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The New York State Public Service Commision has approved the sale of four ConEd properties to East River Real Estate Company. The properties comprise about 9 acres along First Avenue between 35th and 41st Streets.

Unfortunately, all the buildings are to be razed. There are at least one or two buildings with a lot of character that, given the proper conversion, would make unique residences. There has been much talk about development on this property in the neighborhood over the last few years. Many feel that building more high-rise buildings will just lead to more traffic and congestion in the area. That is a given, but it might be worth it if river access is improved as promised.

NewYorkish posts the second in a series of “Ask the Expert” articles today with The Doorman. They have managed to answer a couple of burning questions for me:

NYish: True or false: starting in November, you start acting really nice because you know your Christmas tips are coming.

Victor: That’s true, I guess. I mean, I’m nice all year round, but we all make an extra effort right before the holidays. We’ve got a lot of money coming to us.

NYish: And naturally you report those earnings to the IRS, right?

Victor: [laughs; doesn't respond]

NYish: Last question: Ever use that taxi call light on the top of the canopy to get someone a cab?

Victor: No, never. It works though. I tried it one time just to see.

Monday’s expert was Ed the air conditioning guy who had some answers about the water droplets we are all pelted with on warm days:

Ed: It’s water. Basically what happens is warm air passes over cooling coils and the cooling action causes condensate to form. That’s what drips off the cooling coils.

NYish: So you know for sure that it’s not urine or spit then?

Ed: If it was piss, it wouldn’t be little drops. And it would be yellow. Spit? Yea, I guess it could be, but you’d able to tell the difference.

NYish: How?

Ed: Well, one’s made of fuc*ing water and the other’s sticky, right?

via curbed

According to the New York Times, there is a national trend to reduce the amount of office space occupied by each worker. In the 1980’s, the average number of square feet allocated to each worker was 227, now the average is between 150 and 200 square feet.

TowerStream is aiming to turn New York City into one big hotspot. According to mobilepipeline, the wireless provider has installed an antenna atop the Empire State Building and will be able to provide wireless service anywhere within a 10 mile radius. TowerStream uses WiMAX equipment to provide businesses with T1 and 100 Mbps service in NYC and other cities.

via atmaspheric

This might be old news, but it was new to me as of last week. ConEd Solutions offers a Green Power option to all ConEd customers. For an additional $0.005 per kilowatt hour, customers can purchase electricity from renewable sources. In the case of ConEd, the sources are 25% Wind, 75% small hydroelectric. ConEd customers can learn more and sign up for green power at ConEd Solutions.

While the ConEd Solutions web site offers a fair amount of information, I found this essay by Walter Simpson to be a bit more informative. At the bottom of the page, he provides several links to other green energy providers around the state.

Some hotels are starting to offer special rooms for the vertically non-challenged (which can be quite challenging at times). The Hotel Monaco Group has been offering tall guest rooms with higher ceilings, raised showerheads and extended beds at no extra charge. In the future they plan to add, among other things, longer bathrobes.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the airlines do not seem to be as caring for the needs of the tall traveler. Continental seems to be one of the worst offenders. This domestic airline seat pitch chart confirms my suspicions, Continental ranks at the bottom with Aeromexico and others. So, if you’re tall and want to retain feeling in your legs after a flight, try flying American or jetBlue. Song doesn’t seem so bad either.

via Boing boing

Forgotten New York is featuring some excellent photos of two abandoned subway platforms. The photos of the hidden E platform at 42nd Street and G platform at Bergen Street were taken by Mike Epstein.

Mike’s site also has some great photos of an abandoned subway tunnel in Newark.

May is Bike Month NYC. The month long celebration features many, bike related events around the city including The Bicycle Film Festival and “Run For Your Life!” which will feature, among other things, “Topless Flaming Bareknuckle Tallbike Jousting of Death”.

Satan’s Laundromat has some pictures of one of my favorite events, Bike New York.

Note to self: bring rain gear to next year’s Five Borough Bike Tour.

The same folks that brought you Poem in Your Pocket Day have launched See More in ‘04:

The Department of Cultural Affairs along with the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission is proud to announce the launch of SEE MORE IN ’04: NYC ARTS & CULTURE, a city-wide campaign to promote New York City’s vibrant non-profit cultural community in all five boroughs.

New York City’s countless non-profit cultural organizations of every size and discipline represent worlds of imagination, beauty, excitement, and surprise. And it’s all right next door, just around the corner, or a quick subway ride away.

The website has a very comprehensive directory of the City’s Arts & Cultural organizations organized by discipline and borough.

Some enterprising grad students at NYU have concocted a meatspace version of Pacman. Pacmanhattan’s game board is comprised of the area surrounding Washington Square Park. The next game is tentatively scheduled for Saturday May 8th at noon. If you are not interested in witnessing this in person, you can watch it live on the Pacmanhattan web site.

No word yet on when other arcade classics such as Galaxian and Centipede (Gothaxian? Citypede?) will be relived on the streets of New York.

Thanks Anthony