Construction Maison

A woman waits to board a bus along Long Beach Boulevard . Photo: Michael Lozano Story by Stephanie Perez. Speaking with the riders of the Long Beach Transit system , you will find common stories . John Muller, 23-year-old bus rider, saw a rider across from him masturbating on the bus. Tyler Joscelyn, 22, confronted two men who were harassing a girl “because she was pretty” to only end up in a physical fight. And then there’s the downright weird. Rebecca Macareno, for instance, felt unsafe during a recent afternoon bus ride from her apartment to Cerritos Mall when a man chose to sit directly next to her. “He stared at me the entire bus ride even when I looked away,” she said. “He never spoke to me or touched me, but his eyes were red, and it felt like he never blinked. He could have sat anywhere on the bus, but he sat by me.” City locals, including high school and college students, rely heavily on public transportation to get around each year but many also feel uneasy and unsafe, es...

More prosaically, co-living can simply mean roommates and common rooms, like a dorm. For some developers, it’s a form of adaptive reuse: many co-living sites, like WeLive at 110 Wall Street , are leased, in this case from the landlord of what once was an office building, drained of its tenants by Hurricane Sandy. Slide Show Adventures in Co-Living Credit Photographs by Andrew White for The New York Times There are still co-living evangelists, like Brad Hargreaves of Common, who has promised that “the genuine and organic relationships our members build with each other,” as he wrote in a post for Medium, would not be tainted by allowing journalists to sleep over at Common properties (though they were welcome to tour). With over $23 million in financing, Common now operates in five cities, including out of eight houses in New York City. Some co-living ventures have collapsed under the weight of their ideals, like the utopian Pure House , started by Ryan Fix, now 42, in his Williamsburg l...

Editor's Note — CNN Travel's series often carries sponsorship originating from the countries and regions we profile. However, CNN retains full editorial control over all of its reports. Read the policy. (CNN) — In a city where the housing price per square foot is more than $1,400, space is the ultimate Hong Kong luxury . The only place you can really stretch out? A hotel suite, of course. Sure, you'll pay for the privilege. But, rest assured, hotels know how to spoil guests who are visiting Hong Kong . The best suites in town not only include an enormous floor plan , but also must-have harbor views and the odd cinema, personal chef and rooftop Jacuzzi or two. If you're looking to splurge, these are a few of the most amazing suites in Hong Kong: InterContinental Hong Kong The Presidential Suite terrace at InterContinental Hong Kong . InterContinental Hong Kong sits on the edge of Victoria Harbour, on the Kowloon peninsula . On the top floor of the hotel, the Presiden...

I didn’t cry while searching for a San Diego apartment , but I came close. Moving to the city on a Sunday night, I had a five-day reservation at a Motel 6 and needed to find an apartment fast . I also had my 6-year-old tabby cat with me and a new job as real estate reporter for the San Diego Union -Tribune to start the next day. I was fairly confident I’d find a place quickly because in the last decade I had managed to get apartments in London, Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, rural New Jersey, Northeast Pennsylvania and, most recently, Monterey. Not only did San Diego turn out to be the most difficult, it made me change nearly everything I thought I wanted. My criteria was a one- bedroom apartment near the beach that allows cats, a rent of no more than $1,200 and was fairly close to work. To say the least, I stayed at the Motel 6 longer than expected. Ignorance of what neighborhood I was in most of the time was exacerbated only by a rental market that has seen prices increase...

August 23, 2017 Madison, Wis. — When it came to getting homework done, the odds weren’t in Kebba Bojang’s favor. Like many teenagers, he admits, he had a tendency to procrastinate. And with no computer at home and the nearest library a long walk away, assignments often ranged from difficult to impossible.  Unlike most other high school students in similar predicaments, however, Mr. Bojang was able to find a solution in – quite literally – his own backyard.  Bojang, now 24 and entering his second year of pharmacy school at the University of Iowa, is representative of a range of success stories to have come out of Northport Apartments, a Section 8 housing development on Madison’s East Side. At the heart of the 140- unit apartment complex , both physically and metaphorically, is a humble brick building that holds a roomful of computers, a few quiet meeting rooms , and a team of residents-turned-staff eager to help their neighbors succeed.  After moving to Northport his sophomore year o...

It was the type of celebration that’s become commonplace in the Seaport District . Investors, developers, and other real estate types mingled earlier this summer at a groundbreaking ceremony for Echelon Seaport — $900 million worth of luxury condos and apartments set to rise from a parking lot on Seaport Boulevard. Advertisement Under a big white tent , guests sipped cocktails and listened as Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh touted the glassy, gleaming business district sprouting around them.Away from the festivities, Alex Shing of Los Angeles- based Cottonwood Management — the project’s developer — spoke about the strong interest from investors all over the globe who wanted to buy into Boston’s booming Seaport. Get Talking Points in your inbox: An afternoon recap of the day’s most important business news , delivered weekdays. “This is probably the most valuable piece of dirt in the world,” Shing said. Yet to help finance the project, Cottonwood and its...