The Big Apple: City’s estate auction is a dud

Undercounted immigrants may explain smaller population than believed

New York City’s population reached a record high for a 10-year census of 8,175,133, according to the 2010 count released on Thursday, but it fell far short of the official forecast.

Mayor Bloomberg immediately challenged the Census Bureau’s finding, saying it shortchanged the city by as many as 225,000 people.

He said it was “inconceivable” that Queens grew by only 1,343 people since 2000 and suggested that the profusion of apartments listed as vacant in places such as Flushing and in a swath of southwest Brooklyn meant the census missed many hard-to-count immigrants.

There’s something about Inez Dickens and her taxes

City Councilwoman Inez Dickens co-owns four Harlem apartment buildings that have for months owed the city more than $100,000 in property taxes.

Dickens’ properties also

Head to courthouse steps for auction of a co-op

Apartment 1-B at 107 W. 106th St., not on the market.

If you have your heart set on a bargain co-op, a foreclosure auction that I spotted in an advertisement with the tiniest type may be for you.  It caught my eye because such auctions in Manhattan occur infrequently to the best of my knowledge.

The apartment in question is a 550-sf unit at 107 W. 106th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues on the Upper West Side.  It is listed as the C apartment, while others others in the pet-friendly 16-unit building have numbers such as 1-B (above) attached to the letter.  Is Unit C in the cellar?

Halloween’s gone, but how about those ghosts?

The usual Halloween profusion of accounts of ghosts in the news media got me thinking.

I’ll bet if you ask whether they believe in ghosts, 99 out of 100 people would profess denial.  I know I would, even in the face of pieces like the one in the Southampton Press, which made me wonder how many of us disbelievers would wittingly purchase a haunted house.

Although the haunted Hamptons may be often discussed, the conversation lacks specifics or is whispered among trusted friends, so the article relates.  Conceded Richard Barons, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society:

“It’s here, it’s just that nobody wants to admit it.”