So here I am waiting to get started on a senior center I’m building. Eight stories, 300 units, right in the middle of lower Manhattan, it would give the people what they wanted—safe, walkable neighborhoods, a cool-looking façade and techno-supported microapartments meeting their every need.
It was dusk. The 31-foot sloop cut silently southward through the smooth Hudson River on New York City’s west side. Joe Barone sat at the wheel and let the breeze sift through his silver-flecked hair on this balmy August evening.