Hudson and the scene for the beautiful finale between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the movie. After the garden - and I do recommend this site in the late spring or summer months, go to 201 W. 83rd and have coffee and a croissant at Cafe Lalo where the characters had intended to meet as internet soul mates. "The only thing pleasant about her was the way her hair fell across her forehead," Joe Fox said, but you'll find all kinds of pleasant things at Cafe Lalo with the classical and jazz music and specialty drinks and snacks.
5. How about some romance? Just try to watch Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's without getting a dreamy perspective on the famous jewelry store's window displays and little blue boxes. "Nothing bad could happen to you there," she believes. To actually eat breakfast there, you'll have to do it as she did: Order from somewhere else and eat it on the street outside. My favorite view of this store, however, comes from a movie with a different state in the name when in Sweet Home Alabama Patrick Dempsey's character ushers Reese Witherspoon through the back door, points to the many display cases and urges, "Pick one." Now that's a romantic trip to Tiffany's. After window shopping - if that's all you can manage - at Tiffany's, meet your romantic-other on the top of the Empire State Building, a romantic gesture made famous by An Affair To Remember and repeated several times in other films, including Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle. I really think this pair of locations should end up in somebody's home video collection labeled, "The night we got engaged."
6. If you're not ready for the engagement, though, I have the perfect date idea based on another New York City romantic comedy, Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. First you do a little shopping at Bloomingdale's located at 1000 3rd Avenue. This is where our couple first meets in the film while shopping for . . . gloves apparently. The store is located between 59th and 60th on which street you will find your next location, Serendipity 3, the ice cream shop-slash-novelty store where the couple visits next. The line at Serendipity's can be a bit daunting, so maybe this date should be an early morning shopping venture with a late brunch to beat the crowds.
7. If you're not looking for romance at all, I have the perfect duo for just plain New York city fun. There is a hot dog you absolutely must try if you visit New York City to celebrate films. The characters in You've Got Mail eat them, but the Gray's Papaya hot dog was immortalized I believe in the Matthew Perry/Salma Hayek film, Fools Rush In. Part restaurant, part street vendor, and dripping with New York City charm, the Gray's Papaya hot dog will set the perfect tone for fun and movie adventure in New York City. After that, it's quite a jog to the next location (which could be beneficial after that hot dog) but how about the giant toy store, F.A.O. Schwartz? You know you want to dance on that giant floor piano made famous by Tom Hanks in the movie, Big. Two stories of toys and the knowledge that you've played Chopsticks with your toes just like Tom. That's what these movie tours are all about.
Guaranteed - Hollywood will never stop filming in this amazingly versatile city. Consider writers and directors your personal tour guides for New York - without the corny jokes and accompanied by your favorite stars and stories.
Homes For Sale in Jersey City, NJ
If you look at the real estate market today, you will notice that
there is an abundance of homes for sale in this great city. But what
makes these homes for sale so desirable? Well, for starters, it is
located directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, which is a
prime location for people to live, work, and play. This city will always
do fairly well, even in the toughest of economic times, due largely in
part to the pure location on which it sits. It is first and foremost a
commuter's dream come true, Second, it has great nightlife, great
landmark attractions, and great resources for people.
Homes for sale here will always have a great value because this city is often referred to as the "Tapestry of Nations", because of its rich racial diversity. Ellis Island is close within it's borders, so it's no wonder that this city enjoys such a great ethnic mix. You also have many great townhouses that have breathtaking NYC skyline views. Waterfront property here has often been referred to as "black gold"!
This great area also has many prestigious academic institutions, such as St. Peter's College, New Jersey City University, and some great tech schools. In fact, McNair Public High School has been dubbed the number one high school in the state of New Jersey, and ranks fifteenth overall in the nation. Many of it's economic influences are fortune 500 companies such as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, and others. All of these factors contribute to the aggressiveness of homes for sale. There really are so many wonderful things about this great city.
However, it is not all hustle and bustle, you know. It boasts some great parks and other green space! Lincoln Park and Liberty State Park are the largest parks in within its boundaries. Hiking, fishing, boating, and many other activities can be enjoyed in any one of these two parks. Homes for sale in the general city area also sell quickly because of these features. It is such an ideal place to raise a family. There are even mortgage incentives for people who live and work in within the confines of this city, and they are given in an effort to strengthen the City's local economy.
But, the only way to truly appreciate all that Jersey City has to offer, is to actually come and visit for yourself! Come spend a day, look at the real estate, dine out, and really get a feel for all that this great place has to offer.
Homes for sale here will always have a great value because this city is often referred to as the "Tapestry of Nations", because of its rich racial diversity. Ellis Island is close within it's borders, so it's no wonder that this city enjoys such a great ethnic mix. You also have many great townhouses that have breathtaking NYC skyline views. Waterfront property here has often been referred to as "black gold"!
This great area also has many prestigious academic institutions, such as St. Peter's College, New Jersey City University, and some great tech schools. In fact, McNair Public High School has been dubbed the number one high school in the state of New Jersey, and ranks fifteenth overall in the nation. Many of it's economic influences are fortune 500 companies such as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, and others. All of these factors contribute to the aggressiveness of homes for sale. There really are so many wonderful things about this great city.
However, it is not all hustle and bustle, you know. It boasts some great parks and other green space! Lincoln Park and Liberty State Park are the largest parks in within its boundaries. Hiking, fishing, boating, and many other activities can be enjoyed in any one of these two parks. Homes for sale in the general city area also sell quickly because of these features. It is such an ideal place to raise a family. There are even mortgage incentives for people who live and work in within the confines of this city, and they are given in an effort to strengthen the City's local economy.
But, the only way to truly appreciate all that Jersey City has to offer, is to actually come and visit for yourself! Come spend a day, look at the real estate, dine out, and really get a feel for all that this great place has to offer.
Painting Green - A Call to Decorative Artists
I believe that a sustainable business survives by holding to 3
core values: quality, understanding, and valuing personal, cultural and
environmental impact. In the field of decorative painting, we as artists
are often exposed to toxic products. The EPA has estimated that
architectural coatings account for almost 9% of the VOC emissions from
all consumer and commercial products. VOC is the amount of material
coming from the paint as it dries. New technology brings low and no VOC
(volatile organic compounds) formulas to latex paint. However, synthetic
dyes add VOC's back into the paint. We need to become responsible as
consumers by using 'green' products, and we need to become responsible
producers by employing healthful techniques. In this way we can provide
beautiful artwork without harmful effects to ourselves, our clientele,
or the environment.Wonderful techniques and products can be found in
ancient art.
Distemper paints made from water, vegetable glue/or eggs, and ground pigments, have been applied in decorative artwork for thousands of years. Lime-based paints have covered large surfaces for centuries, and have recently made a comeback due to their rich texture and durability. Lime-based plasters range from shiny to satinated to matte, fulfilling the duties of form and function-both sustainable and gorgeous! Casein paints are a combination of milk and ground pigments, providing durability and excellent color for furniture and wood floors.The combination of these products revives the ancient techniques of fresco and encaustic painting. Frescoes employ lime based plasters and milk based paints to create a naturally durable and unique medium for an artist to express the individual style of their client.
Encaustic painting is characterized by its hushed patina. This pigmented bees-wax can be applied in either a hot or cold technique. The hot technique is used with a heated tray to keep the wax supple, while the cold technique combines a solvent to soften the wax. Most solvents are toxic, however, Earth Paint Inc. makes a fantastic pure citrus solvent that is effective and 'green'. If you prefer ready-made rather than homemade products, keep these basic standards in mind: healthful paints and plasters should be derived from healthy, natural materials like clay or soy; make sure that the ingredients are listed and the additives are simple-synthesized molecules tend not to break down easily in the environment; use mineral or earth pigments whenever possible-they are colorfast and do not add VOC's to your paint or plaster. The Green Expo will be coming to the Hilton NY in NYC (53rd St and 6th Ave) from April 25th-27th , 2008. The 'business goes green' event is planned for Friday. The expo will run from 10-6 on Saturday, and 10-3 on Sunday. Tickets are $10 (seniors and children can attend for free). Organic, fair trade and environmentally sustainable products for personal, home and business use will be featured.
Distemper paints made from water, vegetable glue/or eggs, and ground pigments, have been applied in decorative artwork for thousands of years. Lime-based paints have covered large surfaces for centuries, and have recently made a comeback due to their rich texture and durability. Lime-based plasters range from shiny to satinated to matte, fulfilling the duties of form and function-both sustainable and gorgeous! Casein paints are a combination of milk and ground pigments, providing durability and excellent color for furniture and wood floors.The combination of these products revives the ancient techniques of fresco and encaustic painting. Frescoes employ lime based plasters and milk based paints to create a naturally durable and unique medium for an artist to express the individual style of their client.
Encaustic painting is characterized by its hushed patina. This pigmented bees-wax can be applied in either a hot or cold technique. The hot technique is used with a heated tray to keep the wax supple, while the cold technique combines a solvent to soften the wax. Most solvents are toxic, however, Earth Paint Inc. makes a fantastic pure citrus solvent that is effective and 'green'. If you prefer ready-made rather than homemade products, keep these basic standards in mind: healthful paints and plasters should be derived from healthy, natural materials like clay or soy; make sure that the ingredients are listed and the additives are simple-synthesized molecules tend not to break down easily in the environment; use mineral or earth pigments whenever possible-they are colorfast and do not add VOC's to your paint or plaster. The Green Expo will be coming to the Hilton NY in NYC (53rd St and 6th Ave) from April 25th-27th , 2008. The 'business goes green' event is planned for Friday. The expo will run from 10-6 on Saturday, and 10-3 on Sunday. Tickets are $10 (seniors and children can attend for free). Organic, fair trade and environmentally sustainable products for personal, home and business use will be featured.
Decorating Your Home to Match Your Hardwood Flooring
Hardwood flooring is becoming an extremely popular feature in
many homes. In fact when some people are on the hunt for a new place,
this is one of the things on their checklist. This aspect is so
important to some that they will refuse to purchase a house that doesn't
include it. Although this is a good feature to have, there are some
people who have this type of floor and aren't too fond of it. It's not
that they don't like the way it looks. They just aren't sure how to
match their furniture with it. Therefore, instead of it being something
that enhances the look of their home it becomes a drag and a burden. The
good news is there are several different ways that people can
incorporate different furniture styles, décor and wall paint colors to
match this type of floor style.
One color that tends to match well with brown is red. Someone could incorporate a red sofa set or an accent red wall. They could even add red table decorations or paintings that are predominantly red in color. They don't have to necessarily go overboard. However, making sure that red is one of the main colors in that particular room will help to create a great match between the floor and the décor.
White is another good color for those who have hardwood flooring. It doesn't necessarily blend with the floor. However, it allows the wood to pop. So, in effect the white would actually be working as a nice background color and not necessarily an accent or blending color. Of course, most people, especially those with kids would probably not want to purchase a white sofa. However, they can make other choices such as incorporating white accent pillows and flowers. This will help to bring the hardwood flooring to life. Another great idea is to make all of the walls white.
Another option that would help to really blend and connect the hardwood flooring to the rest of the home is to incorporate earth tone colors like brown, green and tan. These are the colors that are usually seen in nature. This is great because wood is a natural substance that comes from trees. So, if someone walked outside they would see these colors blending effortlessly together. So, bringing these same colors into a home with this type of floor style would produce the same effortless blending effect. So, instead of having the floor to pop out or to match one particular color, it would actually end up blending and creating a flow.
So, if there's anyone who has been having a hard time trying to incorporate their hardwood flooring into their home decoration pattern, there are several feasible options to choose from.
One color that tends to match well with brown is red. Someone could incorporate a red sofa set or an accent red wall. They could even add red table decorations or paintings that are predominantly red in color. They don't have to necessarily go overboard. However, making sure that red is one of the main colors in that particular room will help to create a great match between the floor and the décor.
White is another good color for those who have hardwood flooring. It doesn't necessarily blend with the floor. However, it allows the wood to pop. So, in effect the white would actually be working as a nice background color and not necessarily an accent or blending color. Of course, most people, especially those with kids would probably not want to purchase a white sofa. However, they can make other choices such as incorporating white accent pillows and flowers. This will help to bring the hardwood flooring to life. Another great idea is to make all of the walls white.
Another option that would help to really blend and connect the hardwood flooring to the rest of the home is to incorporate earth tone colors like brown, green and tan. These are the colors that are usually seen in nature. This is great because wood is a natural substance that comes from trees. So, if someone walked outside they would see these colors blending effortlessly together. So, bringing these same colors into a home with this type of floor style would produce the same effortless blending effect. So, instead of having the floor to pop out or to match one particular color, it would actually end up blending and creating a flow.
So, if there's anyone who has been having a hard time trying to incorporate their hardwood flooring into their home decoration pattern, there are several feasible options to choose from.
Creating a Budget to Purchase a Home
Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases that one will make in
one's lifetime. Undertaking a project this big needs careful thought and
planning. To ensure a smooth process of being a new homeowner, one must
have a budget for this.
Creating a budget that incorporates a purchase of a home starts with calculating income, expenses, and other factors that will affect how much one can afford to buy. Reviewing one's current household budget is a good start to know how much money one will have left after the purchase.
One should ensure that one would still have enough money to cover the new mortgage payments without sacrificing one's quality of living. As a rule of thumb, mortgage, real estate taxes and home insurance should not be more than 30% of the annual income. It would be a sad thing if at the end of it, one will be living in one's dream home already but will also be living from paycheck to paycheck.
To create the budget, one must also calculate how much can be paid as down payment in order to determine the amount or percentage of financing needed. This in turn, will indicate how much the mortgage payments will be. In general, down payments range from 5% to 20%. Other costs one will shoulder in buying a house are property tax, insurance, private mortgage insurance, and closing costs.
It would also help to make a list of the things that one wants in the new house to know how much would the things one will be buying or adding to the house cost. The list can be made in an order of highest priority to lowest so that it will be easy to take items off the list if the costs get too high.
So that it would be easier to create this budget, one can make use of free online calculators. Here, one will just have to input one's income after taxes, basic living expenses, bills, transportation and entertainment expenses, savings accounts and lastly, the estimated housing payments (down payment, mortgage, interest rate, other fees). The calculator will tally up the amount of what will remain from your income after you have bought the house.
Creating a budget that incorporates a purchase of a home starts with calculating income, expenses, and other factors that will affect how much one can afford to buy. Reviewing one's current household budget is a good start to know how much money one will have left after the purchase.
One should ensure that one would still have enough money to cover the new mortgage payments without sacrificing one's quality of living. As a rule of thumb, mortgage, real estate taxes and home insurance should not be more than 30% of the annual income. It would be a sad thing if at the end of it, one will be living in one's dream home already but will also be living from paycheck to paycheck.
To create the budget, one must also calculate how much can be paid as down payment in order to determine the amount or percentage of financing needed. This in turn, will indicate how much the mortgage payments will be. In general, down payments range from 5% to 20%. Other costs one will shoulder in buying a house are property tax, insurance, private mortgage insurance, and closing costs.
It would also help to make a list of the things that one wants in the new house to know how much would the things one will be buying or adding to the house cost. The list can be made in an order of highest priority to lowest so that it will be easy to take items off the list if the costs get too high.
So that it would be easier to create this budget, one can make use of free online calculators. Here, one will just have to input one's income after taxes, basic living expenses, bills, transportation and entertainment expenses, savings accounts and lastly, the estimated housing payments (down payment, mortgage, interest rate, other fees). The calculator will tally up the amount of what will remain from your income after you have bought the house.
NYC, New York - National Sports Museum
The first-ever museum dedicated to sports opened in April 2008,
slightly delayed from its estimated opening date of November 2006. This
100,000 sq-ft (9,290sq m) world-class museum, developed in the former
Cunard Passenger Ship Line building yard at a cost of $93 million, will
house interactive sports exhibits for all ages and cover sports
worldwide. Founded by Philip Schwalb, its mission is to celebrate the
history of all sports and their significance in our lives and culture,
on local, national and global levels. In fact, it brings together over
50 single sports halls of fame, museums and organizations across the US
that will provide exhibits and memorabilia. It also includes a Women's
Hall of Fame, headed by Billie Jean King and will be home to the
prestigious Heisman Trophy, which has been awarded to some of the most
notable athletes of the 20th century.
The National Sports Museum is a vibrant family attraction, with exciting exhibits, activities and interactive multimedia displays. It also offers rotating exhibits, great shopping opportunities, learning programs, a special event space and a sports-themed eatery. Surrounded by the key visitor sites of Lower Manhattan, the museum at Bowling Green will provide a slightly unusual as well as popular stop for those visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, as it is situated just two blocks from the ferries and only four blocks from the World Trade Center Memorial site. It is also near Battery Park, and is estimated to attract some 1.2 million visitors each year upon, more than any other sports museum in the country.
The National Sports Museum is a vibrant family attraction, with exciting exhibits, activities and interactive multimedia displays. It also offers rotating exhibits, great shopping opportunities, learning programs, a special event space and a sports-themed eatery. Surrounded by the key visitor sites of Lower Manhattan, the museum at Bowling Green will provide a slightly unusual as well as popular stop for those visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, as it is situated just two blocks from the ferries and only four blocks from the World Trade Center Memorial site. It is also near Battery Park, and is estimated to attract some 1.2 million visitors each year upon, more than any other sports museum in the country.
Top NYC Events to Spice Up Your Stay in the City
New York is the city of lights and there is a good reason behind
this name. When you are in New York, its environs are always set to
light up your day. It's home to famous landmarks like the Empire State
Building, Times Square, Bronx Zoo, The Statue of Liberty and Madison
Square Garden among several others. These spots play host to a variety
of entertaining events that bring together multitudes of New Yorkers.
This is enough assurance that a visit to New York would be a thrilling
one.
There are numerous events in NYC at the mercy of your attendance. One such event is the World Wide Knit In Public Day that occurs at Bryant Park. It is a sure bet to be an enjoyable event especially if you have a soft spot for knitting. At this event, you will interact with knitters engaged in making cardigans or crochets. If you are also a knitter, this is the perfect platform to gain new ideas about your skills. You can also share ideas with your fellow knitters and show them a thing or two about this activity. If you are a newbie, there is no cause to fret since there are complimentary classes for learners. This event occurs in June under serene and mellow conditions.
You may have probably heard of the Macy's Day Parade, an 88-year old Thanksgiving parade. The ambiance and passionate crowds are always the perfect ingredients for an enthralling experience. You will be in awe of numerous features like the Santa Claus float, Barney balloon, Kermit The Frog balloon and Popeye the Sailor Man. Additional sparkling elements of this event consist of live music, marching bands, Broadway shows and other featured performers. The Macy's Parade is a conglomerate of entertainment that produces a lively atmosphere.
St. Patrick's Day is another NYC event that you should make a point of attending. It is an occasion that commemorates the advent of Christianity in Ireland. Before joining other people in celebrating this Irish holiday, you should ensure that you are dressed in green. This adds a bit of personal gloss to the celebrations. Be prepared and ready for much feasting, parades, interactions and imbibing of alcohol.
Times Square Ball Drop is the ultimate event that sets the precedence for the array of events to follow in the year. If you fancy ushering in the New Year in style, then this event fits the bill. The highlight of the event is undoubtedly the countdown to the New Year. The next breathtaking feature is the lowering of the ball via a special flagpole. The century-old event draws millions of people including famous personalities. Attending this event translates to participating in a timeless part of New York history.
The fact that NYC is a favorite tourist destination for many people speaks volumes about its fun side. As a resident, you should worry less and indulge in these festivities. As a tourist, a visit to New York would be well worth your time and money.
There are numerous events in NYC at the mercy of your attendance. One such event is the World Wide Knit In Public Day that occurs at Bryant Park. It is a sure bet to be an enjoyable event especially if you have a soft spot for knitting. At this event, you will interact with knitters engaged in making cardigans or crochets. If you are also a knitter, this is the perfect platform to gain new ideas about your skills. You can also share ideas with your fellow knitters and show them a thing or two about this activity. If you are a newbie, there is no cause to fret since there are complimentary classes for learners. This event occurs in June under serene and mellow conditions.
You may have probably heard of the Macy's Day Parade, an 88-year old Thanksgiving parade. The ambiance and passionate crowds are always the perfect ingredients for an enthralling experience. You will be in awe of numerous features like the Santa Claus float, Barney balloon, Kermit The Frog balloon and Popeye the Sailor Man. Additional sparkling elements of this event consist of live music, marching bands, Broadway shows and other featured performers. The Macy's Parade is a conglomerate of entertainment that produces a lively atmosphere.
St. Patrick's Day is another NYC event that you should make a point of attending. It is an occasion that commemorates the advent of Christianity in Ireland. Before joining other people in celebrating this Irish holiday, you should ensure that you are dressed in green. This adds a bit of personal gloss to the celebrations. Be prepared and ready for much feasting, parades, interactions and imbibing of alcohol.
Times Square Ball Drop is the ultimate event that sets the precedence for the array of events to follow in the year. If you fancy ushering in the New Year in style, then this event fits the bill. The highlight of the event is undoubtedly the countdown to the New Year. The next breathtaking feature is the lowering of the ball via a special flagpole. The century-old event draws millions of people including famous personalities. Attending this event translates to participating in a timeless part of New York history.
The fact that NYC is a favorite tourist destination for many people speaks volumes about its fun side. As a resident, you should worry less and indulge in these festivities. As a tourist, a visit to New York would be well worth your time and money.
NYC Markets - Reviving Tradition Through Sustainable Symbiosis
Robert LaValva, the founder of the New Amsterdam Market, is a
self-proclaimed New Netherlander. "New Netherland," as he uses it,
refers to a time when New York City was known as New Amsterdam, the
capital of its surrounding territories that collectively composed New
Netherland (including LaValva's home state of New Jersey). When the
Dutch settlers first arrived in New York in 1624, they carried with them
nostalgia for their homeland and the hope that they could recreate it
abroad. Hence, New Netherland was born, along with the inspiration for
LaValva's current project: to revive the public market of New York.
Although its concept has been reinvented for a modern society, the idea of the public market as a setting to encourage the exchange of locally produced goods dates back to the arrival of the first Dutch settlers on the island. Even then, New York City was the commercial center of the surrounding region. Its primary function was to support the agriculture outside of the city by serving as a venue for local goods.
"I was inspired by the idea of New Amsterdam supporting the region of New Netherland," LaValva explained. "There is a very time-honored relationship between cities and the regions around them that has fallen apart in the last 100 years."
The New Amsterdam Market is not the same as, but rather an addition to, the City's thriving Greenmarkets, which are really a farmer's market-- about 99% of the vendors at any of the Greenmarket's 46 locations are farmers. The New Amsterdam Market is a purveyor's market, a place where the butchers, the bakers, and the candlestick makers can sell their wares. All local businesses within 500 miles of New York City are invited to participate. LaValva believes that his market is an inevitable next step as the Greenmarket model evolves to incorporate more local businesses.
"As more and more people want to support local agriculture, you can't just have farmers," he said. "As a purveyor's market, New Amsterdam Market will add greater depth, reach, and complexity to the alternative food system so many of us are striving to create, which must also include farmer's markets."
The first market was held in October 2005 at the New York City Municipal Building by Brooklyn Bridge. Since then two markets (one in December 2007 and June 2008) were held at the Seaport. LaValva considers his choice of this symbolic site a "project within a project," bringing New Yorkers back to the downtown Manhattan area. The most recent market in June was the most successful, attracting more than 65 vendors and about 8,000 people out into the summer heat. Crowds included New Yorkers from all over the five boroughs, as well as curious out-of-towners.
People's popsicles, a NYC-based company that makes their pops from local produce, was one of the vendors offered a stand at the 2008 market. Nathalie Jordi, one of the company's three popsicle-makers, also sees the need for a new market not just exclusive to farmers.
"Our company is delighted to use Greenmarket produce because it's fresh, local, and sustainably sourced, but we can't have a stand on the Greenmarket because we don't grow our own fruit," Jordi said. "New Amsterdam and Greenmarket are different, but both necessary and fully coexistable in New York City."Although preserving the environment and presenting another sustainable solution for New Yorkers is at the forefront of the New Amsterdam Market project, La Valva is reluctant to put a green label on his efforts.
"Sustainability is a dangerous word," LaValva cautioned. Anyone aware of pop culture can understand what he means by "dangerous." Society has become so inundated with so-called "green" products and services that the environmentalist vernacular has lost its meaning, an effect called "greenwashing." Big companies are so eager to associate themselves with the positive energy of the green movement that they often brand their unsustainable products as environmentally sound alternatives.
LaValva has his own take on sustainable. While the first aspect of his definition is in line with the traditional concept of sustainability, summarized in the question of how do we produce what we need without contaminating the environment, depleting resources, and compromising diversity, the second part is all his own. He believes that the earth's inhabitants should look to nature on how to live life because nature is the only thing that has remained unchanged since the earth's infancy. As an example, he points to German painter Albrect Dürer's "The Great Piece of Turf." The grass depicted in Dürer's painting from 1503 is no different from the grass now in Central Park. LaValva asks, have we (i.e. the entire human population, ever) been able to make something to last 506 years without changing?
The New Amsterdam Market is scheduled to commence its monthly meetings on June 28, however the exact location of the market is still unknown. It has been an ongoing goal for the organization to secure a permanent, covered, and public venue. LaValva held a successful fundraiser last February, Founded on Oyster Shells, in a gallery space in Hell's Kitchen, which brought in over $28,000. Patrons sipped local brews while snacking on artisan bread and butter. The star attraction of the evening was the bountiful oyster buffet, with oysters hailing from all regions of New Netherland.
Chris Quartuccio, the founder of the Blue Point Oyster Company, was in attendance to supervise the shucking and slurping of his South Bay pride and joy, the Blue Point Oyster. Native only to Long Island's Blue Point Bay, the name "Blue Point" was trademarked by a New York state law enacted in 1908. While Quartuccio distributes his product to Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, and locally in New York City, he feels that a market such as New Amsterdam would open up business. He supports the idea of "bringing all these artisan producers under one roof."
Despite the need to raise funds to secure a permanent home for the market, the fundraiser had an added significance for the director and his company. The year 2009 marks the Quadricentenntial Anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, beginning with Henry Hudson's discovery of the new York Harbor in September 1609.
"This year is an important year for New Netherland because 400 years ago the Dutch came to New World," he said. "It's the birth of the idea of New Netherland, the year people remember this region."
Although its concept has been reinvented for a modern society, the idea of the public market as a setting to encourage the exchange of locally produced goods dates back to the arrival of the first Dutch settlers on the island. Even then, New York City was the commercial center of the surrounding region. Its primary function was to support the agriculture outside of the city by serving as a venue for local goods.
"I was inspired by the idea of New Amsterdam supporting the region of New Netherland," LaValva explained. "There is a very time-honored relationship between cities and the regions around them that has fallen apart in the last 100 years."
The New Amsterdam Market is not the same as, but rather an addition to, the City's thriving Greenmarkets, which are really a farmer's market-- about 99% of the vendors at any of the Greenmarket's 46 locations are farmers. The New Amsterdam Market is a purveyor's market, a place where the butchers, the bakers, and the candlestick makers can sell their wares. All local businesses within 500 miles of New York City are invited to participate. LaValva believes that his market is an inevitable next step as the Greenmarket model evolves to incorporate more local businesses.
"As more and more people want to support local agriculture, you can't just have farmers," he said. "As a purveyor's market, New Amsterdam Market will add greater depth, reach, and complexity to the alternative food system so many of us are striving to create, which must also include farmer's markets."
The first market was held in October 2005 at the New York City Municipal Building by Brooklyn Bridge. Since then two markets (one in December 2007 and June 2008) were held at the Seaport. LaValva considers his choice of this symbolic site a "project within a project," bringing New Yorkers back to the downtown Manhattan area. The most recent market in June was the most successful, attracting more than 65 vendors and about 8,000 people out into the summer heat. Crowds included New Yorkers from all over the five boroughs, as well as curious out-of-towners.
People's popsicles, a NYC-based company that makes their pops from local produce, was one of the vendors offered a stand at the 2008 market. Nathalie Jordi, one of the company's three popsicle-makers, also sees the need for a new market not just exclusive to farmers.
"Our company is delighted to use Greenmarket produce because it's fresh, local, and sustainably sourced, but we can't have a stand on the Greenmarket because we don't grow our own fruit," Jordi said. "New Amsterdam and Greenmarket are different, but both necessary and fully coexistable in New York City."Although preserving the environment and presenting another sustainable solution for New Yorkers is at the forefront of the New Amsterdam Market project, La Valva is reluctant to put a green label on his efforts.
"Sustainability is a dangerous word," LaValva cautioned. Anyone aware of pop culture can understand what he means by "dangerous." Society has become so inundated with so-called "green" products and services that the environmentalist vernacular has lost its meaning, an effect called "greenwashing." Big companies are so eager to associate themselves with the positive energy of the green movement that they often brand their unsustainable products as environmentally sound alternatives.
LaValva has his own take on sustainable. While the first aspect of his definition is in line with the traditional concept of sustainability, summarized in the question of how do we produce what we need without contaminating the environment, depleting resources, and compromising diversity, the second part is all his own. He believes that the earth's inhabitants should look to nature on how to live life because nature is the only thing that has remained unchanged since the earth's infancy. As an example, he points to German painter Albrect Dürer's "The Great Piece of Turf." The grass depicted in Dürer's painting from 1503 is no different from the grass now in Central Park. LaValva asks, have we (i.e. the entire human population, ever) been able to make something to last 506 years without changing?
The New Amsterdam Market is scheduled to commence its monthly meetings on June 28, however the exact location of the market is still unknown. It has been an ongoing goal for the organization to secure a permanent, covered, and public venue. LaValva held a successful fundraiser last February, Founded on Oyster Shells, in a gallery space in Hell's Kitchen, which brought in over $28,000. Patrons sipped local brews while snacking on artisan bread and butter. The star attraction of the evening was the bountiful oyster buffet, with oysters hailing from all regions of New Netherland.
Chris Quartuccio, the founder of the Blue Point Oyster Company, was in attendance to supervise the shucking and slurping of his South Bay pride and joy, the Blue Point Oyster. Native only to Long Island's Blue Point Bay, the name "Blue Point" was trademarked by a New York state law enacted in 1908. While Quartuccio distributes his product to Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, and locally in New York City, he feels that a market such as New Amsterdam would open up business. He supports the idea of "bringing all these artisan producers under one roof."
Despite the need to raise funds to secure a permanent home for the market, the fundraiser had an added significance for the director and his company. The year 2009 marks the Quadricentenntial Anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, beginning with Henry Hudson's discovery of the new York Harbor in September 1609.
"This year is an important year for New Netherland because 400 years ago the Dutch came to New World," he said. "It's the birth of the idea of New Netherland, the year people remember this region."
Knowing the Ins and Outs of NYC Real Estate
Living in New York City can be drastically different from other
areas in the US. Prices of NYC real estate can differ quite a bit from
various areas within the US. As an example, if you were interested in
living in Upper West Side, the rates of real estate can be on the
steeper side. However, if you look at similar apartment sales NYC in
West End, the prices would be much lower. It all depends on the location
within NYC and your budget or preferences. If you are feeling rich and
have the money at hand, there are plenty of high end areas within like
Upper East Side and the Midtown West and Hell's Kitchen areas, which can
fulfill your expectations.
Doubling Prices
As per the recent report from a leading organization in the NYC real estate segment, housing prices have started doubling over the past decade within the Lower Manhattan and Battery Park City areas. Consider this fact. Just ten years back average prices of houses were around 710000 USD but now the same house would cost as much as 1.4 million USD. However, the recent statistics also show that apartment sales NYC have been increasing because of a drop of 12% during the past year.
Agents Helpful
While prices in the NYC real estate have been seeing upwards as well as downward trends, the good thing about all of this is that you can easily hire professional real estate brokers to help you out. If you want apartment rentals NYC these agents can help you get access to just the kind of place you are looking for. While people all across the US have started looking for apartment rentals Chelsea as well as other areas such as Fort Greene and Clinton Hill it is the NYC real estate agents who perfect the art of finding the best suited apartments as per individual customer needs. Most people who want to get apartment rentals NYC will need to pay something called finder's fee. However, on the whole, apartment rentals NYC prices have been dropping with home rates.
Least Expensive
If you are on a budget and still want some nice apartment rentals NYC there are some places, which are available at affordable rates. These include areas like Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill etc. In such areas typical studio apartments begin at rates like 1200 USD and the three bedroom apartments are priced at 3000 USD. The high end areas like Upper West Side, Upper East Side or Midtown areas begin at rates like 1600 USD and can increase by as much as 12000 USD every month.
If you feel you are ready to stay in the famed NYC real estate prime properties, you should also be ready to pay a good amount for either buying or planning travel to and from work if you choose the more affordable apartment rentals NYC. In any case, it is always best to seek professional assistance as such companies have contacts, networking with the best prime properties and will get you better deals in the process.
Doubling Prices
As per the recent report from a leading organization in the NYC real estate segment, housing prices have started doubling over the past decade within the Lower Manhattan and Battery Park City areas. Consider this fact. Just ten years back average prices of houses were around 710000 USD but now the same house would cost as much as 1.4 million USD. However, the recent statistics also show that apartment sales NYC have been increasing because of a drop of 12% during the past year.
Agents Helpful
While prices in the NYC real estate have been seeing upwards as well as downward trends, the good thing about all of this is that you can easily hire professional real estate brokers to help you out. If you want apartment rentals NYC these agents can help you get access to just the kind of place you are looking for. While people all across the US have started looking for apartment rentals Chelsea as well as other areas such as Fort Greene and Clinton Hill it is the NYC real estate agents who perfect the art of finding the best suited apartments as per individual customer needs. Most people who want to get apartment rentals NYC will need to pay something called finder's fee. However, on the whole, apartment rentals NYC prices have been dropping with home rates.
Least Expensive
If you are on a budget and still want some nice apartment rentals NYC there are some places, which are available at affordable rates. These include areas like Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill etc. In such areas typical studio apartments begin at rates like 1200 USD and the three bedroom apartments are priced at 3000 USD. The high end areas like Upper West Side, Upper East Side or Midtown areas begin at rates like 1600 USD and can increase by as much as 12000 USD every month.
If you feel you are ready to stay in the famed NYC real estate prime properties, you should also be ready to pay a good amount for either buying or planning travel to and from work if you choose the more affordable apartment rentals NYC. In any case, it is always best to seek professional assistance as such companies have contacts, networking with the best prime properties and will get you better deals in the process.
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