Tag: New York Times

In Manufacturing Shift, Made in U.S. but Sold in China

Brooklyn Bridge

After generations of manufacturers in New York and across the United States folded because they were unable to compete with imports, Watermark, with its only factory in the East New York section of Brooklyn, has managed to crack the code. Instead of trying to make Watermark’s products cheaper, Mr. Abel has prospered by first making them more expensive — offering custom-made fixtures unique to each building — and then figuring out how to do that at lower cost. The company has supplied thousands of fixtures to six new luxury hotels and condominiums being built in Shanghai, Macau and Hong Kong.

“The days of mass producing in New York City are gone,” Mr. Abel said. “If you were producing nuts and bolts by the tens of thousands 50 years ago, you’re not going to do it today. But creativity, or uniqueness or design is definitely something that can flourish in New York.”

via In Manufacturing Shift, Made in U.S. but Sold in China.

Tunneling Below Second Avenue

Looking west to a passageway about halfway between 72nd and 71st Streets. Richard Barnes for The New York Times

The New York Times Magazine has an article about the Tunneling Below Second Avenue:

“Geology defines the way you drive the tunnel,” Mukherjee said. The bedrock below Second Avenue and for much of the rest of Manhattan is schist — a hard, gray black rock shot through with sheets of glittery mica. Some 500 million years ago, Manhattan was a continental coastline that collided with a group of volcanic islands known as the Taconic arc. That crash crumpled layers of mud, sand and lava into schist, lending it an inconsistent structure and complicating tunneling: in some places, the schist holds firmly together, creating self-supporting arches; in others, it’s broken and prone to shattering, forcing workers to reinforce the tunnel as they go to keep it from falling.

The first time New York confronted its bedrock to build a subway, in 1900, the method was “cut and cover”: nearly 8,000 laborers given to gambling, fighting and swearing were hired to pickax and dynamite their way through streets and utility lines for two miles. Their efforts were quick — they finished in four years — but their blasts smashed windows and terrorized carriage horses. Tunnels collapsed, killing workers and swallowing storefronts.

Accompanying the article is a short movie directed by Jacob Krupnick of Girl Walk // All Day fame. The video is quite good, and is a step up from the usual NY Times shorts. Go on, and have a view.

Bill Cunningham New York


A perfect little picture, showcasing a man’s work and life, often intertwined. Discussing this movie with people around NYC, everyone has their Bill story, often with a cutting of showing their inclusion in the Weekend Styles section (or, more often than naught, lamenting that they were next to someone who was in the Style section).

[rating=5]

Page One: Inside the New York Times


Amazing access, large in scope, but doesn’t begin to answer the question which keeps popping up throughout the film: What is the future of the Times. It was as if by just showing the process, how honest and hardworking the professional journalists are that the question was to be answered. A great snapshot in time, with good cinematography but with a lack of focus.