Could much-needed improvements be coming to Penn Station? That depends on who you ask. (Getty Images)
Life in this city moves pretty fast! In the words of the immortal Ferris Bueller, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. To keep you up to speed, we’ve compiled a quick roundup of what One Block Over’s editors have been reading, discussing, and buzzing about this week. Here’s what’s happening in NYC real estate:
City Rental, Country House
When is a second home really a first home? CNN’s Anna Bahney explored the phenomenon of people who want to own real estate but can’t afford to buy in the expensive city they call home. So they continue renting in the city as their primary residence and buy a weekend house in the country as well. An interesting way to venture into homeownership without having to shell out NYC-size prices, to be sure — as one of our editors said, it’s kind of like having dessert before dinner. Sometimes, you just want to!
Is Penn Station Expanding?
Here’s a rare topic that almost all New Yorkers agree on: Traveling through Penn Station is, how shall we put it … unpleasant. The chronically overcrowded Amtrak, LIRR, and MTA hub could certainly use some improvements, and Governor Cuomo this week proposed expanding it to alleviate its problems. As Daniel Geiger of Crain’s New York pointed out, this would require adding additional tracks and platforms, which would in turn mean acquiring and razing a block of buildings just south of the station, between West 31st and 30th streets and Seventh and Eighth avenues. However, some landlords and building owners on this block tell the press that they’re not willing to sell. As of right now, it looks like if the governor wants to make good on his promise to improve the lives of commuters, he may have to resort to using eminent domain.
Manhattan & Brooklyn 1-2BRs Under $1M on StreetEasy Article continues below
Fewer New Yorkers Are Getting Evicted
In nicer news for the state government, the rent-regulation laws enacted in Albany last year have apparently resulted in a near-20% drop in evictions. Eviction rates have plummeted in the six months since the laws were put into place, reports the New York Daily News’s Michael Gartland. As Judith Goldiner, head of the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit, told Gartland, “These laws and programs are noticeably working, and more New Yorkers are remaining in their homes.”
A By-the-Numbers Home
What’s the best way to make housing decisions? When one Manhattan couple had to leave their Columbia University apartment, they used a scientific-style “decision matrix” to determine where to move next. As reported by the New York Times’ Kim Velsey, they assigned numerical weights to more than 20 different factors of what they were looking for in an ideal apartment. Despite one half of the couple’s doctoral studies at Columbia, the matrix math led them all the way from Morningside Heights to Prospect Heights in Brooklyn: a much heftier commute to class, but an apartment they are happy with. Numbers don’t lie, I guess.
Manhattan & Brooklyn Rentals Under $3,000 on StreetEasy Article continues below
A Story That Stretches From Brooklyn to Nepal
Finally, what’s happening in NYC can sometimes lead thousands of miles away — and back. The Times’ Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura reported a fascinating tale of a near-extinct Nepalese language that is being kept alive, in no small part, inside a single apartment building in Flatbush. Seke is one of the rarest languages in the world: Of only 700 speakers left, 100 of them now live in NYC, and half of that 100 live in the same seven-story Flatbush building. Some are related to each other, some are not, but all work together to keep their native language from being forgotten. It’s a heartwarming and beautiful look at the strength of New York City’s communities.
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