The 234 Apartment

At her 33rd appearance as Subject 16019 in a clinical trial of an experimental drug she hoped would fix "this little problem with my memory," Sandra Brannon sank into a medical exam room 's recliner and waited. "What's the date again?" Sandra asked me. I had escorted her to a wing at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, where the NYU Langone Medical Center was among 210 institutions worldwide conducting the trial. As a family friend, I was standing in for Sandra's only child and chief caregiver, who had business elsewhere that morning. "November 18th," I answered. I'd responded to the same question from Sandra four times during our 27- minute subway ride to a stop a few blocks from Bellevue. "Right. Got it." Sandra scribbled my reply on her cheat sheet as a nurse bounded through the door to prep her for her monthly intravenous infusion of solanezumab, which Eli Lilly developed to target mild cognitive impairment caused ...

My three-year-old cat spends most of her time lounging by the window. It faces the high branches of the tree outside our apartment, and she stares intently out at the rusty- red wood thrushes and brown house sparrows that perch there; her eyes dilating when the occasional squirrel rustles the branches.  She’s a seventh-floor housecat who longs for the outdoors. But even if there was a feasible way of letting her go outside, I wouldn’t let her loose on native wildlife on her own (if you’re not familiar with the war being waged between cats and birds, my colleague Rachel Gross has chronicled it in all its gory detail here). So, as a compromise, last year I bought her a leash. After some initial hiccups, we have settled into a rhythm where I buckle her into her harness, scoop her up and carry her down to the soft grass adjacent to a nearby duck pond . There, I let her down, and her whims dictate our path. Often, people stare. Sometimes, they’re walking their dogs: big ones, small one...

By Mike Smollins Village of Lynbrook officials are mulling a proposal by development company Mill Creek Residential to build a luxury apartment complex on Rocklyn Avenue, near Merrick Road. Hot Skates, Fun Station USA and Hi Tech Security now occupy the three-acre site. “Today’s apartment residents are craving a downtown living experience along with convenient access to a mix of urban and suburban lifestyle experiences ,” Russell Tepper, a senior managing director at MCR, wrote in an email to the Herald. “Lynbrook’s new residential community would serve all types of residents … so that they may take advantage of the luxuries of suburban living , without sacrificing the trappings of an urban, modern lifestyle.” MCR acquires and operates high- end rental communities across the country, and has built complexes in West Hempstead, Mineola, Yonkers, Westchester County and New Jersey. Tepper said that the company would create a transit- oriented residential community — a walkable nei...

David Engberg wheels through the third apartment he’s had in two years. PHOTO BY KARLOS RENE AYALA David Engberg and James Clark cling to their independence by a thread. Both men were born with cerebral palsy and live off Supplemental Security Income , or SSI—a stipend that puts them under the federal poverty line . So far, they’ve managed to keep a roof over their heads by splitting the cost of rent. But since the affordable housing crisis hit , the roommates have been priced out of two apartments in just two years. The stressful shuffling was witnessed by Jennifer Schmidt, their case manager at InAlliance, a nonprofit that provides employment and living services for people with disabilities. Advocates such as Schmidt are becoming increasingly alarmed by the way skyrocketing rents are affecting Sacramento County ’s 14, 000 disabled residents . Several independent surveys suggest Sacramento is experiencing some of the largest rent increases in the nation. Few feel those tectonic ma...

Johnson Chrome was a notorious big spender with a taste for bottle service , bespoke suits and $10,000 shoes. The source of his wealth? A sophisticated identity theft scheme that may have conned Torontonians out of millions. The untold story of the city’s most wanted fraudster Photographs: All portraits via Facebook; background by iStock T he fraudster who called himself Johnson Chrome liked to sit on a bench at the intersection of Hazelton and Yorkville, smoking a Montecristo Edmundo robusto and talking about fashion, cars and cigars to anyone who’d listen. He was charming and handsome, with a neatly trimmed beard , a shaved head and perfect teeth. The perch placed him at the centre of the rarefied universe he’d come to inhabit. His condo, in the former Four Seasons hotel, was steps to the west, and he parked his black Jaguar at the Hazelton Hotel opposite . His gym, the sleek Equinox, was a minute’s walk northwest; his preferred cigar shop , La Casa del Habano , was to the sout...