Virginia K. Smith

Sad but true: Sometimes, it really does take a village to keep rats from taking over your apartment building, or even the entire street. And thanks to a bevy of complaints in the area, DNAinfo reports that the Health Department and Community Board 2 are teaming up to hold a "rat academy" next week in hopes of teaching Fort Greene residents how to fend off the four-legged fiends.

Is it time to get over our collective obsession with farmhouse sinks? (Curbed)

So what does gentrification really mean, anyway? (Brownstoner)

Even in a cleaned-up post-Bloomberg New York—and even in some of the city's toniest neighborhoods—open, overflowing trash bins unfortunately remain an aesthetic scourge. And if you're a building owner, the fines that ring up when passerby throw things in your bins willy-nilly can be more than a little exasperating—and expensive.

Work those glutes: these NYC neighborhoods have the most walk-ups (StreetEasy)

Pro tips on keeping your apartment blissfully bed bug free (City Lab)

Is $28.88 million a "lucky" price for a townhouse or just a crazy one? (WSJ)

Finally, something besides empty cigarette boxes and mystery fluids will occupy New York's long-unused pay phone booths: Over the course of next several years starting this month, the city will be turning them into thousands of LinkNYC wi-fi kiosks, featuring free high-speed wireless internet as well as USB charging slots, free domestic phone calls, and "a dedicated 911 call button," per AM NY.