Virginia K. Smith

Q: I rent in a townhouse with roommates, and our landlords live abroad. Since they don't have a property manager, it often falls to me to shovel the sidewalks out front. (The landlord requires us to shovel the snow, but there's no written provision for that in our lease.) I'd like to ask the landlord to hire someone to do this, but I'm unclear—is snow removal the responsibility of the building's owners, its current residents, or both?

A colorful map of the city's foreign-born populations by neighborhood (NYU Furman Center)

Better move fast: the Hamptons rental hunt started early this year (NYT)

Today in bad ideas, a college kid is in huge trouble for putting his dorm room on Airbnb (NY Mag)

Given that San Francisco's real estate prices have actually surpassed our own as of late, we'll admit that we're not above the occasional bit of "hey, at least we don't have it as bad as them" self-soothing. This week, we're doing it for a slightly different reason: utter relief at the fact that unlike 2015, ours isn't the city being overrun for the Super Bowl. 

Believe it or not, a buyer's therapist can derail a closing (WSJ)

Living behind a rural New York strip club is just as unpleasant as you'd guess it would be (Elite Daily)

You should probably consult this pizza slice map of Manhattan (Thrillist)

The slow trickle of new startups offering doorman and package delivery services is a trend we are very much behind, and while Parcel has shut down its individual delivery services, Lower East Side option City CoPilot has recently expanded.