Carrie Chiang

Anxiety has slowly crept into the normally high-chinned little world of Manhattan luxury real estate, though that doesn’t mean the very rich trying to unload very expensive New York apartments are actually getting desperate to sell. But maybe desperation is around the corner.

Consider Ramesh Singh, an executive at the huge Swiss-based bank UBS, who now has two huge Park Avenue apartments on the market—both listed at enormous discounts.

He’s spent years as the global head of mortgage-backed securities, the financial instrument that has more or less strangled the economy. Last month, after serious mortgage-related losses, UBS agreed to a multibillion-dollar government bailout.  read more »

If few luxury buyers are willing to go much further north than 96th Street, one of their favorite bu  read more »

This week, The City section offers a glimpse of artists moving out to Bushwick! Ok, that’s been happening for years, but it’s always comforting to read about “risk-oblivious youth” being all communal and artsy together in a rundown neighborhood (and almost as uplifting as Rent on the big screen). But then in the Real Estate section, the “art world avant garde” suddenly flee to Staten Island. Now that's shocking! Even intrepid, young gentrifiers that have conquered many neighborhoods before might pause at the idea of taking a ferry home. Either way, both articles come with slide shows.

Carrie Chiang and Dolly Lenz get called out for hogging all the best listings, in The Times. Why not share some with the ever-growing number of wide-eyed brokers?

Seems like most celebrities took the weekend off. However, Mike Myers has left his Morton Square rental, according to New York magazine.

Christopher Caldwell examines the architecture of Le Corbusier as a catalyst to the French riots, in The Times magazine. It's not like they were burning cars in Marseille. Or at least not as many as in the International Style enclaves.

While sleeping tight, New Yorkers are unwittingly letting the bedbugs bite. But the author already had us with the lede, mentioning both “hobo encampments and hot-sheet motels.”

And after 42 years on the job, a long-time Plaza doorman find a new job, opening doors down the street. Take that, stupid condo conversion!

-Michael Calderone

Image courtesy of Stay Free! magazine.  read more »

Since Oct.  read more »

The final hurdle in the long and tortured dissolution of the Lycée Français' storied townhouse col  read more »

Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates is planning to establish a think tank in Harlem and has  read more »

As buzzing saws and pounding hammers echoed across East 95th Street on a recent afternoon outside th  read more »

The Carhart Mansion, formerly one of several Upper East Side townhouses belonging to the Lycée Fran  read more »

Benny Shabtai, the president and owner of Raymond Weil U.S.A., the U.S.  read more »