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When luxury condos and artisanal bakeries move into New York City neighborhoods, Bond No. 9 sometimes follows.

In March, Bond No. 9 released its latest scent, “Greenpoint,” named for a Brooklyn neighborhood where the real estate jumped up in value last year.Credit...Photo Illustration by The New York Times. Photographs by Karsten Moran for The New York Times; Hilary Swift for The New York Times; Bond No. 9

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The Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint, much like its neighbor Williamsburg, has in recent decades been transformed. Once a working-class area with a local feel, an influx of buzzy restaurants, hip stores and pricey residences has given it the trappings of a global hot spot.

In 2024, Greenpoint was the 22nd most expensive neighborhood in New York City, according to a PropertyShark report, jumping up from its spot as the 32nd most expensive in 2023. Data provided by StreetEasy to The New York Times showed that the median asking rent in Greenpoint rose to about $4,400 last year, up from about $4,150 in 2023. The StreetEasy data also showed that the area’s median asking rent rose more year-over-year than those in several Manhattan neighborhoods, including TriBeCa, NoLIta, NoMad, Greenwich Village and the Upper East Side.

Last year was also when Laurice Rahmé decided it was time for her luxury fragrance brand, Bond No. 9, known for scents inspired by New York City locations, to expand into the neighborhood. In March, it did with the release of “Greenpoint,” the company’s latest perfume.

“Greenpoint has really been on the list for about two years, but I was not so convinced at the beginning,” Ms. Rahmé, 74, said in an interview, explaining that she changed her mind because “so much has happened in Greenpoint, including Michelin-starred restaurants.”

“I’m saying to myself, ‘Well, maybe the people who live there have a point,’” Ms. Rahmé said. “It sounds very interesting.”

Indeed, when luxury condos and artisanal bakeries move in, Bond No. 9 sometimes follows. Other revitalized places that it has distilled into scents include Harlem and the High Line. So what does the whiff of gentrification smell like?

“What it is really about is not the architecture, it’s the attitude in the neighborhood,” Ms. Rahmé said.

For Greenpoint, that meant a perfume described as having hints of “juicy pear,” “tree moss” and “fresh cardamom,” which costs $470 for a 3.4-ounce bottle.

For the High Line, it meant a grassy floral fragrance priced at $420 a bottle and described as conjuring the “urban renewal” of the elevated rail-line-turned-public-park surrounded by multimillion-dollar high-rise apartments.

And for Harlem, it meant a scent called “New Haarlem” that was marketed as “a highly potent caffeinated, all-but-drinkable coffee-patchouli blend” and priced at $360 a bottle.

Most of Bond No. 9’s New York City fragrances take inspiration from locations in Manhattan — Greenpoint was among its first to be inspired by an outer-borough neighborhood. In 2007, the company introduced a “Coney Island” perfume that was inspired by the smell of margaritas, among other scents. It costs $360 for a 3.4-ounce bottle.

Some of Bond No. 9’s most expensive New York perfumes, like TriBeCa and Chelsea (both $460 a bottle), pay homage to areas where the real estate can trade for some of the highest prices in the city. “Tribeca is the most expensive sales market in New York City,” said Kenny Lee, a senior economist at StreetEasy.

Ms. Rahmé said that the prices for perfumes were not influenced by the city’s real estate market, but that they were determined based on factors including package design and ingredients.

She founded Bond No. 9 in the early 2000s, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The burning odor that lingered in parts of Manhattan inspired her “to make New York smell good again,” as she put it. “The mission statement was to give New York City’s neighborhoods its own smell, its own scent,” she said. “And the idea was to forget the bad smell.”

Kimberly Waters, who runs a small fragrance business, Muse: Modern Urban Sensory Experiences, out of her townhouse in Harlem, said she had never drawn a connection between the prices of Bond No. 9 products and the costs of living in the areas they were named for. Some of her customers have asked for Bond No. 9 perfumes, she added, but she does not carry them because her selection is “a little bit more indie.”

“I think it still is attractive to locals,” Ms. Waters, 43, said of Bond No. 9. “I think it resonates with New Yorkers.”

For some who do not live in the city, the brand’s perfumes are worth the price for the connection to it that they offer. “Who doesn’t want to be in New York?” said Dana Judge, a massage therapist in Tampa, Fla., who has been a Bond No. 9 fan for almost 20 years. “I mean, there’s no fragrance named after Florida.”

When Ms. Judge, 53, visited New York City with friends in June 2019, she made a solo visit to the Bond No. 9 store in SoHo, she said, and spent about $400 on its Greenwich Village scent.

“It kind of reminded me of when Carrie Bradshaw saw Manolo Blahnik in the window,” Ms. Judge said, referring to a “Sex and the City” scene. “When I walked in that store, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m here.’”

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Rome, N.Y. -- Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya is wasting no time moving his plans to build a new, $1.2 billion yogurt plant in Rome along.

Ulukaya, who founded the Greek yogurt brand 20 years ago in the Chenango County community of South Edmeston, said Tuesday construction will begin on the 1.4-million-square-foot dairy processing plant this year.

He told reporters at a ceremonial groundbreaking at Griffiss Business and Technology Park that the company will be submitting construction plans to the city of Rome the same day and hopes to have the plant up and running by 2027.

“That means that the county and the city and the state, we’ve got to get to work training people, attracting people,” he said. “We need people.”

Ulukaya said the plant will employ 1,000 people when it reaches full operation, producing a billion pounds of dairy products per years.

And those products will include more than just Chobani’s Greek yogurt, the top-selling Greek yogurt brand in the nation. It will also make protein shakes, coffee creamers, coffee drinks and “some other innovations that I will keep as a surprise later on,” he said.

The plant will not only nearly double Chobani’s workforce in New York. It could prove to be a huge boon to New York dairy farmers.

Chobani says it will process over 12 million pounds of milk per day at the plant, with much of that milk coming from New York farmers.

The plant, to be built near the end the former Air Force Base ’s runway, will instantly become one of Rome’s biggest employers.

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | X | Facebook | 315-470-3148

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I’mI’m donut? It’s the existential question a new bakery from Japan posits at its first American location, that landed in Times Square this week.

Pristine and minimalist like an Apple Store, I’m donut? features a sea of doughnuts, merch, the open kitchen — and a line already brewing. The 5,725-square-foot bakery at 154 W. 45th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, is the tenth spot from Ryouta Hirako, and one of five I’m donut? locations. This is the first international I’m donut? outside of Japan.

New York is arguably a doughnut city and has plenty of places to get them: But I’m donut? separates itself by using pumpkin in a brioche dough that lends a soft, fluffy, and slightly moist texture. The bakery claims that their newcomer doughnuts “challenge classic pastry conventions.”

The flavors at I’m donut? aren’t quite as out there as the anchovy and olive options abroad. This I’m donut? includes a trio of “nama” (fresh) signature flavors in original, chocolate, and macha ($4 to $5). There are a few NYC-only options like PB&J, caramel espresso cream, and sake cream ($7 to $11). Savory ones present as sandwiches like chicken ginger teriyaki ($12) and NY BLT ($13). The scrambled egg donut ($9) comes with honey and tomato mayo. There’s also a vegan selection (glazed, strawberry chocolate, and pistachio white chocolate $5 to $7).

As to what’s up with the name, a photo of Hirako on the website notes it’s “constantly questioning” and “creatively expanding the boundaries of traditional pastry.”

I’m donut? joins a fleet of options in the New York bakery renaissance. In the past few months alone Birdee, Hani’s, and Elbow Bakery opened, while Radio Bakery rolled out a second location. In Times Square, doughnut shops are mostly of the chain or bodega cart variety.

Across the city, doughnut shops include Donut Pub rooted in the city for decades, and places like Dough expanding and retracting. Even restaurants are making doughnuts, including places like Wildair’s former doughnut pop-ups.

I’m donut? isn’t your typical bakery setup, with doughnut flavors aligned like jewels on a six-ton granite boulder from upstate New York in front of an open kitchen. It’s reminiscent of the set-up at Supermoon Bakehouse on the Lower East Side, which displays doughnuts like a department store. Two other boulders from the same upstate quarry form the service counter and rear tea station, where matcha drinks are prepared.

“Surprise, sometimes confusion, happiness and smiles,” is how Hirako describes people’s first reaction to his doughnuts in a statement. “I decided that I wanted to share these donuts with people everywhere.”

For now, the hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday. The Japan locations feature a late-night option. Look to the website or Instagram for updates.

A manhole explosion in Poughkeepsie, New York narrowly missed a woman walking with two children on the sidewalk Monday.

Surveillance video shows the woman holding on to one child's hand while she pushes the other in a stroller around 1:30 p.m. on Academy Street between Church and Cannon streets.

They barely make it past that section of the sidewalk before the manhole suddenly bursts and ruptures the cement, sending them running and large pieces of debris flying into the air.

The video also shows several cars parked on the street and in a neighboring lot, but they do not appear to be damaged.

Block evacuated over high levels of carbon monoxide

The City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department NY Local 596 posted the video on social media, saying two manholes exploded in the area but, thankfully, no one was hurt.

"A manhole halfway down the block as well as another on the corner of Academy and Church Streets had also exploded very narrowly missing three pedestrians. Thankfully no injuries were reported," the department wrote.

Additional photos show the aftermath, with large cracks in the sidewalk at both locations.

The fire department said they found high levels of carbon dioxide in multiple buildings, so they evacuated the whole block "until the gas levels could be mitigated."

Officials did not say what exactly caused the manholes to explode, but said investigators would be on the scene for hours.

Renee Anderson

Renee Anderson is a digital producer at CBS New York, where she covers breaking news and other local stories. Before joining the team in 2016, Renee worked at WMUR-TV.

Seamless wants people to save dough again.

After going virtually extinct about decade prior, New York City’s venerated $1 pizza slice is making a much-anticipated return courtesy of food delivery service Seamless.

From April 22 to May 20, nostalgic — and cash-strapped — New Yorkers will be able to grab a $1 cheese slice at select slice shops by ordering off the platform, per the site.

This promotion couldn’t have come at a better time. According to a 2024 “pie chart” by Clever Real Estate, New York Pizza has the most expensive ‘Za in the nation with Gothamites regularly forking over $28.60 for a cheese pie on average — which equates to an eye-popping $5.72 per slice.

Meanwhile, a survey by NYC pie-hard Liam Quigley — who ate 464 slices over 8 years — found that the cost of a plain slice jumped from $2.52 in 2014 to $3.00 in 2022, marking a 19% increase.

This naturally trickled down to dollar slice depots like 2 Bros. Pizza (which is featured in the promotion), which had to up slice prices to $1.50 due to the rising costs of cheese, flour, tomatoes and even napkins amid inflation.

Howard Migdal, CEO of Grubhub, which owns Seamless, agrees that this marks a welcome renaissance for the dormant dollar slice, which has long been a staple for working stiffs, subway platform snackers and nocturnal noshers.

“The $1 cheese slice is more than just pizza—it’s part of the city’s DNA,” said the food delivery honcho in a news release. “As a company born in NYC, we know what this slice means to people. It’s about culture, convenience, and that authentic NYC flavor.”

He added, “We’re proud to bring it back and celebrate the food culture that makes this city unlike anywhere else.”

Over 40 pizzerias will be participating in the promotion, including neighborhood standbys like Luigi’s Pizza, Rocco Pizza, 2 Bros. Pizza, La Bellezza, Best Pizza, Ledo Pizza, Beverly Pizza & Cafe, Da Bianca Pizza, Rizzo’s Pizza, and Patrizia’s Taverna and more (the full list is available on SeamlessDollarSlice.com).

These frugal feasts will be available for pickup only and are limited to one order per day with a cap of five slices per order.

Participating pizzeria welcome the dollar slice’s return.

“Nothing beats that look on someone’s face when they fold a hot $1 cheese slice and take that first bite, it never changes,” said the 2 Bros. Pizza Management Team. “Teaming up with Seamless gives us a chance to celebrate the $1 cheese slice tradition with our loyal customers—and introduce a whole new generation to what makes New York pizza so special.”