Vanishing New York Backup

From the very old to the very young, New York lost many good things this year. The leading cause of death was greed, though there were a few other causes, such as structural collapse or a family death. The majority just couldn't pay the rent in this city. My choices came from the pages of this blog, and I am sure I've missed many. Please add your own favorites in the Comments section. Hilly Kristal is the only person I listed, but I think of the many others who've vanished, not only to death, but eviction. Like the residents of the Breslin Hotel and other victims of development, eminent domain, and rising rents. New York is hemhorraging creative people. I added Chumley's because while they claim to be rebuilding, whatever rises will not be the same, and Chumley's, the original, is surely dead. That's it for the notes. I think the list, with its links and tally of years, can speak for itself. Combined, we've seen close to 1,000 years of New York history vanis...

VANISHED: December 28, 2007 Unable to get to Park Slope on Friday, I sent one of my tipsters to the scene. She arrived in the afternoon and while there were still a handful of donuts in the window (including crullers cinnamon and frosted) and a couple of regulars at the counter, the owners waved her away as they stood counting their last dollars from the register. She stood across the street and snapped a few pictures of the place, the sign already taken down, as people walked past, many of them waving in through the diner's window, saying goodbye as they headed into the Associated to do their grocery shopping. The Associated will soon be expanding into the Donuts Coffee Shop space. More pics on my flickr Great shots at Gowanus Lounge Lost City got in for a last donut

VANISHED: December 31, 2007 It is with great ambivalence that I report on the last day of the Astor Place Barnes & Noble. Tomorrow, the book behemoth will be gone. In the meantime, they are having the crappiest 50% off sale ever --unless you're in the market for military history pictorials, diet books, and calendars featuring golden retrievers. I'm supposed to hate chains. For the record, I don't. I hate the chains' proliferation and domination of this city. I hate the way they're turning the city into a mall. A couple here and there would not be a problem. About Barnes & Noble I am quite conflicted. I resent their awesome power in the book world (their buyers dictate what gets published and what doesn't), but I also love books. And I like them a lot more than gym rats, who will soon flock to the David Barton that is rumored to move in. Also, B&N is a public space of sorts--we can all go inside that beautiful old building and enjoy it. A gym is memb...

After spotting this sign in the window of a five-and-dime on 14th Street between A & B, I went inside and took a look around. The 41-year-old place is exactly the way it was described in the Voice 7 years ago. Ancient wooden tables hold plastic tubs full of greeting cards, each hand-labeled according to its intended receiver: Niece, Nephew, Mother, Father, etc. Bigger tubs hold a random assortment of books. There's a toy section on the wall where you can find small bags of plastic dinosaurs or cowboys or zoo animals. There are paper streamers, paper plates, paper cups, and an abbreviated collection of piggy banks, figurines, and coffee mugs. For the season, you can also find foil-paper party hats and noisemakers that say Happy New Year. I talked a bit with the manager, Danny, who is the grandson of Charlie. He told me they used to have many stores in the area, each with a different theme. "We're a community service more than a regular business," he said, "P...

Is the obnoxious A Building condo-mega-plex ashamed of the fact that their ass-end hangs out on still-gritty East 14th Street? This perplexing signage at that site seems to say so: "Walk to either corner...go to 13th Street...walk to the middle of the block. Why are you still standing here? " Zips Deli, long on 5th and B, is being gutted . Its quirky outside paintings of sandwiches are covered with stickers and ads. Any ideas about what's coming to this now-precious corner? Here's an inside look at the current state of Chumley's . It's pretty miserable. I have little hope it will ever be the same again. [ Eater ] Today is the final day for Donuts Coffee in Park Slope --was anybody at the sad scene? [ Observer ] Vazacs Horseshoe Bar/7B gets into the holiday spirit with faux-snow stencils of angels, reindeer, snowflakes, and... naked mudflap girls ? (she's in the middle left-most pane) Racked racks up the top 5 most depressing retail closings of 2007. I ...

VANISHED (until 11/08) After every Christmas, we wake to find the trees have vanished. The Quebecois who brought them have left us after a whole month of filling our streets with impromptu forests and the sweet, sticky fragrance of pine. And, every year, I miss them when they go. “People in New York have a romantic idea about us,” one tree lady told me, “They come by and say, ‘Oh, you must feel right at home with all these trees, like in a forest.’ Then I tell them I live in Montreal. A big city. They look disappointed.” That romantic idea might come from French-Canadian folklore, where the coureur-de-bois (literally “runner of the woods”) stands as a vivid heroic figure, a carefree adventurer decked out in fringed buckskin and moccasins, trekking and trading across the great northern wilderness. History tells us that the coureur-de-bois have disappeared and yet, every year, truckloads of their descendants head for New York, bringing a little bit of the Canadian wilderness with them...

On my way to Port Authority last week, I passed the Playpen , or what's left of it. All that is standing, from what I can tell, is the front part's rear wall. The demolition guys let me sneak back and snap a few shots before they waved me away. In the tangled mess, I recognized a sign that said ROOM, which, if I recall correctly, was the second half of the sign for MALE ROOM, the gay space on the Playpen's second floor. Below, an EXIT sign is visible on the wall. The door opens onto empty space. Next to those small twin windows, you can see the remains of a filigreed detail, the leafy leitmotif between the cameos seen in the vintage photo below. The little windows look to me like the portholes of a projectionist's booth. If that's the case, then we are probably looking at the back wall of the original balcony--a space that later became a spot for buddy-booth handjobs. In the MALE ROOM, you could also get up close and personal with those cameos, covered in porn-palac...

Sucelt is gone . I had my last meal there last week , but with my freezer stuffed with Jehnny's beef empanadas, the love will go on a little longer. My last Sucelt arepa: AMNY also visited La Taza de Oro . Without Sucelt , it's a last survivor from Chelsea's days as a center for Latin food. [ AMNY ] Here comes the newest erection to rise above the Bowery , overshadowing the Salvation Army, which will probably turn into condos any day now. [ Curbed ] Another repair service evicted --this time it's a tailor. In our disposable culture, why bother to stitch and fix the old when you can just buy new? [ Pardon Me ] [ Lost City ]

May I suggest a perfect evening: An early dinner at Sucelt , then cross the street for dessert at Donut Pub , then head upstairs (next door and one flight up) for cocktails at Time Machine. Until Sunday, from 3:00 until closing (about 7:00), Time Machine is having their annual Holiday Open Bar. And if you've never been to the 10-year-old shop, this would be a great time to check it out. It may be the only business in New York that advertises the sale of Nostalgia. Above the 99-cent-store (closed, for rent), climb the stairs into a cluttered yet orderly collection of cardboard boxes filled with old magazines, most of them 40% off. The owner told me, "We always haggle," so don't be afraid to make a deal. It's worth going up just to look at the walls, a collection of movie stars, cowboys, rock-n-roll idols, beefcake models, pin-up girls, and superheroes. With free cocktails added to the mix, what could be better? More photos on my flickr

Now that Dick's bar has become the fratty 12th Street Ale House, where can you go for a gay dive-bar experience? The answer is Julius' bar on 10th and Waverly . In fact, go there for the vintage-bar experience, because Julius' is one of the oldest, unchanged bars in town. No one seems to know when exactly it opened, but the best guess is 1867 -- the same year that the Jacob Ruppert Brewery opened in Yorkville, on the Upper East Side. Julius' tables, chairs, and bar are made from the brewery's wooden barrels and they're stamped "Jacob Ruppert." (The brewery was replaced by Ruppert Towers , an example of architectural "brutalism.") The footrail at Julius' bar is a string of beagles standing nose to tail and cast in brass. "We think the original owner liked beagles," the bartender told me. (Though the breed is debatable--some say those dogs are Bassett hounds). One wall is covered with framed photographs of the once-famous....

I am still in shock from this sudden news: Beloved East Village dives Sophie's and Mona's are up for sale! Says the owner of both, "The neighborhood has changed so much...I love both bars, but they're dinosaurs now." [ Page 6 via Gothamist ] Speaking of dinosaurs, more news from our disposable culture: Check out the TV repair shop carnage. [ Pardon Me via Gowanus L ] Regarding Bloomberg's assault on small businesses, a recent commenter here noted, "it amazes me that there's no large campaign...like shirts or buttons with bloomberg's face with an x through it ." Good question. In the 1990s, we had images like the one below all over the city. Why not now? painting by Robert Lederman Streit's is leaving the Lower East Side and taking their matzos with them. And so the Jewish Lower East Side fades further into history. [Curbed]

Is no place safe from the yunnies? Here they are, stepping out of their new, butter-yellow, luxury oceanfront condo for a walk down Rockaway Beach. The gals hold on to their jaunty straw hats while the fellas look forward to shedding their Dockers and enjoying some fellatio under the boardwalk. Ah, dreams of summer in the midst of winter's grip. Belle Shores: Live in a tacky wedding cake for $439,900! But what's this? Is it possible Rockaway's glut of condos isn't selling? Here they're offering tax abatements and free common charges. Maybe there is hope. Maybe it's Rockaway's resistance to glamor that keeps the yunnies from flocking en masse. It's way, way out there. And in winter it's a rough place to be. The streets are desolate except for a few schizophrenics muttering on the corners and drunks wobbling their way down Beach 116th. The bars are rough, too. Remnants from the Irish Riviera days, there's the Tap & Grill clam bar, PJ Curran...

Shit laced with gold. [Gothamist] Cooper Hotel developer says "cities should not be museums." [ Observer via Curbed ] A grim round-up of 2007's vanished greats. What will take their places? [ Lost City ] A. Fontana will be gone soon, but there are still a few good shoe repair shops left in town. At least in Brooklyn.  [ Bklynometry ] Last week I posted about the anonymous protest against the BBQ-turned-North-Fork bank . Since then, passersby have added their own notes to the taped-on signs, mostly polite stuff like "I agree" and "Me too." Now Alex in NYC reveals the protesters are skipping Scotch tape and going straight for good old Magic Marker. [ Flaming P ]

After yesterday's depressing news about A. Fontana Shoe Repair's imminent closing (not to mention the shuttering of Park Slope's gorgeous Donuts Coffee Shop ), I thought we needed a little life preserver thrown our way and donuts are just the right shape for the job. Since 1964, The Donut Pub has been going strong at 14th St. and 7th Ave. Not long ago, Dunkin Donuts moved in a few doors down , no doubt in hopes of viciously knocking out the competition. But even in Goliath's shadow, The Donut Pub has stayed afloat. When you go there, you are recognized. You are greeted. It feels good. After a couple of visits, the Pub employees will know you. Once you become a regular, they'll inquire about your vacation, your kids, your dog. And if you're sleepy, they'll even let you take a nap. The last time I went in, a homeless woman was fast asleep, her head resting on the counter. A guy ordering coffee to go asked, "Is she okay?" The counterman looked at him...

VANISHING: Spring 2008 After 45 years in its East Village location on 10th across from Saint Mark's Church, A. Fontana Shoe Repair is closing down for good . I went in this morning to buy a can of weatherproofing spray and the owner, Mr. Angelo Fontana, told me he'll be gone in about three months. The rent is going too high. "Soon," he said of the city, throwing up his hands in futility, "there will be no more barbershop, no more shoe repair, no more tailor." That's the new New York. Now there is no place left for what The Washington Post called "one of the world's best shoe repair shops." I asked Angelo if I could take some pictures of his wonderful shop. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Everyone else is, why not?" He explained that The New York Times and a neighborhood paper, perhaps The Villager , will be visiting him this weekend to get their take on the story. Maybe they can coax more out of Angelo than I did -- he is a...