Photo: Flatbush Gardener
With a deadline approaching on November 1 for the Historic Districts Council’s “Six to Celebrate” competition, which is intended to help a half-dozen out of the “couple of hundred” applicants that the Landmarks Preservation Commission expects next year, here’s a caution from reader Bill of Brooklyn, based on his experience with historic designation:
“Suppose you own a restaurant in New York City and one of your ovens breaks. It’s 100 years old and you’ve repaired it repeatedly, so you contact your supplier to buy a new, high-efficiency oven. He files for a permit with, say, the Department of Buildings. Instead of approving it, they tell you that you have to fix the old one. Continue reading
This is not about “Waiting for Superman,” Davis Guggenheim’s heavily hyped new documentary, which examines the success of Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone and the KIPP charter schools, and asserts that reform efforts to improve public education are being actively resisted by America’s teachers unions.
Tuesday’s NY Times 
We have to take our hat off to Clyde Haberman, a superbly skilled journalist, for bringing humor to his 
CityPragmatist 