Author Archives: larrysicular
Manhattan’s housing market has changed
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Working from upstate or my apartment in New York, in semi- isolation and driving into the city for the occasional appointment or showing, I manage a tiny piece of Manhattan’s real estate market almost entirely from my laptop. The market …
Beauty and Housing
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After a break from real estate writing, I remind myself that this work offers the constant pleasure of beautiful things, particularly useful things, like apartments, or houses, or furniture. It is inspiring to see the occasional wonderful house or apartment–there …
Israel and the Palestinians, in a letter to a younger French friend
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September 20, 2020 Dear Brxxx: Thanks for the article you sent me about Sheldon Adelson and his purchase of the former American embassy residence in Tel Aviv (le monde.fr). Your note pushes me to clarify my own view of this situation, …
Sitting in my Garden (fixing the world)
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June 1, 2020 At this later time in my life, I have a few favored ways to spend leisure time. One of them is sitting in my garden, or on my porch, looking at it. Sometimes, I do nothing but …
GEORGE SICULAR
Our father was a very strong man. He was built like a bull, a very good athlete, a boxer, swimmer, and I think a football player in his youth–an excellent and competitive tennis player his entire adult life. But when …
COVID 19 AND RECONSIDERING AMERICAN CITIES
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May 16, 2020 To the Editors of the New York Times Dear Sir/Madam: I am writing in response to two articles in your paper by different writers, both dated May 12. Both discuss/report on the impacts of Covid 19 on …
Thoughts on the pandemic and its effects on the Manhattan housing market
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Sunday, March 22, 2020 How will the Manhattan housing market be affected by the Covid 19 pandemic? What are the short and the longer-term effects? This is an attempt to address these questions. Let us begin with the belief that …
Tel Aviv
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January 31, 2019 I am no longer in Tel Aviv or in Israel, but Tel Aviv was “home” in a country that is an unsettling combination of foreign and intimately familiar. I was guided by knowing that many, of my …
Visiting the Wall
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January 16, 2019 Israel is a complex country, not simply because of the contrast and friction between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but also because of the richness of its historical and contemporary Judaism. Israel’s conquest of the Old City …
The Covid housing market has not been easy
Since the market re-opened at the end of June, I have seen difficulties for both buyers and sellers. On the Upper West Side, an enthusiastic couple negotiated the purchase of a renovated multi-million-dollar apartment, and then backed out in anger …