Since drawing all the hippies west, San Francisco's greatest contribution to New York culture, Craigslist, hits the New York Times. The online bulletin board, the closest thing San Francisco has to civic culture, is now growing in other cities. Of course, there are local differences: New York real estate brokers, obnoxious as ever, spam the supposedly non-commercial apartment listings.

A Web Site as 18-Ring Circus of Supply and Demand [New York Times]

The Siberian winter is making New Yorkers stay indoors much more than they'd prefer. Even the dogs don't want to go outside.
A snap so cold dogs whine going out, and birds rush in [NYT]

An architectural team has revived Antoni Gaudí's 1908 plans for a hotel that, as the NYT points out, closely resembles a Buck Rogers rocket ship. Gaudí or just gaudy?
Postmodern? In a manner of speaking [NYT]

Miscellaneous things NYT staffers are not allowed to do:
· Hold political office or wear campaign buttons or attend political rallies.
· Culture staff who collect objects of art must submit lists of their acquisitions to their editors.
· Reporters who own individual stocks that may be relevant to their beats must disclose them and business and financial editors that determine the placement of stories may not own them at all.
· Spouses are also scrutinized with regard to all of the above. (Best not to have a spouse.)
· On free food: "A simple buffet of muffins and coffee at a news conference, for example, is harmless."
The Code [New Yorker]

Welcome to another chapter in Howell Raines' bizarre ongoing fascination with the hip-hop/rap scene: the NYT follows Pianist star Adrien Brody out for a night on the town and finds him hanging with P-Diddy (yo) who is "dressed in diamonds and a baggy yellow tracksuit like a very rich 4-year-old." Brody had made a CD for P-Diddy after taking mom and dad to Nobu and wanted to drop it off. The NYT reports that P-Diddy liked what he heard and "began doing that exaggerated nod to the beats that signals either 'I have no strength left in my neck' or 'I really groove on that.'"
Adrien Brody: Mr. Chameleon [NYT]

The NYT's Leslie Eaton investigates the family behind Manhattan's Caviarteria stores and restaurants and uncovers a turbulent history. Key elements: affair, heroin, suicide, and "some mysterious person named 'Igor.'"
A family tale of infidelity, drugs, suicide and caviar [NYT]

We've realized that it's okay to pay more for an apartment because JFK Jr. used to live across the way. It's not that we're impressed, you know; but think of the resale value. As the Times establishes, there are plenty of greater fools who'll swallow the celebrity real estate premium.
There Goes the Nabe: Up, Up, Up [NYT]

Another Southerner

UES foreclosures

Subway bar car

Seventh Street

Another game of Which Is More Annoying: P-Diddy jet-skiing on the French Riviera in his bathrobe or a public company CEO buying a $15,000 umbrella stand? According to the NYT Magazine's Rob Walker, P-Diddy wins hands down. The public has more tolerance for conspicuous consumption when there's some pretense that it could have actually been earned.
When diamonds and escalades are O.K. [NYT Magazine]

We all know everyone on Wall Street is in bed with everyone else, but sometimes it gets a little too literal. The NYT examines situations where analysts are married to money managers, PR people for public companies are married to i-bankers, and everyone's married to exponentially increasing their annual net income.
He said, she said: when insiders share a pillow [NYT]

A culture writer on Frank Rich's new position as Associate Editor for the NYT's Arts & Leisure section: I wouldn t want to be Ben Brantley or anybody else in Frank s line of fire...Bigfoot is his middle name.
Nouveau Rich [NY Magazine]

Howell Raines wants to put the arts and leisure back in the Arts & Leisure section of the NYT. He hasn't picked an editor yet, but Slate's Jodi Kantor is rumored to be the leading candidate. Raines says he wants to be "as good at telling our readers the history of CBGB as we are about telling them about the Metropolitan Opera." Demonstrating that he's truly hip with the kids, Raines adds that he liked the Eminem movie, 8 Mile, and says that this East Coast/West Coast rap shit is whack, yo.
Howell Raines: may a thousand critics bloom [Observer]
Yo, yo, yo Times [Buzzmachine]

The NYT's Ed Levine ate hamburgers every day for two months so that you could have the convenience of knowing where to find the best burgers in Manhattan. (The sacrifices we make for high-quality journalism!)
The burger takes center stage [NYT]

The NYT's Cathy Horyn reviews two recently released books about Ralph LaurenGenuine Authentic (HarperCollins), by Michael Gross, and Ralph Lauren: The Man, the Vision, the Style (Rizzoli), by Colin McDowell. McDowell's book, a not-so-sophisticated exercise in literary brownnosing, portrays Lauren as a Bronx-born Horatio Algier who "mesmerizes the American public." (I don't recall ever being mesmerized by a Polo shirt, but I'm not saying it can't happen.) Gross's book is much less flattering. The Ralph Lauren portrayed in Genuine Authentic is a cranky narcissist followed by hordes of "Poloroids" who exacerbate his moodiness by failing to sufficiently praise him. Both books evoke an image of Lauren as Jay Gatsby. For McDowell, it's the glamorous, charming, and charismatic Gatsby. For Gross, it's the delusional, asocial, and reckless Gatsby.
Chasing the threads in the life of Ralph Lauren [NYT]

The NYT's William Grimes examines the relationship between economic prosperity in NYC and food trends. The forecast for 2003: "tender steaks for tough times."
Farewell, sautéed fois gras, it's time for steak and spuds [NYT]

The NYT brings together a dozen historians, sociologists, political scientists and urban planners to speculate on what New York will be like in the next few decades. On the menu: Red Hook as the next up-and-coming neighborhood, personal transportation devices, and more direct democracy.
New York's tomorrow: 12 visions [NYT]

The NYT examines the lifestyle sacrifices the rich are forced to make in a bear marketthe G-IV instead of the G-V, Bridgehampton instead of East Hampton, one housekeeper instead of three, etc. Millionaires everywhere are tightening their Gucci belts.
How the well-to-do are making do in tough times [NYT]