*Everyday Chatter

Florent to remain open as non-Florent restaurant. What happened to Ralph Lauren? He couldn't afford the $60K a month? [Eater]

And tipster quixoticire tells us that Nicola Paone--a 50-year-old Italian joint in Murray Hill, formerly owned by a troubadour known as the Italian Bing Crosby"--will be closing this weekend. [Crain's]

The Hotel Gansevoort goes ghetto. Even when you take the tenement laundry lines out of New York, people will use ingenuity, turning tiny luxury balconies into public drying racks. Maybe there's hope for the city after all:


July 11: March against the tenement-evicting millionaires of the East Village. [EVG] ...and here's another nice shot of that flyer, against a background of the typical New EVill scene. [NMNL]

Times Square not seedy enough for Hollywood. [City Room] ...just as Malcolm McLaren softcore porns it up. [NYDN]

"The Lower East Side of Manhattan is being SoHo-fied. (Or is it Chelsea-fied?)," and here's a guide to the galleries that are moving in--and will be moving out before you know it, as they pave the way for more high luxury, as they did in now-saturated SoHo and Chelsea. [Times]

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