Solving a Real-Estate “Doom Loop”

Plus: Amanda Petrusich’s nominees for Song of the Summer; an actor laughing in the face of dying; and how to sue people to save democracy. View in browser | Update your preferences Wednesday, May 8, 2024 In today’s edition, D. T. Max reports on an extreme form of urban recycling, and Amanda Petrusich nominates three early contenders for Song of the Summer. Plus: • A TikTok ban won’t fix social media • Gaza’s unexploded-bomb crisis • Saving democracy, one lawsuit at a time Turning Office Towers Into Apartment Buildings Nathan Berman has helped rescue Manhattan’s financial district from a “doom loop” by carving attractive living spaces from hulking buildings that once housed fields of cubicles. By D. T. Max Photo illustration by Josh Cochran; Source photograph by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty There are about a thousand real-estate developers in New York City. Nathan Berman is one of them, and he’s become rich doing it. But, he told me recently, “I never built a building from scratch, and never wanted to.” Instead, Berman, who is sixty-four, specializes in taking existing structures and converting them into apartments, a useful trick in a city that’s always starved for housing—and newly wary of the five-day-a-week office routine. In 2017, he converted 443 Greenwich Street, a former warehouse and book bindery in Tribeca, built in 1883, into a luxury condo; among the celebrities who now own apartments there are Harry Styles and Jake Gyllenhaal. (The building was designed to be “paparazzi-proof,” so it features an underground parking area with a valet.) It’s not much of a feat, though, to redo an industrial space that has a rudimentary interior. Berman is more excited by the transformation of huge, obsolete office towers into warrens of one- and two-bedroom apartments. He compares the effort to extract as much residential rental space as possible out of such buildings to solving a Rubik’s Cube. Keep reading Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » Critic’s Notebook The staff writer Amanda Petrusich names three tracks that you, or someone you know, will be singing along to in the months ahead. Sabrina Carpenter, Future, and Chappell Roan. | Photographs by Valerie Macon / Getty; Prince Williams / Wireimage / Getty; Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty In honor of Dua Lipa, whose new album, “Radical Optimism,” I review in this week’s issue—and who appears to be eternally on vacation (bless her)—this feels like the right moment to suggest some early contenders for Song of the Summer, an unofficial but nonetheless profound cultural designation. I’d encourage you to put aside your personal taste and self-regard, and learn every last word to the following tunes, so that you may perform them with outsized vigor at stoplights (windows down, sunglasses on) from now until the autumnal equinox. “Espresso,” by Sabrina Carpenter. The first time you hear the chorus (“That’s that me espresso”), you will shake your head; by the second time, it will feel like an ancient idiom. “Good Luck, Babe!,” by Chappell Roan. There’s no better way to flip off a summer situationship than by hollering this bridge at full volume: “You know I hate to say, / but I told you so!” “Like That,” by Future and Metro Boomin, featuring Kendrick Lamar. This song may now be known for kicking off Lamar’s still-spiralling beef with Drake, but it’s tense, heavy, and bold enough to survive the news cycle. Sign up for the Goings On newsletter to get our Summer Culture Preview in your in-box this Friday. Editor’s Pick The Political Scene Can Suing People for Lying Save Democracy? The lawyers at Protect Democracy have brought defamation suits against Rudy Giuliani, Kari Lake, and Project Veritas, hoping to limit the spread of disinformation. Could their efforts impinge on freedom of speech? By Charles Bethea From the News Desk Infinite Scroll A TikTok Ban Won’t Fix Social Media You can take the platform away from American users, but it is far too late to contain the habits that it has unleashed. By Kyle Chayka Q. & A. Gaza’s Unexploded-Bomb Crisis Clearing the territory of ordnance and rubble could pose a challenge unseen since the Second World War. By Isaac Chotiner Save the date! The 25th New Yorker Festival will take place October 25th to 27th. Learn more » Screening Room The New Yorker Documentary Laughing in the Face of Dying Young, in “Cherry” The actor Marie-Lise Chouinard faces her terminal-cancer diagnosis with grace and comedy in this short documentary. Film by Laurence Gagné-Frégeau Text by Miguel Florencio Fun & Games Dept. Crossword A Beginner-Friendly Puzzle Fast-sounding reindeer on Santa’s team: six letters. By Caitlin Reid Shouts & Murmurs Actually, I Can’t Wait for a Trump-Biden Rematch This time around, we’ll remember to stock the appropriate amount of Xanax, anticipating that the election will take several days to call. By Ginny Hogan Daily Cartoon Wednesday, May 8th By Peter Kuper Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play a quiz from our archive » P.S. Visiting Trump Tower in 2017, David Owen psychoanalyzed the building’s atrium alongside an architecture critic. “It’s an unbelievably aggressive space,” the critic explains, adding that, “at every moment, it’s elbowing its way to the front of your attention.” The atrium aims for grandeur, but shoddy construction details—mismatched reflective panels, misaligned molding joints, relentless H.V.A.C. noise—give it up as rubbish. What did you think of today’s newsletter? Let us know. If you like the daily newsletter, browse more New Yorker newsletters. 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