by 0 comments on "The Best Neighborhoods in New York, 2014"

Where do we go now? The eternal question. The rent has gone up again so it’s back out, further and further out, looking for a place we can afford that’s not too far from work and a place to get non-egg sandwich food items after 10pm.

Manhattan is a mausoleum for millionaires. Brooklyn is a borough of brands instead of neighborhoods. Queens is for drivers, the Bronx is too far from our friends, and that one guy who moved to Staten Island – no one’s seen him since. But the city is huge. There must be places to go.

Here they are.

The Best Neighborhoods in New York, 2014
I. The Best
II. The Best Places to Rent
III. The Best Places to Buy
IV. The Worst

……..

I. The Best

What’s important in a neighborhood? And what can we measure? How much it costs to live there. How long it takes to get there. How walkable the neighborhood is, how safe it is, and how much open space it has. Parameter by individual parameter – which neighborhoods are best?

Cheapest Rent
huntspoint
Hunts Point, Bronx

Cheapest to Buy
stablans
St. Albans, Queens

Fastest Commute
fulton
Financial District, Manhattan

Most Walkable
noho
Little Italy, Chinatown, NoHo, Flatiron, SoHo, Greenwich Village (tie)

Safest
tottenville
Tottenville, Staten Island

Most Open Space
inwood
Inwood & Washington Heights, Manhattan

II. The Best Places to Rent

One factor won’t make our decision. We pretend we’re more complicated than that. Combining five factors – weighing rent, commute time and walkability three times as much as safety and open space – into a single score will reveal, hype and friends and articles aside, the top ten places where we ought to be renting in New York.

drumroll.aiff…

maspeth
#10 Maspeth, Queens
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Forno Pizzeria E Trattoria (Italian)

flatlands
#9 Flatlands, Brooklyn
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Ashoka Indian Grill (Indian)

ridgewood
#8 Ridgewood, Queens BEST IN BOROUGH
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: La Taqueria Kermes (Mexican)

sunsetpark
#7 Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Tacos El Bronco (Mexican)

greenwood
#6 Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn BEST IN BOROUGH
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Lot 2 (New American)

hamilton
#5 Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Harlem Public (New American)

harlem
#4 Harlem, Manhattan
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Seasoned Vegan (Vegan)

eastharlem
#3 East Harlem, Manhattan
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Cafe Olin (Mexican)

inwood
#2 Inwood, Manhattan
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Beans and Vines (New American)

#1 #1 #1 #1…

washheights
#1 Washington Heights, Manhattan
Best place for dinner according to Yelp: Saggio (Italian)

HONORABLE MENTION
Best in the Bronx: #16 Morrisania
Best of Staten Island: #37 New Dorp

III. The Best Neighborhoods in New York (for Buyers)

Buying? We’ll swap out average rents with average purchase price per square foot. Six of the top ten neighborhoods make the list for both renters and buyers.

jamaica-hills
#10 Jamaica Hills, Queens
Musical legacy: This, apparently

canarsie
#9 Canarsie, Brooklyn
Musical legacy: The Fat Boys

hamilton
#8 Hamilton Heights
Musical legacy: Duke Ellington

greenwood
#7 Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn BEST IN BOROUGH
Musical legacy: Paul Jabara (in death)

murrayhill
#6 Murray Hill, Queens
Musical legacy: Robert Moog (Flushing)

concourse
#5 Concourse, Bronx BEST IN BOROUGH
Musical legacy: Kool Herc (Highbridge)

eastharlem
#4 East Harlem, Manhattan
Musical legacy: The Ronettes

ridgewood
#3 Ridgewood, Queens BEST IN BOROUGH
Musical legacy: Cause Co-Motion!

washheights
#2 Washington Heights, Manhattan
Musical legacy: MIMS

#1 #1 #1 #1…

inwood
#1 Inwood, Manhattan
Musical legacy: Lionel Mapleson

HONORABLE MENTION
Best of Staten Island: #23 Dongan Hills

IV. The Worst Place to Live in New York

For both renters and buyers, the numbers agree.

midtown

Midtown is the worst.

Rent: Average prices of one and two bedroom apartments, Streeteasy and Zillow. Purchase price: Price per square foot, Streeteasy and Zillow. Commute: time to Times Square and Wall Street on public transportation, Google Maps. Walkability: Walk Score. Safety: WNYC Crime Map. Open space: Department of City Planning. Images: Google Street View.

by 3 comments on "The Songs That Time Forgot"

Some pop songs are timeless classics. Some play endlessly at weddings and on oldies stations. Others find renewed vigor in movie trailers or because their lyrics can be applied to Golden Grahams. Still others just, well – disappear.

We started with the top 10 songs of each year from 1900 to present (as calculated by the Whitburn Project), recording each song’s Google hits, Wikipedia presence and last.fm scrobbles to calculate an obscurity score.

140714_obscure1

Least Obscure Hit Songs
1 Adele: Rolling in the Deep, 2011
2 Eminem: Love the Way You Lie, 2010
3 LMFAO: Party Rock Anthem, 2011
4 Gotye: Somebody That I Used to Know, 2012
5 Carly Rae Jepsen: Call Me Maybe, 2012
6 The Beatles: Help!, 1965
7 One Direction: What Makes You Beautiful, 2012
8 fun.: We Are Young, 2012
9 Macklemore: Can’t Hold Us, 2013
10 Maroon 5: Moves Like Jagger, 2011

Most Obscure Hit Songs
1 Mina Hickman: Come Down, Ma Evening Star, 1903
2 Big Four Quartet: Good-Bye, Dolly Gray, 1901
3 Olive Kline: Hello, Frisco!, 1915
4 Marguerite Farrell: If I Knock the ‘L’ Out of Kelly (It Would Still be Kelly to Me), 1916
5 Horace Wright: My Own Iona, 1917
6 J. W. Myers: On a Sunday Afternoon, 1902
7 Orpheus Quartet: Turn Back the Universe and Give Me Yester Day, 1916
8 J. W. Myers: Way Down in Old Indiana, 1902
9 Alan Turner: Till the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold, 1913
10 Roy Ingraham Orch: Chant of the Jungle, 1930

Surprise. With a few exceptions, songs popular during the adolescence of people still alive today are much more popular than songs and racist comedy routines recorded during the reign of Queen Victoria. So let’s adjust the scores by the year of release and see what shakes out:

140714_obscure2

Least Obscure Hit Songs, Adjusted for Time
1 Bing Crosby: White Christmas, 1942
2 Elvis Presley: Jailhouse Rock, 1957
3 Glenn Miller Orch: In the Mood, 1940
4 The Animals: The House Of The Rising Sun, 1964
5 The Rolling Stones: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, 1965
6 The Beatles: Help!, 1965
7 The Beatles: Yesterday, 1965
8 Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender, 1956
9 Elvis Presley: Heartbreak Hotel, 1956
10 Elvis Presley: Hound Dog, 1956

Most Obscure Hit Songs, Adjusted for Time
1 Roy Ingraham Orch: Chant of the Jungle, 1930
2 Hilo Hawaiian Orch: When It’s Springtime in the Rockies, 1930
3 Horace Wright: My Own Iona, 1917
4 Marguerite Farrell: If I Knock the ‘L’ Out of Kelly (It Would Still be Kelly to Me), 1916
5 Olive Kline: Hello, Frisco!, 1915
6 Orpheus Quartet: Turn Back the Universe and Give Me Yester Day, 1916
7 Horace Heidt Orch: Ti-Pi-Tin, 1938
8 Clay Aiken: This Is The Night, 2003
9 Mina Hickman: Come Down, Ma Evening Star, 1903
10 Don Bestor Orch: Forty-Second Street, 1933

55 of the 100 most obscure hit songs (those on Spotify) are available to listen to below. And don’t cry for them. All they need is one Wes Anderson movie to get back in the game.