Virginia K. Smith

Admitting your crush to your neighbor: brilliance or madness? (Apartment Therapy)

May we interest you in this $16,000 chicken-shaped desk? (Curbed National)

Even for those of us whose eyes tend to glaze over at the constant drum beat of news that Manhattan real estate has gotten preposterously expensive, this latest round of market reports for the borough is a doozy. "This quarter, there are a record number of records," is how Miller Samuel data guru — and author of the 2nd Quarter Manhattan Douglas Elliman report — Jonathan Miller puts it.

Most New Yorkers know Bernie Goetz as the infamous 1980's "subway vigilante," or for his headline-generating 2013 arrest for selling weed to an undercover cop.

Room dividers for loft-dwellers of all budgets (BuzzBuzzHome)

The time has come to bid a fond "good riddance" to the poor door (NYP)

What you can rent around the world this summer if you put your apartment up for a Craigslist swap (DNAinfo)

The city's rent-stabilized tenants scored a major victory last night, as the Rent Guidelines Board voted for a rent freeze for the first time in its nearly 50-year history. This means that if you live in a stabilized apartment on a one-year lease, your landlord can't raise the rent at all when you renew this year. (The board also approved a two percent increase for two-year stabilized leases, which is a historic low in its own right, but not exactly as thrilling as an actual freeze.)