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The New Yorker magazine tracked the shifts in New York City's income inequality along the city's subway lines.

Some of the key findings:

  • $205,192—The highest median household income of any census tract the subway has a station in (for Chambers Street, Park Place, and World Trade Center, all in Lower Manhattan).
  • $12,288—The lowest median household income (Sutter Avenue, on the L in Brooklyn).
  • $191,442—The largest range in median household income on a single subway line (for the 2, which includes Chambers Street/Park Place, in Lower Manhattan, on the high end, and East 180th Street, in the Bronx, on the low end).
  • $84,837—The smallest range in median household income on a single subway line (for the G, the only non-shuttle subway line that doesn’t pass through Manhattan).
  • $142,265—The largest gap in median household income between two consecutive subway stations on the same line (between Fulton Street and Chambers Street on the A and the C lines, in Lower Manhattan).
Museums have opened and closed and buildings have shifted, but I don’t know about being torn down.

Architect BILLIE TSIEN, who along with Tod Williams designed the former home of the American Folk Art Museum; the building, opened to great fanfare in 2001 and considered among New York City’s architectural gems, will be razed by its current owner, the Museum of Modern Art.

When the stewards of art destroy art, it’s the most tragic of travesties.

(via the New York Times)

No seriously.

New York City is poised to mandate that thousands of companies provide paid time off for sick employees, bolstering a national movement that has been resisted by wary business leaders.

A legislative compromise reached Thursday night represents a raw display of political muscle by a coalition of labor unions and liberal activists who overcame fierce objections from New York’s business-minded mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and his allies in the corporate world.

The deal required a high-profile concession from a leading candidate to succeed Mr. Bloomberg, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who had single-handedly blocked action on the sick-leave issue for three years, arguing that it would inflict damage on the city’s fragile economy.

The legislation would eventually force companies with at least 15 employees to give workers five compensated days off a year when they are ill, a requirement that advocates said would allow much of the city’s labor force to stay home from work without fear of losing a day’s wage — or worse, a job. The advocates said the legislation would provide paid sick leave for one million New Yorkers who do not currently have such benefits.

But to the disappointment of those who pushed for a more sweeping version of the legislation, New York City’s mandate would not take effect until spring 2014, and for the first 18 months, it would apply only to businesses with 20 or more employees, according to people involved in the negotiations.

The measure is subject to a vote by the City Council. Mr. Bloomberg is expected to veto the measure, but there is enough support on the Council to override his veto.

New York’s measure would be less stringent than similar requirements in Portland, Ore., Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, which cover either all companies or those with five or more workers.

In a provision designed to placate the city’s corporate leaders, the sick-leave requirement would not be implemented next year should the city’s economy significantly erode, as measured by a financial index kept by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The New York Times, “Deal Reached to Force Paid Sick Leave in New York City”
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