Virginia K. Smith

Fallout continues from the gas-related East Village building explosion that killed two New Yorkers last year, and left many of us terrified at the possibility of leaks in our own old, questionably maintained buildings.

HDFC co-ops—apartments with special tax breaks and income caps for buyers—have long been something of a paradox in the New York market. They're one of the rare affordable housing options available to buyers as opposed to renters, but due to price hikes and income caps, are increasingly available only to buyers with little to no income and lots of cash on hand, like retirees or recent college grads bankrolled by their parents.

Someone made a heat map of U.S. cities with the same rent as your Brooklyn neighborhood (Time Out New York)

An adorable (if dubious) new term for those kitchen-dwelling bathtubs: the "tubchen" (Gothamist)