Months after residents of a Turtle Bay building found their apartments coated in a layer of dust, an environmental testing firm found "highly elevated levels" of a carcinogen inside the E. 47th Street condo tower. A toxic substance found in mortar called crystalline silica got into apartments while laborers did facade work at the L'Ecole building at 212 E. 47th Street, according to an attorney for tenants who have filed suit over the incident. "It was like there had been a snowfall," said Steven Rosenhaus, who suffered breathing trouble and eye irritation after his 20th-floor apartment was blanketed in the the powder. According to the Post, building management has denied any wrongdoing in court documents. more ›

There are two kinds of New Yorkers: those who lock their doors, and those who do not. The Times investigates some of those brave residents with open door policies, like 63-year-old real estate firm vice president Joyce Weisshappel, who never locks her door. In fact, Weisshappel doesn't even know where her keys are. Though Weisshappel lives in a luxury apartment building with 24-hour doormen, others, like 52-year-old Brooklyn resident Sarah, don't have that kind of security. Sarah leaves her door unlocked for brief trips out — like when she walks the dog — though she locks it when she leaves for extended periods. "It's a bit of a habit and maybe a bit of a dare, as I always considered myself lucky." more ›

Toxic vapors are intruding into Greenpoint homes, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is having difficulty assessing the problem because many residents will not allow their homes to be tested, according to a scary report in the Times today. The vapors in question are not wafting from the famous oil plume in Greenpoint's groundwater that went undetected until 1978, but are believed to be left over from other businesses that no longer operate in the neighborhood. more ›

The Washington Square News, NYU's student paper, has a juicy article showing how their university artificially deflates campus crime stats by classifying 87% of its residence hall population as "off campus." The exposé sensationally notes that if you're a student who "gets murdered in Rubin residence hall, you were killed off-campus. You missed the cutoff by three blocks." Because it receives federal funds, NYU is required by law to publish its annual crime statistics, but only three of NYU’s 21 undergraduate dorms are technically classified as on-campus. Looking at NYU's report, you might think the school ranks a modest 61st out of the largest 180 universities for substance abuse violations. But when campus and "non-campus" incidents are compiled together, NYU is #2 in the nation (which sounds more like it). Professor Dennis Jay Kenney tells the News, "It clearly sounds to me that they’re trying to circumvent the reporting requirements." Now NYU officials say they'll change the way they present the stats, but it's unclear if this will affect their recent announcement that it would cut back on security. more ›

Perhaps now more than ever, New York City residents create homes for themselves in vastly different ways. Are there any bad neighborhoods anymore? Or are there just places that immigrants and long-time residents subsist next to high-rise hotels and luxury condos? more ›