Every year, like clockwork, Wayne Bellet, owner of Bellet Construction in Manhattan, says that he gets multiple requests for his company to scrape, prime and paint metal fire escapes. “It’s silly, because it’s so easy to do, and building m…
In an urban environment, people can feel isolated, though they live close to each other. While high-rise residential buildings put families near one another, living close doesn’t turn a group of neighbors into a community and that’s und…
The deep freeze of winter will fall on New York again very soon and most New Yorkers are hoping that we don't get pounded as badly by snow and ice this year as we did some years ago. Because of weather’s unpredictability during winter, …
No doubt about it, the Big Apple is a pedestrian town: according to the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), over eight million people tread the city’s approximately 12,750 square miles of sidewalks each day. New …
Last January, not even television psychic, Ms. Cleo, could have predicted the events that were set to unfold in 2008. With the unraveling of the economy that we’ve already heard quite a bit about and forecasts for a gloomy start to 2009…
Fifty years ago, residents new to a neighborhood might be greeted by a Welcome Wagon hostess in an A-line skirt and perfect matte lipstick bearing a basket full of goodies from local merchants. She'd give the homeowners the lowdown on wh…
The deep freeze of winter will fall on New York from January through March, and though the city hasn't had the most severe winters in recent years, weather has a way of tricking us into complacency and hitting hard when we let our guards…
Every once in a while, one hears about a co-op or condo that has been neglected for some time and has some problems in its common areas. Dirt builds up on the lobby floor, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling flicker, paint is chipped from…
Residential buildings are complicated entities—their various operating systems require maintenance and occasional repairs to remain in good working order. Sometimes maintenance can be carried out by the super or handyperson—sometimes it …