Laura Ratliff

Basement bachelor pad? Backyard bungalow? If you've ever dreamed of squeezing a little extra living space onto your New York City property (legally), the city just dropped a major update you’ll want to bookmark. Last week, the Department of Buildings released long-awaited proposed rules for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), a central pillar of Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes” housing plan. The draft guidelines pave the way for homeowners to build small secondary homes in basements, backyards, garages and more, provided they meet a host of safety and zoning criteria. RECOMMENDED: This useful new app automatically applies for affordable housing units that you qualify for The fine print gets specific: For cellar and basement units (which have historically existed in legal limbo), the city would now require two exits, water sensors in every habitable room and automatic sprinklers. Properties in high-risk flood zones are off-limits. And if the ADU entrance isn’t visible from the street, expect to hang a sign with five-inch red letters screaming “ADU in rear” with an arrow—subtle! The proposal also caps ADUs to one per lot for single- and two-family homes and owners must live in the primary residence. That means no absentee landlords packing in renters for profit; the law is more intended for “granny flats” than Airbnb goldmines. Mayor Adams called the move “an important step toward unlocking thousands of safe, legal homes for New Yorkers.” It’s part of a larger effort to address the

It’s been a scorcher of a summer already in New York City, but for Red Hook, one vital cool-down spot remains stubbornly out of commission. The Red Hook Pool, a beloved Olympic-sized oasis that’s served the Brooklyn waterfront since 1936, never opened for the season. Just days before its planned June 27 debut, a decades-old pipe “completely disintegrated,” according to NYC Parks officials, halting operations before the first splash. Since then, the timeline has shifted like a pool noodle in the deep end. First slated for a July 19 reopening, that date was quickly scrapped once it became clear the busted 16-inch feeder pipe needed to be custom-fabricated—a process that takes weeks. Now, the earliest projected reopening is mid-August, leaving just a few fleeting weeks before city pools close on September 7. RECOMMENDED: This NYC pool is one of the largest in the city, and it opened this summer That news hasn’t gone over well with locals. Alan Mukamal, a longtime resident who recently founded Friends of the Red Hook Pool, said the city’s suggested alternatives aren’t practical for many families. “I had little kids, I know I wasn’t going to get them on a bus to go two miles, transfer, go swimming, get back on the bus with the air conditioner on, they’re all wet,” he told Brooklyn Paper. “It’s not a realistic thing.” Council Member Alexa Avilés echoed the frustration, noting the city’s failure to provide alternative options or timely communication. “These delays are really frustra

Florida is no stranger to extremes—just ask the latest rankings from FinanceBuzz, which placed Miami near the top of its list of most exciting U.S. cities… and Jacksonville dead last. According to the study, which evaluated 75 of the country’s largest cities based on nightlife, restaurants, attractions, events and outdoor offerings, Miami scored a sizzling 71.7 out of 100—second only to Atlanta. The city earned high marks for its Michelin-decorated dining scene, robust international tourism and sheer volume of things to do, from live sports to buzzing nightlife. (No surprise to anyone who’s tried getting a dinner reservation during Art Basel.) RECOMMENDED: The best things to do in Miami for locals and tourists Meanwhile, Jacksonville was handed the unfortunate crown of “most boring” city in the country, with an anemic score of just 14.3. Despite being the largest U.S. city by area, it has relatively sparse density—and the stats reflect it: The city has the third-lowest rate of nightclubs, fourth-lowest number of concert venues per capita and a whopping 54% of its restaurants are chains. The report politely called it a place where “things to do” are few and far between. Another Florida city, Tallahassee, also landed in the snoozefest zone at No. 9. Despite being a major college town, it has zero award-winning restaurants and one of the lowest attraction counts per capita. But not every corner of the Sunshine State is dozing off. Orlando claimed the No. 4 spot in the “most exci

If you think airport food is all sad sandwiches and wilted salads, Miami International Airport is here to prove you wrong. A new roundup of the country’s best airport lounges for food lovers has crowned American Airlines’ Flagship First Dining at MIA one of the top spots for elevated pre-flight dining, ranking it alongside swanky lounges in Paris, Dubai and Istanbul. RECOMMENDED: Miami International Airport was ranked one of the most expensive airports in the U.S. The exclusive dining room—tucked inside the Flagship Lounge near Gate D30—is only open to select First and Business Plus travelers on international and transcontinental routes. But if you can snag a seat, expect a menu inspired by South Florida’s culinary roots: think jumbo lump crab cakes, shrimp creole and masala-dusted salmon, all made with locally sourced ingredients. There’s a full bar, of course, serving hand-crafted cocktails, signature wines and a range of premium spirits and craft beers. What sets this spot apart isn’t just the quality of the food, it’s the experience. American Airlines has partnered with the James Beard Foundation to bring legit chef-level menus to its lounges, and the MIA outpost leans into its Miami setting in all the right ways. Even the ambiance channels a touch of tropical calm, offering a much-needed escape from the terminal crowds. Even if you’re not flying Flagship First, access is also available via a VIP package (starting at $650), if you’re feeling indulgent. It’s a splurge, but

If your Monday lunch plans are looking a little uninspired, we’ve got a (delicious) detour for you: INDAY is handing out free bowls of its brand-new Chicken Over Rice at all eight of its New York City locations today, July 21. Yes, free—as in $0, no strings, just good vibes and better sauces. The giveaway is part of the fast-casual brand’s citywide launch for its reimagined version of the classic halal-style street dish. INDAY’s take combines charred Tandoor-style chicken with house-made turmeric rice, cucumber and tomato salad and a generous drizzle of creamy white and spicy red sauces, which are both made in-house. It’s craveable, comforting and costs exactly nothing (while supplies last). Each location will be serving up to 150 free bowls today, so you’ll want to get there early before they’re gone. RECOMMENDED: The 10 best street food vendors in NYC for spicy tacos, world-famous dosas and more Priced at $12 on non-giveaway days, the new dish was intentionally designed to be both filling and inflation-friendly, keeping affordability front and center as food costs continue to rise. Throughout August, INDAY will donate a portion of proceeds from all Chicken Over Rice sales to the Street Vendor Project, a nonprofit that supports the rights, livelihoods and recognition of New York’s street vendors. With a membership of over 2,900 mostly immigrant vendors, the organization provides legal aid, business training and advocacy for vendors across the city. Whether you’re chasing fla

If you’ve ever fallen down a 20-tab rabbit hole trying to pick a decent dinner spot in the city only to wind up at a place with $28 truffle fries and the ambiance of a dentist’s office, there’s a new tool in town that might save your sanity (and your date night). Meet Starved.io, a just-launched site that pulls together the internet’s food chatter—Reddit threads, Instagram tags and (soon) editorial articles—and compiles it into clean, searchable profiles for more than 2,700 New York restaurants. Instead of toggling between Yelp, Google, Reddit and the like, you can now browse everything in one place, complete with highlight dishes, sentiment summaries, and a whole mess of handy tags like “date-night,” “Chinese” or “cash-only.” The site is the brainchild of Steven (who prefers not to use his last name for anonymity reasons), a 29-year-old software engineer and lifelong Morningside Heights local. His inspiration? A Restaurant Week disaster six years ago, when he sent a friend to a Yelp-praised restaurant that turned out to be such a dud it torpedoed the poor guy’s date. “That moment stuck with me,” Steven told Time Out. “I realized that finding a truly great restaurant in NYC requires more than relying on a single source.” So he built Starved as a side project, working nights and weekends from April to July. The result is something between a crowd-sourced food archive and a digital cheat sheet; it’s more curator than critic. The site doesn’t generate its own reviews; instead, i

Scarsdale just did it again: For the second year running, this tree-lined Westchester enclave has snagged the top spot as America’s wealthiest suburb, according to new data from GOBankingRates—and the numbers don’t lie. With an average household income of $601,193 in 2023 (up 2.2-percent from the year prior) and average home values tipping the scales at $1.2 million, Scarsdale isn’t just rich—it’s in a class of its own. That’s despite stiff competition from glossy zip codes in California and Texas, many of which saw either a dip in income or cooling home prices. But not Scarsdale. Here, the Tudor homes remain pristine, the train to Grand Central runs like clockwork and the public schools are practically a brand name. RECOMMENDED: New York City rent has increased by 36% since before the pandemic Located just 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan (or about 30 minutes via Metro-North), Scarsdale has long been a magnet for high earners who want suburban serenity with a side of status. It’s not just hedge funders and lawyers, either, though there are plenty of those. The town also boasts a large foreign-born population, including a long-established Japanese community and more than 90-percent of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. So what makes Scarsdale stand out among the 50 wealthiest suburbs nationwide? While other top-tier ‘burbs—like Los Altos, California, and West University Place, Texas—have posted either shrinking incomes or slower growth, Scarsdale has quietly continued

New York City’s newest real estate trend isn’t a shiny glass tower—it’s rethinking the ones we already have. According to a new report from City Comptroller Brad Lander, more than 15 million square feet of aging office space across the city could be flipped into nearly 17,400 apartments, marking a pivotal shift in New York’s fight against the housing crisis. That’s right: The old Pfizer headquarters? Becoming 1,500 apartments. Downtown’s former JPMorgan Chase HQ at 25 Water Street? Already mid-conversion into 1,300 units. Even the onetime home of Goldman Sachs, at 55 Broad Street, has traded its trading desks for 571 new rental units. RECOMMENDED: This awesome free tool will alert you when a new rent-stabilized apartment is available in NYC In total, the report counts 44 conversion projects either completed, underway, or proposed that have gained momentum since the pandemic upended both where New Yorkers live and where they work. With hybrid and remote work emptying out Midtown cubicles and dragging down office values, developers are seizing the opportunity to turn ghosts of commerce past into badly needed homes. A generous new tax break called 467-m is greasing the wheels of the project. Enacted in 2024, it gives developers up to 90-percent off their property tax bill for up to 35 years, as long as 25-percent of the new apartments are affordable. Critics argue that the program is overly generous in some cases: the Comptroller estimates it could cost the city $5.1 billion in

Turns out “I’m walkin’ here!” isn’t just a punchline, it’s a lifestyle. According to a new report from analytics firm StreetLight, New Yorkers—at least in four out of five boroughs—are walking and biking at rates the rest of the country can only dream of. Manhattan leads the nation in “active transportation,” with a whopping 59-percent of trips made on foot or by bike. Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx also rank in the top 10 U.S. counties for non-car travel. The odd borough out is Staten Island, where a staggering 87-percent of trips still happen by car, placing it closer to the national norm. Across most of the U.S., active transportation remains the exception: In more than two-thirds of the counties analyzed, fewer than 1 in 10 trips involve walking or biking. Density—and a transit system that, for all its faults, actually works—is what sets New York apart. “New York is a city in the United States that's done the most to support safe walking and cycling,” Michael Replogle, former NYC DOT deputy commissioner, told Gothamist. Add in policies like congestion pricing and reliable mass transit, and it’s no wonder New Yorkers are pounding the pavement in record numbers. The study excluded low-density areas and focused on trips over 300 meters, offering a more apples-to-apples comparison among urban centers. And it wasn’t just NYC making the leaderboard: Hudson County, New Jersey (home to Jersey City and Hoboken), ranked fifth, just ahead of Boston and Philly. With its tight street

In a plot twist no one saw coming (least of all your wallet), New York City didn’t make the list of America’s worst places to rent in 2025. Yes, really. According to a new study from WalletHub ranking 182 U.S. cities based on rental affordability and quality of life, the Big Apple managed to sidestep the bottom 10 altogether. That might come as a surprise to anyone who’s stared down a $3,800 studio in Murray Hill or lost a bidding war for a walk-up with no stove. But while New York didn’t exactly dominate the top of the list, it didn’t plunge to the bottom either, landing somewhere in the murky middle (at No. 83, to be exact), saved by factors like access to jobs, public transportation and endless bagels. But don’t pop the Champagne just yet. Just across the Hudson, Newark, New Jersey, found itself named the sixth-worst place in the entire country to rent. Ouch. WalletHub’s ranking looked at everything from rent-to-income ratios and historical price changes to crime, job availability and weather. And while Newark has proximity to Manhattan going for it, the city struggles in areas like safety and overall affordability. It was joined in the bottom 10 by cities like Detroit, San Bernardino, Cleveland, Memphis and—to round out the regional pain—Baltimore. On the flip side, the best place to rent in 2025 is apparently Overland Park, Kansas, a leafy suburb of Kansas City that probably has no idea what a broker’s fee is. Other top contenders included Fargo, North Dakota; Lincoln, N

It’s the end of an era at the Ed Sullivan Theater. CBS has announced it’s canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the 2025–2026 season, pulling the plug on what’s been the most-watched late-night show for nearly a decade. The final episode is set for May 2026, but if you’ve ever dreamed of seeing Colbert live, the window’s closing fast. The decision came as a shock to many, including Colbert himself, who broke the news to a stunned studio audience last night. “Next year will be our last season,” he said, met with boos and disbelief. “This is all just going away.” Why was The Late Show with Stephen Colbert canceled? According to the New York Times, CBS insists the cancelation was “purely a financial decision,” citing declining ad revenue and the high cost of producing nightly talk shows. Still, the timing raised eyebrows. The announcement came just weeks after CBS’s parent company, Paramount, settled a $16 million lawsuit with Donald Trump—whom Colbert has consistently skewered—and while a controversial merger with Skydance Media awaits government approval. Some lawmakers have already suggested politics, not just profits, might be behind the decision. Regardless of motive, the show’s demise signals a broader shift. Late-night as we know it is shrinking. Shows are vanishing. Fewer are even submitted for Emmy consideration. And The Late Show, which was first launched by David Letterman in 1993, had become one of the last remaining standard-bearers of the format. Colb

This summer, the New York Botanical Garden invites New Yorkers to step into the world of Vincent van Gogh—not through a frame on a museum wall, but through fields of sunflowers, sweeping bursts of color and sculptural still lifes that bloom around you. Van Gogh’s Flowers, on view from May 24 through October 26, transforms the Garden’s 250 acres into a kaleidoscopic celebration of the artist’s lifelong obsession with nature. This isn’t just a flower show. The exhibition brings Van Gogh’s expressive canvases off the wall and into the wild, pairing his iconic works with contemporary interpretations and living installations. At the heart of the experience is a towering field of real and sculptural sunflowers designed by French artist Cyril Lancelin, an immersive environment where guests can wander through Van Gogh’s signature motif on a monumental scale. Nearby, Graphic Rewilding’s massive floral artworks explode with color in the Conservatory and reflecting pools, paying tribute to the visual language Van Gogh used to translate nature into emotion. Photograph: Laura Ratliff Inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, Kansas City sculptor Amie Jacobsen has reimagined Van Gogh’s still lifes in three dimensions, with supersized roses, irises and imperial fritillaries blooming in front of lush living backdrops. Each piece required months of effort—Jacobsen, who works with a small team of assistants, said it took about four months of nonstop work to complete the sculptures. “Creating a