Alana Mayman

In a famously mobile city like New York, living in one apartment for decades is the exception rather than the rule. A recent New York Times story suggests stasis ensues mainly when an apartment is cheap (such as rent controlled or rent stabilized) or if it is flexible enough to adapt to a growing or shrinking number of occupants (think Soho loft).

This week's Urtak poll is for anyone who has ever hired a contractor.  You can check the results to each question as you go along (or click here and select "results" on the top right), and remember you can ask as well as answer questions by clicking on the 'Ask' tab above.

So your cousins from Baltimore are flying in to NYC to dog-sit while you're on vacation? Here's some stuff you might want to hide before they get here....

So many NYC neighbor stories focus on the loud, disturbed, or disgusting.  But it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, the person staring straight ahead in the elevator may just be the neighbor of your dreams...

Top 10 Neighbors We Wouldn't Mind Having

QR codes--those square bar-codes that beam information directly to your Smartphone--are showing up on real estate listings, conference name tags and Japanese cemeteries, among other places.