The same week that NYC’s Department of Health finally published a consumer guide to fighting bed bugs, the Journal of Economic Entomology released a chilling case study of a massive bed bug infestation in a high-rise Indianapolis apartment building.

It’s a Ghost-of-Christmas-Future story for all landlords, co-ops and condos interested in avoiding, say, a $250,000 bed bug clean-up bill.

We are hopeful that the publisher will soon permit us to upload a PDF of the article, which is not yet available online. For now, here are the cautionary facts:

In our vertical city, we live surrounded by sex: upstairs, downstairs, on the other side of the wall, and across the airshaft.

In fact, there’s a pretty good chance someone is fornicating in your building right now.

Can you hear them? We'd like to know.

Take our fun, anonymous Noisy Sexy Neighbor Survey today and we’ll deliver the results in time for Valentine’s Day.

Hell hath no fury like a brownstoner scorned.

An online lynch mob is forming around a longtime Park Slope kitchen and bath supplier who allegedly rubbed (robbed?) a vocal segment of Brooklyn residents the wrong way.

In an epic-length post on Brownstoner, a very unhappy customer minces no words about Brian Ackerman, the proprietor of Brooklyn Kitchens and Baths.

Doormen are NYC’s unofficial security guards: While they may not carry a weapon or do more than dial 911 in an emergency, their mere presence is thought to deter street crime as well as visitors with nefarious intentions.

That last category includes cat burglars, scam artists, menu-pushers and…Craigslist crazies.

Fearful of meeting up with strangers in their apartments, some UrbanBaby commenters say that when unloading possessions via Craigslist, they either transact business in their attended lobby or hand off the goods altogether to the doorman, who bags the cash too.

Q. I am selling my co-op apartment in part because of toxic relationships with several neighbors in my small (under 25-unit) building and also because of a negative change in my employment.

The problem is that two residents who have demonstrated deep hostility toward me are on the board (one is the president). I would not put it past them to turn down any buyers out of personal spite for me.

This week has been a bummer so far for a certain subset of NYC co-op owners regarded by the rest of the country as filthy rich, but who consider themselves tenuous members of the city's professional middle class.

First, President Obama declared his intention to let Bush-era tax cuts expire for families earning $250,000 a year or more, or individuals earning at least $200,000. The top two income tax rates would jump from 33 percent and 35 percent, to 36 percent and 39.6 percent respectively.

Then Governor Paterson announced a proposed tax of around 2% on newly originated co-op mortgages, which were previously exempt from the mortgage tax levied on condo and houses.

This morning’s NY Times has an A1 story about an Upper East Side family that surgically debarked their daschund-terrier mix for the neighbors.

The dog’s vocal cords were apparently clipped “after a neighbor in the family’s apartment building on the Upper East Side threatened to complain to the co-op board about the noisy dog,” says the article.

We suspect there may be more to the story, since in our experience, the mere threat of a complaint to the board is not particularly motivating to most New Yorkers.

There’s a good reason people tip their supers more than their doormen at the holidays: Supers have the power to fix what ails your apartment quickly, slowly, half-assedly, or not at all.

They also know where all the illicit garbage disposals are buried, including yours.

Thus, even if you don’t really like your super (or resident manager, as they are dubbed in many large buildings), domestic life will go smoother for you if you don’t piss off the big guy, even accidentally.

• Yes I actually do mind taking off my shoes (Gawker)
• Moldy apartment woes- who pays? (NY Times)
• Goldman offering mortgages as perks to bonus-less bankers (The Real Deal via Gawker)
• First bed bugs, now stink bugs in Brooklyn (NY Post)
• Second wave of pain for new condo sales (The Real Deal via Curbed)
• Sex offender is a super at three UWS buildings (NY Post)
• Brisk buying activity in Manhattan (Urban Digs)

After Eater.com’s post last week on the latest store-to-mouth innovation from FreshDirect, our FiOS-envy was joined by…vending machine lust.

It turns out that FreshDirect has been test-driving its popular workplace vending machines in three large Manhattan rental buildings for the last several months, including Chelsea Landmark, the newish downtown luxury high-rise.

FreshDirect's refrigerated machines are stocked with fresh “4-minute meals” created by culinary notables like Tabla, Rosa Mexicano, and Terrance Brennan. Salads are working their way into the rotation, soon to be followed by soups and snacks.