The urban-to-rural transect is a New Urbanist planning framework that prescribes a smooth continuum of settlements that go from least dense to most dense. The six zones are as follows: natural (T1), rural (T2), sub-urban (T3), general urban (T4), center (T5), and core (T6). Part… Read More
All posts tagged “manhattan”
Upsizing to a larger apartment in New York City
This is an interesting story about New Yorkers starting to seek out larger homes. Last month, Manhattan saw 140 purchase agreements signed for homes priced at $4 million or more. In the last week of February alone, 40 contracts were signed, which is apparently a… Read More
Net new housing units in New York City since 2010
Here are a few interesting stats from a brief report that New York City published this month about their supply of new housing units: From January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2020, New York City delivered 205,994 net new housing units across the five boroughs.… Read More
What’s in a street name?
In Toronto we have a street named Avenue Road. If you’re learning about this for the first time, you might be wondering: “Well, is it an avenue or is it a road?” Then again, does that sort of distinction even matter? Does it imply certain… Read More
$27 million worth of condos in New York
This week it was reported that a South American family has bought and closed on ~$27 million worth of residential condos at Waterline Square in Manhattan. Apparently they went into contract (after the online showings) and closed on the same day, which I suppose you… Read More
The lost history of Seneca Village
This is a fascinating short video (by Vox) about a former neighborhood in Manhattan known as Seneca Village. Today, its land forms part of Central Park. Most of us would probably agree that building Central Park was both a good idea and a powerful example… Read More
The 14th Street busway
On October 3, New York City did something very similar to what Toronto did on King Street. It restricted through traffic on 14th Street to only trucks and buses, and turned the street into the city’s first “busway.” Under the new rules, cars, vans, and… Read More
New York state law restricts condo conversions
The State of New York just enacted a new law (on June 14, 2019) requiring that 51% of existing tenants agree to buy their apartments before a building can be converted into a condominium or a cooperative. There was previously no requirement for anyone to… Read More
Zoned for detached single-family housing
We are in West Virginia now, where the only kind of housing that we have come across is — not surprisingly — low-density, detached, and single-family. Indeed, approximately 75% of the residential land across the entire US is estimated to be zoned for detached single-family… Read More
The sensing power of taxis
The latest project out of MIT’s Senseable City Lab examines the “sensing power of taxis” in various cities around the world. Looking at traffic data, they determined how many circulating taxis you would need to equip with sensors if you wanted to capture comprehensive street… Read More