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Rebecca Baird-Remba

@thecitywanderer.bsky.social

2.1K followers 800 following 400 posts

Writing about financial markets for @risk.net, and occasionally other things. recovering real estate and architecture reporter. bike girl about town

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · Jul 23

a year after i finished this article about the history of single-room occupancy (SRO) units, it's exciting to see Pew finally publish it. If you're curious about SROs or "micro-units," have a read! www.pew.org/en/research-...

How States and Cities Decimated Americans’ Lowest-Cost Housing Option

Low-cost micro-units, often called single-room occupancies, or SROs, were once a reliable form of housing for the United States’ poorest residents of, and newcomers to, New York, Chicago, San Francisc...

www.pew.org

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Reposted by Rebecca Baird-Remba

Brutalismbot @brutalismbot.com · 2d

Hotel du lac, Tunis, Tunisia r/brutalism

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah if you want to check out the primary source material, it’s a book called Living Downtown

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 1d

didnt realize there was a real bus tbh. i think when it opened service was pretty sparse www.njtransit.com/destinations...

NJ TRANSIT

New Jersey Public Transportation Corporation - The Way To Go

www.njtransit.com

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

The property was sold but they haven’t announced plans to relocate. Idk what the deal is over there but I assume corporate just sees it as an opportunity to save money.

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah Getting to the meadowlands sucks without a car. The closest REI location to the city being in Garden City is so bleak.

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

I think that’s a factor but as I noted it’s a wildly expensive location and Kushner now has OpenAI in most or all of the office space in Puck. I imagine they are looking at a major rent increase too.

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

They also run some great online sales and do price match iirc

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

Paragon is the only one left and it doesn’t have as much of an outdoor focus

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

Moving to Brooklyn or Queens would be an easy choice but if it’s partially motivated by the union, they might not want to reopen here at all

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

REI opened there in 2011. I imagine they are looking at renegotiating their lease that ends in 2026 and feeling like the rent hike is too high. No doubt the union at the soho store is a factor too though they are also closing the non unionized one in Paramus bc the property sold/is being redeveloped

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 2d

REI soho closing is pretty bad for anyone who loves buying outdoor gear in the five boroughs. I know their c-suite is retrenching and cost cutting but I think folding up their NYC presence entirely is a huge mistake www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-new...

REI to close three stores, including NYC SoHo location

SEATTLE (BRAIN) — A week after announcing a strategic plan to employees that would involve difficult decisions to grow sales, REI Co-op said it will close three stores next year, including the New Yor...

www.bicycleretailer.com

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 3d

Once again he appears to be engaging in cope. We’ve also been dealing with rates market uncertainty since June!!

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 3d

Anything that could reduce HTC’s leverage during the land use process is seen as a threat

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Reposted by Rebecca Baird-Remba

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 3d

Good @nickgarber.bsky.social catch: 32BJ, Hotel Trades Council and the Carpenters are coming out *against* the housing reform amendments on the City Charter -- x.com/nick_garber/...

Inbox: Speaker Adams and labor unions including HTC, 32BJ & the Carpenters will rally (implicitly) against the ballot measures on the LES tomorrow.

Notable to see HTC and BJ, two powerful unions that are supporting Zohran Mamdani and haven’t been very vocal against the measures

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 4d

Hell’s Hundred Acres and Jackson Heights were both tough

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 4d

😇

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 4d

Anyway it’s a good quiz otherwise www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Are You a True New Yorker? Take Our Quiz

Think you know the landmarks, legends and lore of the city that never stops reinventing itself? See how well you measure up.

www.nytimes.com

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 4d

How did the Times not include the right answer in the options and repeat this mistake in the answer? Did no one Google to check what MTA stands for or did our editors drop the ball

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 4d

Trump take pasta on.ft.com/4o5f3Ha

EU backs Italy in Trump’s pasta tariff war

US threatens to apply tariffs of up to 107% on Barilla and other makes of Italian staple over alleged dumping

on.ft.com

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Reposted by Rebecca Baird-Remba

Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social · 7d

“A list of the 321 canceled grants obtained by Heatmap tells a different story. While much of the funding was awarded to blue state-based companies, the intended projects would have benefitted communities elsewhere, including in Texas, Florida, and Louisiana.”

The Department of Energy’s Latest Cuts Will Hit Red States, Too

A list of terminated grants obtained by Heatmap contains a number of grants that will cost jobs and revenue in Republican-led states.

heatmap.news

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Reposted by Rebecca Baird-Remba

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 7d

Yesterday, NY; today:

“WASHINGTON (AP) — White House budget director Russ Vought said the Trump administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas during the government shutdown.”
— apnews.com/article/gove...

Trump pauses $2.1B for Chicago infrastructure projects, leveraging shutdown to pressure Democrats

White House budget director Russ Vought says the Trump administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas durin...

apnews.com

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 8d

I hate any movie over two hours and I really liked this one too. A rare occurrence when 162 minutes of run time never dragged

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 8d

If you’ve mostly lived in some three to five unit walkup in a small to mid sized city in the US your experience would of course be very different! Hard to grasp the costs and the scale of what we are dealing with here, as well as the complexity of some of these projects.

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 8d

The other thing that I think is under discussed is that there are only a handful of large US cities that have passed serious decarbonization rules like we have. We are operating in a market that does not serve us compared to folks in Europe

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Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 8d

The challenge of ripping out wiring for a large number of apartments and inconveniencing all the tenants with construction and utility shutoffs is not unique to New York. We just have a lot more large, 100 year old buildings than most places in the US.

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