The near-collapsed Midtown building is now stable, but its finances may not be

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Partly cloudy, a chance of afternoon thunderstorms and highs in the mid 80s.

It's Friday in New York City, where a question now looms over the office-to-residential conversion at 235 East 42nd St.: Would renters pay to move in to a building that almost collapsed during the renovation?

“This project will definitely have a stigma,” said Ross Spivak, CEO of the firm RES Consulting NY. “You’re talking [about] a significant structural failure.”

Other brokers disagreed, arguing that that city's housing supply is so tight that desperate tenants won't be deterred.

But Gothamist spoke with a half dozen developers, brokers, engineers and construction experts who pointed to another issue: Will the project continue to be financially viable if it takes too long to correct the problems and get tenants in the door?

Here's where things stand with the conversion.

And here's what else is happening:

• A poll commissioned by the Central Park Conservancy says most New Yorkers support ending horse-drawn carriages in the city — bolstering the group's own position as the City Council considers a ban.
• As of Wednesday, the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on the Upper East Side had infected at least 36 people and hospitalized 22. We mapped every cooling tower in the affected area.
• Police said they found human skeletal remains this week inside a vacant East Harlem building where a homeless veteran was reportedly living.
• New York is suing several large chemical companies it says polluted the state's environment with PFAS, commonly known as forever chemicals.
• New York City principals have been ordered to pause purchases of any new education technology software as the education department continues to wrestle with its AI policy.
• An NYPD officer has been charged with rape and sexual misconduct against a child after an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.
• Do New York City schools need a redistribution of PTA wealth? One advocacy group is urging the mayor to consider it.
• A chic barge called the "Willy Wall" that anchors near the Statue of Liberty has become a hot spot for plein air drinking.

• A new chart shows that about 140,000 cars are avoiding Manhattan streets every day because of congestion pricing.
• Rat sightings in New York City are down so far this year.
• Over in New Jersey, the office-to-residential conversion boom is moving apace.
• The Domino district could use some more shade.
• "If I form an opinion, and there are books saying the opposite, I need to read them all, to know if I’m justified," explained one guy who got hit with an eviction notice for having too many books in his apartment.
• The American Museum of Natural History is hosting a block party on West 79th Street tomorrow evening for Manhattanhenge viewing.
• What's in a Stew Leonard's saved-from-the-dump "surprise bag?"