In N.Y. Apartment Buildings, Bicycles Muscle In

NY Times -- BRIAN WHITELEY loves his bicycle, a black fixed-gear Schwinn that he rides around New York City almost every day. His landlord, however, does not share this affection, fearing scuffed floors and chipped paint. And that has become a problem.

Mr. Whiteley, an artist, and his wife, Mar Granados, an architect, are not permitted to take their bikes inside the Carroll Gardens brownstone where they live. So they lock them to a railing outside, battling rust with a plastic tarp and regular applications of WD-40. In the year and a half since the couple moved in, they have spent close to $1,000 replacing stolen parts, and once, an entire bicycle.

Now, they are hoping to buy a place of their own. And as they zip from appointment to appointment on their bicycles, scouting one-bedrooms in Brooklyn and Manhattan with their broker, Kris Sylvester of Halstead Property, bike storage is a must.  [Continue reading...]