Virginia K. Smith

Q: My sister and I bought a co-op about 10 months ago, and hired an attorney from a firm our broker recommended who seemed to have done his due diligence. Now, however, we’ve discovered several issues that we think he should have caught.

The unexpected upsides to fitting a four-person family into 650 square feet (NY Mag)

Steal reno ideas from this Brooklyn bathroom before-and-after (Sweeten)

Why should common charges differ depending on what floor you live on? (NYT)

How much stray trash is lurking in your neighborhood subway station? (WNYC)

One way to get a rental at a discount: take on an apartment full of a dead stranger's stuff (Refinery 29)

The worst things to do if you're staying in the city this summer (Gawker)

As Berlin has gotten increasingly hip and wealthy over the past several years, it has been facing an affordable housing crisis that's looked painfully familiar to most New Yorkers. But after enacting new rent control laws last month, it seems the city may already be turning the tide on a problem that's baffled just about every other major urban center in the developed world.

Following a years-long battle in both the court of public opinion and the actual court system, NYU is moving forward with its massive planned expansion in Greenwich Village, after New York state's highest court of appeals ruled in their favor last week that sites intended for construction are not, in fact, legally protected parkland. (You can read the full ruling here.)