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☆ ‘Mott Street’ Chronicles 4 Generations of Chinese American Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

MOTT STREET: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming, by Ava ChinOld family stories are hard to revivify, even when they’re good family stories. This is the problem Ava Chin is up against in her sensitive, ambitious, well-reported, heavily peopled yet curiously remote memoir-cum-history, “Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming.” It’s a book that has everything going for it except that intangible spark that crisp and confident storytelling throws off. The air is a bit still in this book, as if one is walking behind the docent on a long museum tour. Chin’s memoir takes its title from the narrow north-south road in Manhattan’s Chinatown that’s generally thought of as its Main Street, to which Chin’s family has a long and intricate and prosperous connection. When she’s on Mott Street, Chin feels she’s at home — except when she feels like an out-and-out alien (she can’t decide) because she and her mother were abandoned by her father and driven from the home place.

For many shoppers, Bed Bath & Beyond’s bankruptcy filing on Sunday was a call to action. Its 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores would soon be closing, as would its 120 Buy Buy Baby locations. Shoppers have until Wednesday to use their coupons. Around the country, they rounded up the ubiquitous blue slips of paper offering 20 percent off, stuffed them in pouches and plastic bags, and made their way to the nearest Bed Bath & Beyond. At a store in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on Monday, Sylvia Ward, a self-described Bed Bath & Beyond aficionado from the Bronx, said news of the closings had “absolutely devastated” her.

☆ Riding with the woman in charge of America’s last muscle car
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

I could take a ride in what will soon be America’s last gasoline-powered muscle car with the woman who’s in charge of getting it into production and onto the street. Courtesy FordTransou and others at Ford will tell you there is an electric Mustang, the Mustang Mach-E SUV. As we took off, there was a burst of speed and throaty V8 engine noise as we blasted down Manhattan’s 10th Avenue. First, it’s the only actual car Ford currently sells in the United States. About 40% of V8 Mustang buyers get a manual transmission, she said, going for that truly classic driving experience.

☆ Manhattan’s Top Office Landlord Looks at Plan B
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Carol Ryan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An apartment in a former office building that is being converted to residential housing in lower Manhattan. Photo: Lev Radin/Zuma PressManhattan’s largest office landlord asks its own staff to commute to the office five days a week but sounds less optimistic that other employers will do the same. Cash flow from operations—a key measure of the profit that property companies make on rents—was 10% below what analysts expected. The company offered new tenants 4.8 months rent-free, equivalent to 6% of the average lease length. In 2019, 3% was more normal in New York, according to CompStak data.

☆ Pre-rolled Joints and TikTok Feuds: This Is the Diamond District?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Corey Kilgannon | Dar Yaskil | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Zev Weitman’s angular frame was hunched over his sooty workbench in a cramped diamond-cutting shop several floors above the buzz of Manhattan’s diamond district. But his mind was roaming a crystalline chamber, tweaking facets to coax a brilliant symphony of light from the diamond he was working against a cutting wheel. Back then, there were also thousands of cutters like Mr. Weitman, many of them shaping and perfecting diamonds from rough stones straight out of mines. Now, Mr. Weitman says, only a few hundred remain in the district, focusing on repairs, rush jobs and the kind of high-end work he does. None of his four children — nor, presumably, any of his 28 grandchildren — will follow him into his trade.

☆ Rockefeller Center Strikes Deal for Luxury Hotel by Aspen Hospitality
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Kate King | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rockefeller Center, like most Midtown Manhattan landlords, has experienced a sharp drop in office workers since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Rockefeller Center is preparing to open its first hotel, the latest sign that Midtown Manhattan’s largest office landlords are leaning into hospitality and entertainment as remote work reduces demand for office space. Aspen Hospitality plans to convert 10 floors of vacant office space above the NBC “Today” show studios into a luxury hotel, pending city approval. The hotel would be the second location for the company’s Little Nell Hotel, which opened in Aspen, Colo., in 1989.

☆ Rockefeller Center Strikes Deal for Luxury Hotel by Aspen Hospitality Group
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Kate King | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ F.B.I. Arrests Two on Charges Tied to Chinese Police Outpost in New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( William K. Rashbaum | Karen Zraick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The outpost was one of more than 100 Chinese police operations around the world that have unnerved diplomats and intelligence officials. The case represents the first time criminal charges have been brought in connection with such a police outpost, one of the people said. The case against the men, Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, grew out of an investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn into the Chinatown outpost, which conducted police operations without jurisdiction or diplomatic approval. Last fall, F.B.I.

☆ The Targeting of Donald Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Daniel Henninger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

When New York Mayor Eric Adams heard that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was coming to the city for Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg ’s arraignment of former U.S. President Donald Trump, he said: “Control yourselves. New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger.” Where’s he been? For Manhattan’s professional progressives, the indictment of Mr. Trump was just another day at the playground. Politics as the American left’s personal playpen probably began with the Occupy movement in 2011. Who today remembers what its point was? For nearly 60 days, the Occupy Wall Street movement took over Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan.

☆ Flexible Leases Let New York Renters Live the High Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Jessica Flint | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The owners of New York private members club Fasano Fifth Avenue opened in spring 2021 with 12 fully furnished luxury rental residences on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, aiming to meet a demand for bookings of 30 to 60 days. The new business didn’t turn out as planned. Some guests checked in for a stay of a month or two but ended up staying for a year to 18 months and more. “The demand has been delightfully surprising,” says Gero Fasano, founder of upscale Brazilian lodging and dining company Fasano Group.

☆ A Skeptic’s Tour of New York City’s Natural Wine Bars
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Lettie Teague | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ON THE CASE Lettie Teague ventured into the natural wine bars of New York City with an open mind and a battery of questions for the bartenders. I’ve had some natural wines that were pleasant and many that were not. So I decided to taste the wines in their natural habitat: natural-wine bars. You can find natural-wine bars all over the world, and New York City—on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, in particular—is a real stronghold. If I was going to get a clearer impression of natural wine and perhaps taste some better wines, these New York neighborhoods seemed like good places to start.

☆ A Huge City Polluter? Buildings. Here’s a Surprising Fix.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Brad Plumer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

Carbon dioxide from these boilers wafts up chimneys and into the air, one of the city’s biggest sources of global warming emissions. “And we expect that it won’t be the last.”The boiler releases carbon dioxide. The remaining carbon dioxide was then chilled to minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit and turned to liquid. The system currently captures about 60 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted by the Grand Tier’s boilers, Mr. Asparro said. While they’re paying for the carbon dioxide, they are not charging a premium for their blocks.

☆ Where New York’s Asian Neighborhoods Shifted to the Right
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Jason Kao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

In last year’s governor’s election, voters in Asian neighborhoods across New York City sharply increased their support for Republicans. And predominantly Asian areas — precincts with a majority of eligible Asian voters — have undergone a pivotal shift. Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Note: The precinct in Kensington is mostly Indian and Bangladeshi. Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Flushing, 2022 Murray Hill Bayside Flushing Northern Blvd. Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area Detail area state senate race Bensonhurst Sunset Park McDonald Ave. 65th St. New Utrecht Ave. 8th Ave.

☆ Office Landlord Defaults Are Escalating as Lenders Brace for More Distress
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Peter Grant | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The loan backing the office tower at 1740 Broadway in Manhattan became distressed because a major lease was expiring. The number of big office landlords defaulting on their loans is on the rise, fresh evidence that more developers believe that remote and hybrid work habits have permanently impaired the office market. The giant investment manager Brookfield Asset Management recently defaulted on a total of over $750 million in debt for a pair of 52-story towers in Los Angeles, according to a February securities filing. Real-estate firm RXR is in talks with creditors to restructure debt on 61 Broadway, a 34-story tower in Manhattan’s financial district, according to people familiar with the matter. Handing over the building to the lender is among the options under consideration, these people said.

☆ Manhattan Compound With Connecting Townhouses Asks $31.5 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Katherine Clarke | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. In Manhattan’s West Village, a rare compound with multiple homes is coming on the market for $31.5 million.

☆ Law student's family says he went missing after visiting NYC gay bar
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Nbc New York | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A New York City law student has been missing for nearly two weeks, and his brother said his last known location was a gay bar in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Jordan Taylor, 29, a first-year law student at the City University of New York, was reported missing by his family on Jan. 8, according to his brother and the New York City Police Department. According to the NYPD, Taylor was last seen in the borough of Queens, where he resides, on the afternoon of Jan. 6. Like, I don’t want to think about it, but I can’t rule it out either,” he told NBC New York. For the full story, visit NBC New York.

☆ Can Miami Beach Stay Hot After Covid? The Shore Club Redevelopment Might Hold the Answer.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Katherine Clarke | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Architect Robert A.M. Stern is best known for designing buildings for the wealthiest New Yorkers. Some of the largest residential deals in the U.S. have been at his towers overlooking Manhattan’s Central Park. Now, Mr. Stern’s eponymous firm is putting the finishing touches on the design for a Miami Beach project that is seeking to entice those same buyers to the Sunshine State. The project will be the firm’s first oceanfront residential building. Sales of the units are expected to begin later this month.

☆ Supreme Court again declines to block New York gun restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned away a challenge by a group of firearms dealers in New York to numerous Democratic-backed measures adopted by the state last year regulating gun purchases that the businesses said hurt their businesses. Others were adopted in July after the Supreme Court the prior month struck down New York’s limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling expanding gun rights. New York officials have said the new gun restrictions, which face numerous legal challenges in lower courts, are needed to protect public safety. The Supreme Court has broadened gun rights in three key rulings since 2008. Alito wrote that the New York law at issue “presents novel and serious questions” under the U.S. Constitution’s provisions on gun rights and free speech.

☆ Health care is in crisis. New York’s nurses strike is just the latest sign
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

It is just the latest in a series of job actions across the nation by nurses’ unions and other health care workers who say they had to strike in order to provide patients with quality health care. Of the 20 major strikes tracked by the Labor Department over the first 11 months of 2022, seven of them, or 35%, were in health care. The surge in health care related strikes comes despite the fact that only 3% of union members nationwide work at private sector health care jobs. “Labor is the main expense in health care, so how do you make money? If someone is tired, overworked, sleep deprived, they’re going to make more mistakes.”A nurse’s strike won’t help patients in the short term, he said.

☆ Cage the Elephant singer arrested on weapons charges at New York City hotel
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Cage the Elephant singer Matt Shultz has been charged with criminal weapons possession after police found two loaded guns at a New York City hotel, authorities said. Shultz, 39, of Nashville, Tennessee was arrested Thursday after police were called to investigate a report of a person with a firearm at Manhattan’s Bowery Hotel. Shultz was seen in the hotel lobby bathroom between midnight and 1 a.m. pulling a gun from his front pants pocket, according to a criminal complaint. A search warrant turned up two loaded .45-caliber handguns in a bag in a hotel room, the complaint said. Shultz was arraigned Friday and bail was set at $10,000 cash or $30,000 bond, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.

☆ Amid negotiation gridlock between Mount Sinai Hospital and the nurse's union, newborns in intensive care are caught in the middle
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Celina Tebor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A NICU nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital told CNN that families of patients in the unit have been deeply concerned about moving their sick infants from one hospital to another. As of Saturday, negotiations across New York’s hospitals were continuing at Montefiore Bronx and the Mount Sinai Morningside and West campuses, according to the nurse’s union. But the president of the nurse’s union told reporters Saturday the main Mount Sinai Hospital complex left the bargaining table late Thursday and no further bargaining sessions have been scheduled since. A Mount Sinai Health System spokesperson told CNN that hospital management is “waiting for the union to come back to us” to resume negotiations. Tentative agreements have also been reached with union nurses at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island.

☆ Drag Story Hour protest in NYC caps a year of anti-drag attacks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The latest occurred Thursday outside a public library in the borough of Queens, where a Drag Story Hour event for children was scheduled. A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said one person was arrested in connection with Thursday’s protest. Demonstrators gather for a protest in support of the Drag Story Hour outside the Queens Public Library in New York on Thursday. Demonstrators gather to protest against Drag Story Hour outside the Queens Public Library in New York on Thursday. Yuki Iwamura / AFP via Getty ImagesThursday’s incident marks at least the second protest of a Drag Story Hour event in New York City this month.

☆ Rapper-actor Common revels in his Broadway stage debut
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Rapper and actor Common has made his Broadway debut in the play “Between Riverside and Crazy” and what he sees from the stage is something he never imagined: a multi-cultural audience hanging on to every word. Common plays his ex-con son struggling to do right by his father. “This is a really, truly wonderful Broadway season and it reflects all of Broadway and it reflects all of America with respect to New York City. And because New York City reflects America and the world,” Henderson said. Despite some early closures on Broadway this season — including “KPOP,” “Ain’t No Mo” and “Almost Famous” — Common sees progress when it comes to the shows that have come to Broadway since the pandemic, including his own.

Two people were arrested at a New York City Council member's apartment building Monday after opponents of a drag reading event targeted it with messages the politician called “pure hate, unmasked,” officials said. A group had targeted the public reading event geared toward neurodiverse children at a library in Chelsea on Saturday, NBC New York reported. Our resolve is strengthened.”Earlier Monday, the hallways inside the building that houses Bottcher’s council district office were also vandalized, police said. Right-wing figures and influencers have targeted drag events, sometimes with incendiary rhetoric about “groomers." Bottcher, who was elected to represent District 3 in 2021 and took office in January, said after Saturday's event that reading helps children grow, and he thanked the drag reading event organizers.

☆ NYC honors historic gay bar with landmark status
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Zachary Schermele | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

One of the earliest sites of gay rights activism is officially New York City’s newest landmark. Located at 159 West 10th St., just a short walk from fellow historic gay bar Stonewall Inn, Julius’ has been open since the 1860s. It started attracting gay patrons in the mid-20th century, and, according to the conservation nonprofit group Village Preservation, it’s the city’s oldest existing gay bar. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016 for its significance in the gay rights movement. A photo of the moment went down in gay rights history.

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