Martha Burzynski

Last year, West Village co-op owner Grace got one of the most alarming emails of her life--a news report that her building facade was collapsing, with pieces of brick spiralling down from the upper floors and walls bulging. Authorities were on site for an “all-hands situation.”

Not many apartments in the city come with keys to a secret garden but, unbeknownst to me until after signing the lease on my Boerum Hill apartment, mine did.