Joel Huerta, wearing his brother’s NYPD Auxiliary vest, heads back to his own apartment after clearing the local florist’s walk; there, he will continue to clear a path in what has become one of New York City’s more snow-filled winters. Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
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Swans: elegant symbols of romantic love or terrorizers of plants, small children, and airplanes? The non-native mute swan has been wreaking enough havoc in New York City that the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation wants to declare it a "prohibited invasive species." By 2025, under the proposed plan, there will be virtually no more wild mute swans in all of New York.
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Ah, New York—the sparkling skyline! The bustling streets! The… poop-filled water tanks? According to a new report from The New York Times, the city’s roughly 17,000 water tanks are totally unsanitary and widely unregulated.
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New York’s ice-choked East River—seen from Pier 1 Playground in Brooklyn—is evidence of the extraordinary cold temperatures gripping much of the central and eastern United States this week. Video of the scene shows the frigid water moving at a surreal and unexpected speed.
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These days, we tend to think of New York’s bridges as traffic obstacles. But at the turn of the last century, the bridges that sprang up in thickets around Manhattan’s shores were objects of wonder and civic pride—near magical pieces of infrastructure that took many years (and lives) to build.
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At 351 Keap Street, in Brooklyn, a married couple built an entire apartment out of five shipping containers for $50,000. The home is built on a lot that’s only 20 feet wide and 40 feet deep, and you can watch a video about its construction here.
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This so-called Manatus map, originally drawn in 1639, is the oldest map of New York City in the New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery. The prominence offered to Brooklyn, that massive land mass in the bottom middle, ought to please the hipster types. Manhattan is that little nub above it. [Untapped Cities]
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It’s easy to forget that beyond the tourist- and greenery-covered High Line, there are still 300 yards of old, rusting train track. This last patch of decaying NYC railway will soon be turned into the final stretch of the super-successful park—but for now, they’re home to a little-known outdoor gallery.
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Starchitects don’t build ’em like they used to—and now one’s getting sued for it. Chris Christie remains in troubled waters over a bridge. And if you thought the Polar Vortex was bad, how about the looming Emergency Drought? It’s all this week in What’s Ruining Our Cities.
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New York has at least a few magical moments through the day. This is probably the best, when the sun is about to disappear engulfed by New Jersey and Manhattan is still alive and buzzing. Hungarian photographer Örs Cseresnyés captured this moment perfectly.
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