This is what a hot real estate market has wrought: One of the city's oldest Jewish cemeteries has had construction debris fall onto dozens of tombstones in Chelsea. Congregation Shearith Israel built three cemeteries in Manhattan, and the Chelsea location, at 21st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, was in use in 1828-1851 (one is at 55 St. James Place and another is at 76 West 11th Street). It seems like mortar from The O'Neill Building, which faces 6th Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets, fell in the cemetery, and experts have been called in to see how it can be carefully removed. The O'Neill's developer, Elad Properties (which is also renovating the Plaza Hotel) was told by the landmarks commission that it would need to "bear responsbility" of the cleaning and repair tombstones. Elad is working with the congregation to "monitor" the situation; the NY Times reports that protective scaffolding was set up to "cover the tombstones closest" to the O'Neill building. [Another interesting thing: The congregation agreed not to build anything in the cemetery that would block O'Neill residents views.] more ›

Screw Paula Zahn. The city's most famous bird couple, red-tailed hawks, Pale Male and Lola whose living arrangements were a hotnest of controversy a year and a half ago, are now nesting at the swank Beresford at 211 Central Park West. Right in front of Helen Gurley Brown's apartment, and though the legendary Cosmopolitan editor loves the birds, her husband, producer David Brown, is not a fan. It turns out that Lincoln Karim, who photographs the hawks and maintains the Pale Male website, saw the birds outside the Beresford; then Karim left photographs of the birds with the Beresford doorman to give to whoever lived at the top of the building. While the Browns are apparently arguing over the hawks, other celeb residents of the Beresford are pro-hawk, including Glenn Close and Jerry Seinfeld told the Daily News, "I love the hawks! I can't get enough of the hawks." As Pale Male and Lola forced a swank Fifth Avenue co-op to construct a fancy nest for them, it might be interesting to see how the Beresford reacts to their new, fine, feathered friends. more ›

Want to knock down your building and build a new one? You'll get to kick out your tenants, if you do! There are two interesting stories about apartment building owners using a loophole in order to evict their tenants who rent below market rates. more ›

Developer Bruce Ratner has tapped celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz to photograph the development of the new New York Times building on Eighth Avenue. Why? To attract other tenants for the building. The Post calls the 700,000 square feet available in the building "an entire speculative building," and says the photographs, which will be taken periodically, will be plastered in the area. Could photographs by Annie Leibovitz really attract new tenants? Maybe photographs of cash, but if this becomes a trend, is Larry Silverstein going to hire, oh, Bruce Weber to photograph the the World Trade Center's Freedom Tower? more ›

We knew that 80s icon Cyndi Lauper lived on the Upper West Side, but Gothamist didn't realize she was trying to only pay $508 in her rent! Lauper, who sublets an apartment at the Apthorp, the apartment building that takes up Broadway to West End Avenue, 78th to 79th Streets, is suing the owners of the building because they had been paying $3,250 a month for many years, while the previous owner had paid only $508. Lauper's "landlord," Shlomo Baron, agreed to pay $2,400 a month for the apartment because it was not his primary residence. Lauper sued Baron in 1996 for overcharging her, and after much legal mishegas, a court said that using a real estate formula, Lauper should pay $989. Of course, Lauper and her husband are arguing that they should only pay $508, because it seems those music royalties aren't what they used to be, and now they are taking it all the way to courts in Albany. If Lauper does get her rent lowered to $508, or even to $989, Gothamist expects Lauper to generously tip every service person she comes into contact with, waiters, cabbies, doormen, you name it, plus give nice gifts to her personal assistants and the like, because rent of $508 sounds more like what you pay when you share an apartment with four other people in a Greenpoint loft. NY Magazine even lists rental prices at around $10,000! more ›

A small pleasure of working in midtown is that Gothamist gets to see some pretty fantastic buildings. One favorite is many people's favorite: The Chrysler Building on Lexington. We were struck by the elevator, which is as beautifully Art Deco as the exterior and interior lobby. more ›