Best of Manhattan ’10: City Living
Best New Nabe Makeover: Nomad
OK, we admit that we’re certainly biased with this category since our editorial office is located right in the middle of the area north of Madison Square Park. We can totally go for grunge, but this neighborhood was a sad place to spend at least nine hours every day. We tripped over the haphazard hawkers lined up and down 28th Street, walked by the Oriental rug shops on Madison and eagerly awaited any new restaurant that tried to surface. We didn’t expect much to change in our daily work lives, but then the Ace Hotel opened and a bleak area of Manhattan finally became a destination. Unlike some dubious neighborhood titles, we even like the term Nomad for this unloved brown blot on the taxi map. With the recent inauguration of The Hurricane Club, a yuppie-Polynesian douche-pit, and the Gansevoort Park Avenue, however, we’re already feeling the gentrifier jitters. Could an area that had no identity suddenly cross over into a place to avoid so soon? Read more
Best of Manhattan 09: City Living
Best Fashion Trend that We’re Ready to See the End of: Women’s Gladiator Sandals
Just like the inexplicably omnipresent beige Burberry scarf that draped itself over every working woman from 1998-2000, or the boot that’s reminiscent of a loaf of bread (the Ugg), the gladiator sandal has taken the throne as the must-have accessory of urban professional females. And why not? These strappy numbers are versatile and go with just about everything, as long as you always want to look like a displaced Roman Centurion. Quirky throwback couture has officially given way to a fashion choice that, depending on the given circumstances, ranges from odd to downright inappropriate. There has to be a “no open-toe shoe” policy that some of these women are violating. Don’t make us call HR. Because we will. —JP Read more
BEST OF MANHATTAN: CITY LIVING
LIVING
