Look back at 2023 with Curbed

Our Editor's Favorite Moments of the Year [Curbed](   Dear Reader, I was having dim sum in a Chinatown banquet hall with a group of new acquaintances when one of them turned to me and said, “I can’t get that story about the noise murder out of my head!” She was referring to Adriane Quinlan’s piece in Curbed about [a dispute that ended with one neighbor killing another](. This kind of event happens with unsettling frequency in New York, and for most people, it remains at the level of a jarring headline. But the piece went below the surface to reveal the bureaucratic structures that allow shoddy buildings to go up in the city without consequences for anyone but the tenants fighting it out over lost sleep and crying babies. [The Noise Next Door]( "The Noise Next Door" by Adriane Quinlan At Curbed, we strive to notice the mundane and the hidden, to reexamine what we take for granted about living in the city. Over the year, we’ve pursued some of these burning questions to satisfying ends: Why is the floor of the Oculus [always broken](? What exactly is in the subway [water dripping on our heads](? Should it be this difficult to [get a working Citi Bike](? Some of our investigations began small but led to something much more consequential, like an inquiry into artist Tom Sachs’s office systems that became [an expose of his toxic studio culture](. Others looked into troubling patterns, including the [spate of disappearances surrounding one Brooklyn club](, or identified unexpected ones, such as [the glut of apartments]( gathering dust on Billionaires’ Row. [Tom Sachs Promised a Fun Cult]( "Tom Sachs Promised a Fun Cult" by Katy Schneider and Adriane Quinlan [Is There a Serial Killer Stalking the Brooklyn Mirage?]( "Is There a Serial Killer Stalking the Brooklyn Mirage?" by Brock Colyar [Manhattan’s Trophy Apartments Are Gathering Dust]( "Manhattan’s Trophy Apartments Are Gathering Dust" by Emily Sundberg In a moment when the operative concept to talk about cities seemed to be the “urban doom loop” and all that implies about their bleak future, Curbed interrogated that rhetoric; we asked an [office landlord to open his books](, looked at what was driving [a minioffice leasing boom in midtown](, and followed the wild schemes of the city’s biggest real-estate players competing [for a single casino license]( (and to [get their towers even higher](). [Tom Sachs Promised a Fun Cult]( "New Glut City" by Andrew Rice Along the way, we’ve visited the characters who animate New York, from the [Bloomberg-era deal-makers who still influence]( how we get around to the [boomer dads driving real-estate agents]( up the wall. We stayed close to the ground, documenting what it takes to stay here despite the [rental bidding wars]( and [feral cats]( and the [private-equity investors buying up your building](. [What the Builder Built]( "What the Builder Built" by Justin Davidson [A Just-Okay Rental That Sparked a Bidding War]( "A Just-Okay Rental That Sparked a Bidding War" by Adriane Quinlan [What the Builder Built]( "What the Builder Built" by Justin Davidson [A Just-Okay Rental That Sparked a Bidding War]( "A Just-Okay Rental That Sparked a Bidding War" by Adriane Quinlan Even more, we wanted to imagine a city that holds on to its young people and artists and dreamers, and we found the New Yorkers who were living the dream lives of others and [calculated exactly how much these lives cost](. It’s this curiosity and obsessive drive that makes Curbed a New York publication like no other. — Sukjong Hong, editor, Curbed   [New York Magazine: Reasons to Love New York]( [STAY IN THE KNOW]( Save up to 70% on unlimited access to New York Magazine and all of our verticals, [plus choose your own limited-edition New York tote for free]( with any annual subscription, while supplies last.   [Curbed]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. View this email in your browser.Â]( Opt out of marketing emails [here.]( Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on e-mail newsletters please contact AdOps@nymag.com [unsubscribe](param=curbed) | [privacy notice]( Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.