Curbed
my first new york

Rumaan Alam Moved to New York With a Bottle of Acqua di Giò and $300

The novelist on his early years scrimping in New York, even after getting a job at Condé Nast.
  1. The Look Book Goes to a White-Coat Ceremony Newly minted students at Weill Cornell Medical College recently gathered for a rite of passage: receiving their white coats from the faculty.
  2. East Hampton’s Zero Bond Outpost Has Closed After a summer of 911 calls and controversy, the restaurant’s one-season lease at the Hedges Inn was not extended
  3. Larry Silverstein Outlasted Everyone There’s a lot of see-I-was-right-ness in his new memoir about rebuilding the World Trade Center — and often he was.
  4. In the Shack With Robert Caro The Power Broker is turning 50. His final LBJ book is almost — well, he won’t say exactly, but he’s trying for 900 words a day.
  5. Pete Davidson and Colin Jost’s Ferry Goes to Fashion Week Its first gig is for Tommy Hilfiger.
  6. Some Chump Drilled a Hole Through the Top of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel It was closed all afternoon.
  7. Listening In at Columbia’s First Day Back A heavy police presence and a lot of grumbling about the lines.
  8. How to Make Six Figures By Reporting Idling Trucks New York created a program that let citizens earn money by reporting polluters. Then it went to war with them.
  9. The Hoopla Over Ho-Hum A neighboring town challenged Bellport Village residents’ exclusive access to a Fire Island beach. The villagers aren’t having it.
  10. Park Avenue’s Park Is Coming Back. Partially. Eventually. Restoring part of a gracious streetscape that we once ceded to cars.
  11. Richard Kind Used to Sublet to Jon Stewart The actor, joining ‘Only Murders in the Building’ this season, talks about his early years in New York as a singing waiter and struggling actor.
  12. Nothing But Balloons at the Park Avenue Armory The experience is weird, garish, imperfect, and somehow still fun.
  13. The End of Our Decrepit Streetery Era New rules may have scared away many restaurants, but this may be the beginning of better outdoor dining.
  14. A Catskills Camp by a Bed-Stuy Queer Bar Singers’s new space has donkeys, a cedar-lined hot tub, and six tastefully renovated rooms.
  15. A Housing Expert on Kamala Harris’s New Proposals Turns out the presidential candidate has some YIMBY tendencies.
  16. The Rockaways Chief Lifeguard Who’s Been Rescuing Swimmers for Decades Janet Fash on her early days in the male-dominated lifeguard force and its hard-partying culture.
  17. Dog Parks Are Holding This City Together — For Now A pressure release valve for the city works with lots of money.
  18. The Look Book Goes to the ‘For the Girls’ Closet Sale Model Paloma Elsesser, stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, and friends cleared their coveted closets for a rare designer sale featuring sizes up to 4XL.
  19. How a Floating Pool in the East River Would Actually Work A scientist explains how the Plus Pool would make the East River clean enough to swim in.
  20. Why Are We Still Making Unshaded Playgrounds? The city’s newest park at Pier 42 is leaving kids scorching in the sun.
  21. Charlotte Shane Had an Aesthetic Crisis in a Midtown Old Navy The author on getting tricked into renting in Tribeca and her early days in New York City.
  22. The City Wants to Demolish a West Village Recreation Center The historic Tony Dapolito center with a Keith Haring mural is landmarked but the city says it’s too expensive to preserve.
  23. I Rented a Very Popular Backyard Pool It’s in Staten Island, and it’s the most-booked listing on the rent-by-the-hour app Swimply.
  24. The Look Book Goes to Gunnison Beach We spent a recent Saturday at the clothing-optional section of Sandy Hook Beach in New Jersey.
  25. A Sixteen-Foot-Tall Pigeon Comes to Nest on the High Line Please don’t feed Iván Argote’s monumental Dinosaur.
  26. How to Grow Weed in Your Apartment As of late June, New Yorkers 21 and older can legally grow cannabis at home. Here’s exactly how to do it.
  27. Pour a Little Frappuccino Out for the Astor Place Starbucks It’s closed after nearly 30 years.
  28. Walking Along the Seine Is Now ‘Worse Than the Eras Tour’ Olympics security rules have made it nearly impossible to get around without hitting a checkpoint or barricade.
  29. Printemps Is Coming to One Wall Street The Parisian luxury department store has a long history of operating in landmarks.
  30. The Queen Bunk-Bed Influencers Despite living in a tiny West Village studio, this couple will never go back to sharing a bed.
  31. The MTA’s Oldest Computer Controls Kept Going During the Global Tech Outage Most of the Cuomo-era countdown clocks on the lettered subway lines failed; the old ones on the numbered lines did not.
  32. Kareem Rahma Wore Wool Suits in the Summer Because of Mad Men The host of Subway Takes on moving to New York the year of Hurricane Sandy and the Alphabet City apartment where everyone came to crash.
  33. Shigeru Ban’s Dazzling Architecture of Time The architect’s approach (and choice of materials) embraces simplicity and change.
  34. The Look Book Goes to the Campus Galleries Upstate For the opening of Bortolami, James Cohan, kaufmann repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps, and kurimanzutto’s shared art space in Claverack.
  35. The City’s Quiet Crackdown on Kava Bars The businesses selling kava and kratom drinks have found themselves in a legal limbo.
  36. Why the Third Avenue Bridge Got Stuck Aging infrastructure? Global warming? Not exactly.
  37. The City’s Crawling With Feral Cats Obsessed volunteers are the only thing standing between the city and a stream of disease-ridden cats. They’re barely making a dent.
  38. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Power Supply Is Ancient and Failing Those hot-weather slowdowns and stoppages are largely the fault of one outdated piece of infrastructure.
  39. Crest Hardware Is Closing Owner Joe Franquinha confirmed the news in a letter to customers.
  40. The Look Book Goes to Brooklyn Prep’s Prom The high school’s senior class (and one precious junior) celebrated at Russo’s on the Bay in Queens with steak dinners and dancing.
  41. What Did Brooklyn Bridge Park Get So Right? Nearly 20 years after we broke ground, it’s more impressive than ever.
  42. Ikea Will Try (for the Third Time) to Open a Manhattan Store Three previous mini-stores, like your Lack coffee table, fell apart after only a couple of years.
  43. The Citi Bike Battery Crew Racing to Keep 15,000 Bikes Online Most docks don’t charge e-bikes (yet). These folks do.
  44. The West Village ‘Pink House’ Where the Naked Angels Play Developer Mark O’Brien bought a 185-year-old townhouse. Then he let actors take over.
  45. Ryan Serhant Was a Hand Model for AT&T The broker and Owning Manhattan reality star on his earliest days in the city.
  46. A Well-Engineered BQE Plan, Inspiration Not Included The city’s latest proposal rearranges the triple-cantilever section and declines the opportunity to do much more.
  47. What Is Stonewall in 2024? A touristy dive bar, an unfinished liberation movement, and now a visitor center within the National Park Service.
  48. The Four Seasons Hotel Is Coming Back After a four-year stalemate, Beanie Babies magnate Ty Warner has agreed to a reopening plan.
  49. How to Throw a Child’s Park Birthday Party in New York How tricky could it be to gather 25 kindergartners and their caregivers in Prospect Park on a Saturday afternoon? Actually quite.
  50. What Made Kathy Hochul Flip? Inside the governor’s sudden U-turn on congestion pricing.
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