I'm an R6B. What Are You?

Neighborhood Nerd Alert: If you get dizzy when the topic is zoning, stop reading now. Here at the Real Estate we always have a hard time balancing your interest in neighborhood issues and city planning against the unbelievably impenetrable jargon of the field. Which is why we found ourselves thumbing through, then reading almost cover-to-cover, the City Planning Commission's Zoning Handbook, released this week. Along with The Works, the book by economic development veep Kate Ascher, the book is kind of essential to understanding the physical shape of New York neighborhoods. Pages and pages in the front of the book take obscure zoning classifications with names that sound like droid lot-numbers and describe in plain language the character and objectives of each zoning class, complete with diagrams and pictures showing existing streets that exemplify the zone type. Then the book goes through specific entries on different special zoning districts, and explains in as clear language as we've read how zoning changes are made law. You can get a copy through the Department of City Planning's bookstore at 22 Reade Street, or order it on the DCP web site ($24.00 / $18.00 each for 10 or more copies). Sample page after the jump. - Tom McGeveran
Introducing R6B.