Vanishing New York Backup

Since at least the 1980s, the International Bar on 1st Ave. and 7th St. was a haven for neighborhood drunks and punks. It closed in 2005 under mysterious circumstances and the space has been for rent since. I happened by one day when the realtors were showing the place to a group of entrepreneurs armed with measuring tape and plans to turn the International into a more upscale-sounding bar -- I heard them muttering something about "wall sconces." But that was a while ago and the FOR RENT sign is still there. In its lifetime, there was nothing upscale about the International. I spoke recently with Rebecca, a long-time habitué and graduate of the old Stuyvesant High School (when it used to be on 15th and 1st), who recalls going to the bar after school with friends and being served alcohol as a teen. “It was my entrée into the adult world, where I first met the people I wanted to become. But when you took a step back, you saw they were fucked up people. I mean, what kind of 40...

The Apple Store in the landmarked Western Beef building is getting ready for its Dec 7 opening, but the most interesting part of the building (to me, anyway) is this odd sign for World Examining Works . The name comes up at another address in a 1930 directory and may have been a cloth sponging works. If anyone knows more, do tell. More glass for Balazs... ...less meat scraps for the seagulls, here seen hunting for remnants between Balasz and Von Furstenberg . I found this photo in a great flickr stream, everystreetinmanhattan : Here's what used to be before the Cooper Square Hotel knocked down the block:

As our city continues to vanish, more and more people are asking the question, “Has New York lost its soul?” And discovering the answer is yes, they are working to preserve whatever is left – through writing, photography, filmmaking, painting, etc. Documentary filmmaker Reed Fulton Korach is one of these people and his short film, New York Lost , is his attempt to hold on to our city. In Little Italy: "I expected something like Goodfellas and...it’s more like You’ve Got Mail." In the film, Korach interviews everyday New Yorkers on the street, small-business owners, as well as public figures such as Sion Misrahi , the developer who is transforming the Lower East Side into a luxury locale. Through it all runs the question, “Has New York lost some of the magic and verve it once had?” The answers are mixed, depending on who’s doing the talking. Misrahi seems to disagree, envisioning a future filled with “air and light” and “tall buildings.” I guess people who live in his tall bui...

Can Chumley's really "put the inside back in" the way it was after the devastation ? [Observer] The real New York just isn't New York enough for the big screen. As the city's authenticity vanishes, we'll see more and more of this. [Gothamist] The Times profiles the machers who are frantically smoothing the Bowery's "rough edges." The Cooper Square Hotel expects to open next summer. The Bouwerie Lane Theater will be condos and retail. The broker for the "other" part of CBGB's hopes for a jewelry shop or "a nice little place that will stay open late." But, no matter what, these down-to-earth folks all want to preserve the funky, rough-edged character of the Bowery. [NYT] Unleashed, Columbia University takes aim at Harlem's Cotton Club. Said the club's owner to the Voice, "I want it to go down in history, go down through my family. That's the American way, right?" [Queens Crap] Tell New York magazin...

A magazine writer emailed me yesterday in a search for the lost buildings of 2007. Many buildings come to mind. The smaller ones seem to fall away from memory -- they go so quickly and without warning. It's hard sometimes to remember what was where. But the one that stands out in my mind, perhaps more than any other, is 1551 Broadway, the former home of Times Square's last Howard Johnson's and the Gaiety Burlesk. photo: my flickr The 112-year-old building was not a beauty, but it held a lot of New York history -- right down to the bricks, which came from the Shultz Brick Company and probably traveled down the Hudson River to get here from a once-thriving industry now vanished. The Childs Company bought the property from the Martel family of France in 1920 for $400,000. In this photo from the same year, it held Park Taylor clothing and, upstairs, Wilson's Dancing Studio, where Henry Miller fell in love with June Edith Smith in 1923. photo source: NYPL Wils...

We've been hearing about the P&G Bar's impending doom for a while now. Recently, The Observer observed that the storefront is being torn apart. And yesterday, the Metro had a story on the old neighborhood saloon and its probable closing. This is sad news for the Upper West Side. I went into the bar not too long ago, had a few drinks, and took a few pictures of what owner Tom Chahalis calls the "ambiance." It's the ambiance of old bars, places like McHale's and Corner Bistro . It's soft, worn wood, walls turned brown by tobacco smoke, the ocher glow of dim lamps. It's the smell of beer and the silence of solemn drinkers. It's an old-shoe feeling, a broken-in comfort you can't get from the new. And it's going fast from every corner of our city. At the P&G, they've got a petition you can sign , but as we know, petitions do little in the face of 80% rent increases. Still, it's worth going in and adding your name to the list o...

The 18-year-old bodega at 14th and 3rd is moving . The whole low-rise building looks doomed. I predict that we'll see it all go -- the tanning salon, the cell-phone store, even the XXX DVD shop, which happens to have the last peepshows/buddy booths on a corner that only a decade ago was loaded with porn and frequented by hookers: How do they say Merry Christmas in the McMansions of Rockaway? With giant toy soldiers overshadowing teeny-weeny Jesuses and some good old-fashioned, plush-on-plush dog humping: Columbia gets closer to bulldozing Harlem (with likely use of state-sponsored eminent domain) and, as usual, many blog commenters applaud the legalized theft. [City Room] Barbara Corcoran advises her readers to find up-and-coming, gentrifiable areas by looking for old ladies on park benches. I guess the next step is to wrestle those same old ladies off their benches and boot them out of town. [Curbed] Jahn's ice-cream shop in Richmond Hill, Queens, is closing down after 110 ...

This weekend I went back to Sucelt for another helping of beans and rice, empanadas, and a cup of morir sornando , a frothy milk and juice shake whose name aptly translates to “die dreaming.” While waiting for my beverage I joined a conversation between the owner, Jehnny Novarro, and one of her regulars. They were talking regretfully about Sucelt’s December 24 closing. “Maybe it’s for the best,” Ms. Novarro said with a shrug, “I have to think this way so my heart won’t break.” The regular introduced himself as Ken Friedman, co-owner of The Spotted Pig , a restaurant I’d never heard of before. “I’m always looking at restaurant spaces,” he told Ms. Novarro, “Maybe I can find something for you in the area.” “I’m thinking about a place in New Jersey,” she said, “Here the rents are too much. I would have to double my prices — and more. I cannot do that to my customers. They are working people, poor people. I cannot do that to them.” She’d rather go out of business than fail to serve he...

Remember the too-short Venetian blinds that hung in the condo windows at 110 3rd ? Well, the same curtain-challenged tenants are trying yet another ill-advised window treatment--this time it's shrunk-in-the-wash-sized tab curtains hung mid-window by adhesive plastic hooks: Meanwhile, most of their neighbors at 110 3rd don't even bother with curtains. Why conceal such cookie-cutter condo lives? The Willets Point Industry & Realty Association is fighting the city's plan to use eminent domain to seize properties in the Iron Triangle of Queens . To help make their case at the City Council hearing on 11/29, they've put together this compelling video about the businessmen in the area: [WPIRA] On the Upper East Side, motley old newsracks are being replaced by silvery Cemusa-style dispensers. I'm sure the Municipal Arts Society will be happy to see this, after launching their Nasty Newsracks contest , but I worry about yet more uniformity marching down our ...

I went for a walk through the lower Lower East Side the other day, to see what had vanished and what still remains. I passed the wreckage of Gertel's bakery , a heap of twisted metal and rubble behind plywood fencing and a stop work order. Next door, not long ago, there used to be a wonderful candy and nut shop called Kadouri & Sons . The old signage of the area is quickly vanishing, but this cool Bondy sign remains. And at Eldridge and Canal, I was greatly relieved to find that the Cup & Saucer Luncheonette still stands. I had a grilled cheese (on Pechter's rye) and potato salad. Directly across Canal from the luncheonette, half a block is being demolished. I later did a little research and found that the "BEN" neon sign once stood for Beny's Authorized Sales and Service . In business for 50 years, the shop was run by Jerry Cohen who repaired lighters like Zippos and Ronsons. According to Curbed , once this structure comes down, a 16-story retail/residen...

There's a new sign up at Jade Mountain : In red neon-lit, Germanic-style letters it says SHOOLBRED'S. At 14th and 5th: A Chase bank is opening soon right across the street from...another Chase bank! You can't have too many, can you? And you can't have too many Rite Aids, either: "Drugstore shoppers in Sunnyside are seeing double these days... Two Rite Aid pharmacies have set up shop right next to one another at 46-12 and 46-02 Greenpoint Ave., with a third store just three blocks away." [NYDN] "Well-heeled" yunnies are sucking the marrow out of the bones of the Lower East Side. But that's not news, now is it? [Gawker] Is it happening? The bodega on 4th Ave. and 10th St. looks like it's being demolished--the big yellow Dumpster has arrived. Does this mean the East Village's latest luxe hotel is on its way--or am I still just spreading scary rumors ? This Elizabeth Currid sounds like she's written a good book. I'll let her words...

VANISHING: 12/24/07 From out of the cold yesterday, I stepped into the warm and cozy hole-in-the-wall of the Sucelt Coffee Shop for a lunch of beans and rice topped with soft plantains, and heard the sad news that, after 31 years on 14th St and 7th Ave, the shop is closing. Most of the customers in the crowded shop are Spanish-speaking regulars, but there was one new guy at the counter. Like all newcomers, he was warmly welcomed and embraced by the maternal, gemutlich atmosphere created by the waitstaff, a trio of smiling ladies who are easy to laugh and who care for you like kindly, brisk, efficient aunties. A newcomer laughs with the ladies of Sucelt This newcomer was so excited by his home-cooked meal, he exclaimed to the ladies as he was rising to go, "I'm glad I found this place--I'm going to come back all the time!" "You better come back soon," said one of the ladies, "We're closing forever December 24." "Oh no,...

According to a tipster on the scene, about 35 people showed up for last night's protest of the Cooper Square Hotel and its plans to add 3 new bars, including a 200-person capacity outdoor entertainment venue. "It's gone too far," they chanted, "not another bar!" Was anybody listening? (See more protest pics on flickr.) Update: Eater 's got video. At Astor Place, as one mega-chain goes out, another comes in next door. Given the choice, I'll take the B&N over the Walgreens (or the David Barton gym that's coming) any day. And look, Walgreens has escalators , how exciting, just like the Kmart across the street! Speaking of fancy-pants gyms, I love it when yuppies attack each other. And here's one in the East Village taking a piss on another one's Lexus: Getting more glass, condo Yves continues to turn fishtank green: The abandoned Bamboo House cat is available for adoption at Social Tees . Says his rescuer, "He's very sweet, b...