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Created by Studio Lindfors, these images show scenes of New York and Tokyo after massive floods caused by climate change. Never did the end of the world as we know it look so dreamy and romantic. I can only hope that Al Gore keeps flying around the world in his private jet, because I can't wait to go down Broadway in a gondola, singing in the rain. [Studio Lindfors and Flickr via Bldgblog]

The New York Times has the whole...sad? Incredible? Tale of Francisco Hernandez, who—after being warned by his mom that she needed to have a serious talk with him about his performance at school—hopped on a subway train with ten dollars in his pocket and just rode the rails. For eleven f'ing days, before a transit cop recognized his face from a poster. Man.

No one spoke to him. Asked if he saw any larger meaning in that, he said, "Nobody really cares about the world and about people."

Good lord, it's too much. Say hello to a stranger on the subway today. (But not a crazy one.)
[Pic via]

Disclaimer: This theory is posited by Neill's own lawyer, and is probably false. That said! The New York Post has the attorney's intricate legal reasoning:

Hillgardner argued that case law protects mere nude physical activity — like calisthenics and ball-playing — from lewdness charges.

So because Neill was kind of writhing around in a "I look like I'm on so much PCP but actually I'm an artistic nudie model" way, it was protected! Also the lawyer says that the only things ladies cannot legally do topless are sunbathing and "handing out promotional material," so, ladies? Everybody's into art again.
[Pic via]

One dude whose family has had a shop in Crown Heights for 30 years goes and opens a coffee shop. Then these other newcomers go and open a coffee shop right down the block, and now it looks like Franklin Ave. could see new bloodbath just like the bad old days:

The owners of the second shop posted a comment announcing their opening and boasting of purveying organic coffee. That provoked a pointed retort from the owner of the first shop, the Pulp and the Bean. "I won't be selling organic coffee (whatever that is) but I will have really good coffee," the owner, Tony Fisher, wrote.

Hopefully guns shall not be drawn. Just wait until the slighted nail salon owners weigh in to defend their pride. Coffee shops are one of our society's most cherished Love/Hate institutions, particularly in still-gentrifying hoods, where they are essentially huge flashing "Burn Me First When the Riots Come!" signs on boulevards full of, you know, nail salons and bodegas.

Which is fine, because coffee shops live on self-loathing. As Michael Idov writes in a long WSJ essay doubtlessly composed in a coffee shop, "At any given moment, a typical New York coffeehouse looks like an especially sedate telemarketing center...The laptoppers hog the tables, but they do the coffeehouse experience an even deeper disservice. They make it a solitary one, and it's a different kind of solitude from the stance sung by Hemingway. You're not just alone-you're in another universe entirely, inaccessible to anyone not directly behind you."

Yea, that's what I thought too, until I started working in a coffee shop on a laptop every day. Now I just want you to stop typing so loud. This isn't Romper Room. It's a god damn coffee shop.
[Pic: I Love Franklin Ave.]

Freshman NYU ladies come running to windows of their dorm every time Jude Law comes out on his balcony. The reason for this, again: Jude Law lives in a condo with a balcony that is towered over by a dormitory full of 18 year-olds. He has not made friends with his neighbors, according to the NYP:

"He noticed we were there and we started waving at him. Then he went inside and came back with two oranges," freshman Neha Najeeb told The Post. "He threw them at our window, but he missed." Law then went back inside and returned with two additional oranges, she said.

In four tries, he landed two oranges on the windows next door. I see several problems here:

1. They don't play baseball in England. Try kicking the oranges next time, Jude. Heh.
2. Jude Law goes out on his balcony to exercise with a personal trainer, then gets upset when people look at him. Go to a gym, you bizarrely attractive yogi. Rich people seem to enjoy Equinox.
3. Look at these pictures of his totally comical workout outfit. Heh.
4. Just be thankful you're not located next door to a state school dorm, Jude Law. Your balcony would be covered in shattered beer bottles at all times. It's not as bad as you think. Your every move is an object of fantasy for dozens of young women, just enjoy it. God.

They all totally agree.

Furthermore, the Observer reports that the following people have been spotted, at one time or another in the recent past, in Midtown: Paper magazine's Mickey Boardman, Penélope Cruz, Pedro Almodóvar, Debbie Harry and fashion couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Madonna, Mick Jagger, Anna Wintour, Zac Posen, L'Wren Scott, Richard Gere, André Balazs and Sumner Redstone, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, David Chang, J Lo, Naomi Campbell, Clive Davis, Carolina Herrera and Calvin Klein, Agyness Deyn, Terence Koh, Vito Schnabel, Arden Wohl, Kirsten Dunst, Michael Stipe, Charlotte Ronson, and Julie Gilhart.

So you see, this is the new Midtown: Populated by celebrities, socialites, scenesters bored with downtown, and, above all, the rich.

Everything is different now.
[Pic via]

Like so: A few short decades ago, the area above Tribeca ("Hudson Square," said the realtor) was a fucking dump. Now, it's populated by De Niro and Jay-Z and, you know, a plethora of other rich and famous Manhattanites. The city wants to put a garage for garbage trucks on the far West side of the neighborhood. So a group of concerned average citizens including Roger Sterling from Mad Men and various artists—presumably drawn to the neighborhood for its wonderful halo of long-gone industrial grit—are fighting the plan. For the good of everyone.

"We're no Nimbys," said Jana Haimsohn, a performance artist and neighborhood advocate. "Always in our dealings we look at the needs of the broader community."

Did you know that Louisville, Kentucky, has its very own version of the Meatpacking District, called Butchertown? Same story: former butchering district close to downtown that's now "being spruced up with art galleries and fancy shops," according to the Wall Street Journal. Now the Butchertown Neighborhood Association is working to move the last slaughterhouse out of the neighborhood, "Butchertown," with its wonderful halo of long-gone industrial grit.

"It's been an ongoing nuisance for people in the area," says Jonathan Salomon, a 34-year-old Butchertown resident and attorney representing the group. "We don't want to see anybody, especially during these times, put out on the street. But...we have to look at what kind of economic growth is good for the neighborhood."

Look, we're not against these people having jobs. But let's be honest—this neighborhood is not the place for those kinds of people. We're not against the city parking its garbage trucks somewhere—but they don't really fit in with the character of this neighborhood.

This is for the good of everyone. Reversals of gentrification will not be tolerated.
[Pic via]

From: NYU President John Sexton
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 12:19 PM
Subject: The Death of an NYU Student

It is with great sorrow that I must tell you of the death of a student — a
junior in the College of Arts and Science — early this morning in Bobst
Library. While the cause of death is still being determined, indications are
that he took his own life.

Suicide among people of college age is a national problem, a leading cause of
death among the young; each year, campuses across the country must cope with
these tragedies and their aftermath — the pain, the heartbreak, the upset it
causes to those who are vulnerable, and all the terrible, persistent questions.

I have taught young people for some five decades, drawn by their energy and
their promise and by the unique bond that forms between student and
professor. The impulse for self-harm — particularly among young men and women
with so much talent and so much to live for — is incomprehensible to me.

And so I would like to speak to the NYU student community as I would speak
with a student of mine sitting and talking with me in my own office.
No matter how difficult things might seem at any particular moment, your life
is filled with promise, you belong in and are part of a community that
cherishes your presence, you are loved, and there are many people at hand
ready and willing to help you — your professors, the staff in the residence
halls, the Wellness Exchange, your family, and your friends. I am certain of
this: there are many resources to help you, and harming oneself is absolutely
the wrong choice.

We are a close knit community, a large community of small communities; we
should remind ourselves that there will always be people among us who will
need our help, and we should never hesitate to reach out and offer a hand or
an attentive ear, or to direct friends and peers to the many excellent
professionals we have at the Wellness Exchange (212-443-9999, or 999 from any
campus phone) to help students work through problems.

If you feel upset by this news or anything else in your life, do not hesitate
to call the Wellness Exchange. If you have a friend or a student or a
colleague who seems vulnerable, call on his or her behalf.

I know I speak for the entire NYU community when I say that this student's
family and loved ones are in our thoughts and our hearts and our prayers. The
family has asked that they be accorded the greatest possible degree of privacy
and sensitivity in this difficult hour, and I would hope that we all shall
strive to comply.

To each one of us — student, faculty, administrators, or staff: take care of
yourself, take care of one another.

There are four separate 3'x4' panels that represent Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. When they're combined, you've got one gorgeous piece of wall art.

I wouldn't try and take it on a road trip though. [Dude Craft via Neatorama]

Patrick Nayyar and Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland, a couple of middle-aged would-be entrepreneurs, agreed to sell "guns, ammunition, vehicles, bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles" to an interested religious organization based in Lebanon called The Party of God.

Mulholland is currently absconding (possibly in his home country Britain) but Queens native Nayyar is in custody and his lawyer thinks the FBI needs to look into the concept of "real terrorism". You see, back in 2007, Nayyar heroically battled a devilish wife-stealing cabdriver:

came to the aid of a Queens couple after an angry cabbie ordered the man out of his cab and sped off with the passenger's screaming wife. The ordeal ended when Patrick Nayyar, 43, used his SUV to cut off the cab.

"I don't know what this guy's intentions were," said Nayyar, who pulled the daring move near 57th Ave. in Elmhurst. "But he could have done anything to her."

Does that sound like the actions of a man who could sell arms to an FBI informant posing as a representative for Hezbollah? A cabbie-battler like him? Never! Except for the part where it totally looks as though he did.

Pic: NY Times.

[Pic: Stephen Wiltshire. There's much more there]

Take a look at the servicey Chupi index we ran almost exactly one year ago. It was clear then that the ugly pink celebrity-infested craptower was a great bellwether of the collapse of the high end real estate market. Now it's selling again! So, real estate is back! At one third of its previous value. Max Abelson reports:

Way back in early 2008, when Chupi was still West 11th Street's frothed-over mega-castle, Mr. Schnabel wanted $32 million for the unit...the penthouse, according to a deed filed Friday, just sold for only $10.5 million. That's less than a third of its original tag.

Pity.
[Pic: Flickr]

The dog looks nice, at least.

Apply now!

The city's giving the Whitney the site, at Washington and Gansevoort streets, for $18 million. The NYT reports that they're not obligated to actually start building the new satellite museum ("a six-floor museum more than twice the size of its Madison Avenue home") for nine years. In the meantime:

But in this economy, paying for the High Line site will be a challenge. In May the museum announced a fund-raising campaign of $680 million: $435 million for the new building and about $245 million for the endowment.

Pay up, Lisa Falcone and Ed Norton! The neighbors are not paying another cent. That's for sure.
[Pic: Edenpictures' Flickr.]