New York City is making life easier for bikers and pedestrians.

There’s a long list of new large scale buildings in Manhattan that have skewed the focus of architecture critiques and design reviews of the city towards grand projects. But New York Magazine recently uncovered several small city projects tucked away in the outerboroughs that are examples of good architectural solutions meeting challenging community and city service building projects.

The city of Chicago is reportedly in talks with Apple to sponsor the renovation and improvement of its North and Clybourn Station. If successful, the city would net four million dollars from the deal, while Apple would maintain primary advertising rights to the station.

Citizen’s group Vision 42 is proposing a plan that would completely shut down 42nd street to traffic, and build a light rail system that would span the width of Manhattan.

Artists Justin Gignac and his lady Christine have another inspiring project in addition to NYC Garbage that we covered earlier. It’s called Wants for Sale and the idea is simply this: painting things they want and selling them for the actual cost of the item. The works range anywhere from $5.85 for a painting of Pinkberry to $2,500 for a painting of Betsey Johnson and Bloomingdales’ iconic Big Brown Bag to represent their desire for a shopping spree in SOHO.
They’ve now expanded on the original idea to give back to those less fortunate, with Needs for Sale. This time they’re painting items such [...]

Artist Justin Gignac set out to prove the value of packaging design to a colleague. Gignac realised the most effective way to make his point was to sell a product no one in their right mind would want – garbage.

The Imprint Culture Lab will be holding their 2009 Culture Lab event in New York City next Tuesday. A full day of engaging speakers are lined up who will be discussing topics ranging from design, to food, and entrepreneurship. PSFK readers can get 50% off the ticket price with a promotional code.

While two industrial air-conditioning units churn all day and night at the back of this New York restaurant, the windows and the door are wide open letting the hot summer air in. I actually went in and complained last night about it and the manager gave me a crappy answer that the windows were open because some customers think it’s warm in there and others think it’s cool. I challenged him on this and he shrugged.
We seem to be so infatuated with the sustainability behind the food we eat these days but not so interested in how poorly those serving [...]

The LA Times reports on some notable shifts going on amongst a handful of book and music retailers. They are seeing more product crossover beginning to happen between independent book sellers and music shops.
Purveyors of paper and text based media such as New York City’s McNally Jackson carry a selection of CDs, mostly because they feature some kind of connection to the literary world, and Easy Street Records in Seattle also has a small book section that features a variety of both music related titles and others:
The decision to carry specific books is based on “cultural relevance, if it connects [...]

Judith Supine continues installing his work in hard to reach places. His latest, “Above the City in a Summer Night Dream,” was crowned on top of the Williamsburg Bridge.
[via Wooster Collective]

Wired’s Bryan Derballa recently published a photo essay on the growing moped communities around the country and their passionate fascination with the fuel-efficient, but ailing, and often discarded, motorized bikes.  Derballa’s three week immersion into the moped culture involved a run-in with the police and a group ride through Times Square.
The vibrant moped community in Brooklyn is centered on a little shop called the Orphanage in Greenpoint.  The group support the little collection of bikes rescued from obscurity and repairs them to sputtering, though working, order.  The mopeds often top out at 30 miles per hour and the little two-stroke [...]

Several colorful new tape art pieces by Aakash Nihalani have recently appeared on the streets of New York City.  The impromptu graphic pieces highlight the contours and geometry of the city, making for playful visual grids that brighten the urban landscape.

[via Gugazine]

Infrastructurist has compiled a fantastic gallery of some of the last remaining full-size phone booths in New York City. Once a standard feature of any urban landscape, these days, any kind of phone booth seems like an anachronism. With the advent of ubiquitous mobile phone use these little phone-call stations are next to obsolete, but hopefully some kind of new purpose can be found for these structures.

[Infrastructurist via Doobybrain]

Like a modernized version of Strawberry Quik for the slightly more sophisticated set, Coca-Cola’s latest entrant into the beverage aisle promises a “refreshing sensory experience” and has been described by one quote-worthy copywriter as tasting “like a birthday party for a polar bear.” The so-called vibrancy drink named Vio – a blend of skim milk, sparkling water, fruit and an entire 27 grams of sugar – makes a test market run in New York City this week, retailing for $2.50 per 8 ounce bottle. The beverage comes in four flavors: peach-mango, very berry, citrus burst and tropical colada and evidently [...]

Culture site Flavorpill has always hung its hat on curation—culling cool urban to-dos and telling people about them. Last week, they relaunched their site with a new invite-only listings hub—the Flavorpill 50—that reinforces this tack and adds a new twist.