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Lysandra Ohrstrom

Diamond From the Rough

On Oct. 7, the City Council passed the first of two laws that would allow business improvement districts to take joint custody of properties that fall within the boundaries of more than one BID.

Together, the bills will end what has essentially been a three-year, amicable custody battle between the Times Square Alliance and the Bryant Read More

King Kong Vacancy Gone?

The New York Times reported that on April 30, 1930, “the roar of the riveting machines” fastening together the steel skeleton of the 1,250-foot Empire State Building were silenced so former New York governor and president of Empire State Inc. Al Smith could address retailers gathered at the James McCreery and Co. Department Store.

“Manhattan Island Read More

Holy Cow! Downtown’s Biggest Leasing Challenge

Just as workers were milling about 100 Church Street’s famously gaudy lobby at lunch hour on Aug. 26, an official from the Department of Buildings began plastering two violation notices in the windows of Bank of America on the ground floor. The citation faulted “signage,” in this case a racy advertisement for a teenage television Read More

The Local: 311 Answers the Recession

Calls about financial issues have increased at the city's 311 hub, according to its executive director, Joe Morrisroe, especially from people wondering where their property tax rebate check is or whether they will get one at all this year.

Operators have a standard answer from the Department of Consumer Affairs: "Due to budget constraints, Read More

The Local: Condo Buyers Beg Off

When New York’s real estate market was at its peak, condo buyers and investors were not in the position to quibble if the ceiling of their new apartment was a few inches shorter than the one in the sponsor’s offering plan or if common charges were a couple hundred dollars more than expected. Now that Read More

The Local: Tin Pan Alley Sounds Cautious Tune

“Tin Pan Alley is gone,” Bob Dylan wrote in the jacket of his 1997 album Biograph. “I put an end to it.”

The neighborhood that was once the hub of the American music-publishing industry in the early 20th century has undergone many transformations since it became known as Tin Pan Alley. Between 1893 and Read More

The Local: Code Red on Black Friday

Recession or not, when Erin Lima makes the trip from Philadelphia to New York City, “shopping is inevitable.”

“Every time you come here you have to,” she said, while browsing the handbag section of Bergdorf Goodman on Saturday with her husband in tow. “You can’t help yourself.” The Limas and another couple got “the Read More

The Local: FiDi–Now, More Than Ever, Almost 24-7

When Jongmin Park and his wife Soye moved from Battery Park City to a condo at 90 William Street three years ago, the conversion of the Financial District into a 24-hour retail and residential neighborhood was just beginning.

When they first arrived, all the restaurants and stores closed on the weekends and the neighborhood turned Read More

The Local: The Shiest Retail Remains Steady in Recession

Gary Gross’ family has operated a pawnshop near Penn Station for more than a century. Though he was not around during the “real depression” in the 1920s, S&G Gross Co. has emerged more or less unscathed from multiple economic downturns in Mr. Gross’ lifetime.

The bursting of the tech bubble in the beginning of Read More

Harlem Hearts Obama, ‘Other Black President’

Arnold Scarborough, a 45-year-old Army veteran and street vendor, emerged from the lobby of the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building and proudly displayed a photograph from inside. “I voted for Barack Obama and I took a picture of it,” he said.

Though Mr. Scarborough said he has voted in every presidential race Read More

And What Will The Obama T-Shirt Vendors Do Now?

Photographer John Conn, one of the few Barack Obama-free vendors in Union Square these days, is looking forward to the end of the election. Over the past three months dozens of artistically inclined young thirty-somethings, seasoned street merchants and newly minted idealists have been selling election gear on 17th Street between Broadway and Fourth Avenue, Read More

The Local: Wall Street on Election Eve

Rocky Twyman, a Seventh Day Adventist who rallied hundreds of Americans to pray for lower fuel prices at gas stations across the country last spring and summer, camped in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Halloween for the inauguration of his latest movement: "Pray Down the Greed on Wall Street."

"This is Read More