Teri Karush Rogers

To an adult who lacks the gene for chatting up other peoples’ kids, there are few things longer than an elevator ride with the neighbors’ spawn.

After all, kids, especially little ones, have yet to learn the elevator art of small talk or middle-distance gazing.   Their slack-faced, unblinking stares--boring right past your fake-texting--seem to say, “You! You’ve got 10 seconds to show me what you’ve got!”

Aiming to help, we collected what we thought was a pretty serviceable list of elevator ice-breakers to try on the under-12 demographic:

• I twitter therefore I'm robbed (RentedSpaces.com)
• When the tax abatement ends (StreetEasy forum)
• Condo owners lose private cabanas to fire code (Curbed)
• Prepar

Last week’s post featuring random acts of neighbor kindness was so well received that we’ve decided to make it a weekly tradition.  Send us your stories and each week we will bring you at least one example of chivalry among vertical dwellers.

This week’s unsung heroes:

When you're selling your NYC apartment, there is such a thing as oversharing with your broker.

If you’re like us and your bike use doesn’t really justify your two-wheeler’s cost, upkeep, or monthly storage fee, then maybe it’s time to start an in-house bike-loan program .

One Upper West Side co-op recently did just that, says its managing agent, Kevin Mitchell of Douglas Elliman Property Management.

Here’s how it works at 262 Central Park West:


Over on StreetEasy, a debate unfolded recently about whether it’s smart or self-destructive to write your apartment-dwelling neighbors a letter informing them that you’re about to renovate.

Most everyone agreed that in the perfect world, a written heads-up is the courteous thing to do.

But a vocal minority warned that a personal letter could invite problems from the loco minority.