This NYC Subway Circles Map is driving me crazy

[VIA GOTHAMIST]

Every once in a while, someone will get the brilliant idea to re-design the NYC subway map for shits and giggles. Usually, it's fun to look at for like 5 seconds. Until you realize that you've lived in NYC for so long that you barely use the subway map anymore 'cause you always go to the same places. (Unless you have to go to Queens for some birthday party, in which case you probably end up taking a car anyway and spend the whole time questioning why you have friends who live in Queens). 

ANYWAY,  the latest iteration of this redisgned map trend comes to us from U.K. psychologist Max Roberts, who according to Gothamist "focuses his studies on schematic mapping and wayfinding information, design[ing] maps and condut[ing] studies to see how useable they are." His signature style? A 'Circles Map,' which reinvisions your usual transport system using concentric circles. 

He's designed Circles Maps for London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Washington DC, and Chicago. And now he's taken on NYC. 

You know what else has concentric circles? Hell.

Click to read more ...

SAY GOODBYE (Maybe) TO BoCoCa, La-Fu & Other Fake BK Neighborhoods

Because of a broker, I spent six months believing that my first Brooklyn apartment was situated in the coveted nabe of Park Slope. "Just at the southern tip," I was told, and paid a hefty rent accordingly. Know where I lived, guys? 27TH STREET AND 4TH FUCKIN' AVENUE (Heyyyy, Eagle Provisions! I miss your kielbasa). 

For brokers and Craigslist posters, throwing a cardinal direction onto an existing neighborhood is common when blurring boundary lines (ahem, East Williamsburg). But what appears to be nearly as frequent and MORE ridiculous is the complete fabrication of neighborhood monikers that brokers pull from their asses to inflate rental costs. See: "Pro-Cro" (Prospect and Crown Heights), "La-Fu" (The Lafayette and Fulton intersection in Fort Greene) and my PERSONAL fave, "BoCoCa" (a magical place where Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill collide). The thing is, these names are SO FUCKING STUPID. Who wants to live in a neighborhood that sounds like a sugary cocktail served in a coconut, or a place to take your purse dog for hairapy and a pink bow?

Regardless, a state lawmaker is pushing for a bill that would ban brokers from Frankensteining New York City neighborhoods to jack up rental prices.

Click to read more ...

Sorry, New York

There are a million douchey love letters to New York City written by Carrie Bradshaw wannabes that include sentences like "LOL thanks for having every form of take-out ever because I use my stove as a place to store all of my shoes!"  Guess what, girls?  That's not charming or New York-y, that's what the scientific community would classify as a "borderline hoarder tendencies."

There are also a bunch of irreverent "manuals" to living in New York City, which are usually plastered all over the Facebook pages of girls you went to high school with who love cupcakes.  They say things like, "picture hearing a man playing the saxophone outside your bedroom window. End up hearing a lot of sirens instead. Figure it’s okay because it’s New York and you’re still so happy to be here."

Yeah, okay. 

What it comes down to is that while New York is a giant asshole, so are you.  Maybe it's time to apologize.

Click to read more ...

Fuck You York

Out of the parade of shitty Tumblrs that are clogging the interweb, this one stands out to me, mainly because it's a.) New York-specific and b.) uses anger and profanity for laughs! 

Fuck You York is a photo blog of people flipping off shit in New York City that makes them angry.  It's like a profane urban diary of all of the crap that we have to put up with just so hicks from the one-stoplight towns we grew up in can all get glassy-eyed when you tell them that yes, indeed, you DO live in the City That Never Sleeps. 

It ain't all sunshine and rainbows, folks.  It's taxi TVs and subway platforms, too.