Vanishing New York Backup

Is Cookout Grill the next new en-masse chain to drop onto the city? One's opening in the old Popeye's spot at 1st and 13th and here's another in the former 99-cent store under Time Machine at 14th and 7th. You've got to wonder about that Asian-styled, chicken-clubbing caveman mascot : Not only is Bloomberg's marketing department selling our city as SATC-ville, they've also trademarked us: "This is New York City.™ This is home to Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda..." [ NYCVisit ] via [ City Room ] And here's the secret reason so many independent news vendors got their long-time stands seized by the city government and replaced by cold Cemusa boxes: Bloomberg gets to advertise his SATC-version of our city all over Europe . [ Times ] Remembering one of the Bowery's most beloved news vendors . [ EVG ] Speaking of secret marketing, check out "murketing," the sneaky ways we're being coerced to buy. In his book Buying In , author...

Back to the Bowery, where I seem to be inadvertently collecting suicide tales. First, there was a hanging in the attic of 35 Cooper Square , aka 391 Bowery. Then there was Karl Hutter , inventor of the Lightning bottle-stopper and proprietor of 185 Bowery. Now comes a Bowery suicide tale from #169. This time, it's a lovelorn Italian musician with a pistol back in 1886. He was "so poor that life had no longer any charm for him": new york times The address at which the musician died was on a Bowery filled with theaters, including many Italian and vaudeville theaters. He had played at Miner's Bowery Theater, which opened in this location, 165-169 Bowery, in 1878. It was known for its "questionable burlesque productions" and amateur nights (Eddie Cantor won many here), where bad performers were hauled offstage by a hook. Some claim this is where the expression "Get the hook!" was born. In 1922, Miner's nearly burned down and later became a Chinese...

The next silvery box to land on the East Village is getting its robot skin-- Cooper Union's "communal hive," which the Ukrainian community had no choice but to surrender to: Remember the news that a high-end barbershop will go into the old Nick's Hair Stylists on Horatio ? Well, it's part of the Freemans Sporting Club chain, a brand spun off from the restaurant in Freeman Alley on the LES. It's apparently a hipster thing . [ MenStyle ] via Racked "Mike Schumacher, owner of Met Food Grocery Store at 107 Second Avenue, says NYSS Duane is working hard at lease renewal negotiations with NYU for his store . He expects a settlement early next week." But he needs your help. [ SLES ] Coney Island is breaking the heart of one former urban planning student. [ OneCity ] Noodle around the Hong Kong Supermarket with BaHa. [ SENY ] Death Wish ? And The Panic in Needle Park ? It's a hot, gritty summer in NYC, thanks to Anthology Film Archives. People rea...

The Bowery, when I think of it and when I walk on it, rarely means that stretch between Delancey and Canal. In my travels, I tend to turn on Delancey or sooner, but recently I decided to walk this stretch. In the Lighting District, after 6:00 pm, the sidewalks are empty of crowds and you can really take it in. Which you should do soon, because it is being decimated. See all my photos here. The vanishing begins at Houston with the Avalons, then the New Museum, followed by a hole in the row of tenements, ready for boutique hotel 250 Bowery . Condos are rising quietly, stealthily, among and behind the kitchen supply stores. The kids at "mega-club" BLVD and Crash Mansion are waiting on the sidewalk, eager to access the opulence, the decadence, the feeling of exclusivity promised there. Across the way, Jay Maisel's Germania Bank building , covered in graffiti, stands like a solemn reminder of the ruined past, windows sealed with silver foil, reflecting. At Delancey, the seeds ...

Curbed commenters make funny haikus about neighbors in neighborhoods. Read them here . After 30+ years in business, The Travel People on Greenwich Ave have closed . Their cool neon airplane is gone and they're selling all the knick-knacks in their window, where they say, "We hate to leave our home in the Village": On the racks now, Adbusters #79 has an amazing article about hipsterdom. It's not available online, and so much is worth quoting, but one deadly paragraph will have to suffice. Douglas Haddow writes, " the hipster represents the end of Western civilization --a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the 'hipster'-- a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society ." America the beautiful: If you're physicall...

Now and then, I like to take a walk through way west Chelsea and see how things are progressing in the massive condofication that's going on. Every time I go, they're more enormous, more glassy, more metallic, just more, more, more. chelsea modern The Chelsea Modern on 18th is completely glassed, with crazy windows that pop straight out on springy suspension devices--perfect for losing cats or small dogs who like to sit on windowsills. Its neighbor, 459 18th, which was but a little sprout until very recently, looks completed, too. They grow up so fast, don't they? We talk about New York changing, and we all know that the city is always evolving, but today it mutates like a cockroach, its DNA radically altering itself from month to month. At this rate, how long will it take for every block to be encased in glass? 459 and modern Nouvel Chelsea has taken shape, towering, undulating, and accompanied by a big swaying crane. The L-shaped 245 10th, with its wobbly-looking beams, h...

As New York enters its "worst fiscal crisis since the mid-1970s," fashionistas are decking themselves out in Depression-era duds. What's that line about fiddling as Rome burns? [ EVG ] With doubling rent, Judy's Better Dresses, a shop with the personal touch, closes after 40 years in midtown. [ Times ] Nice to see Ralph Blumenthal is back from Texas and writing very funny articles like this almost-parody in which Staten Islanders bid a tearful farewell to their beloved Starbucks . [ Times ] Remember the Love Coffee truck , rolling around the city claiming to be related to Mud Coffee? Well, it looks like they're opening a brick-and-mortar location up on quiet little Pleasant Ave. in East Harlem : When I read this story (check out those comments) about exclusive club the Eldridge, I thought, this has to be a satire. It was too perfect, too over the top, like this work-of-art condo parody . But the Eldridge is real (I think). Thankfully, the so-called Ko-Thario h...

A tipster sent in the news that David's Bagels on 1st Avenue and 14th Street will be closing at the end of August after 21 years of business. I spoke with the owner, Vilai Wangkeo, and she told me that since the landlord opened a Hot & Crusty franchise next door, "He doesn't want the competition," so her lease will not be renewed. "When you work somewhere for 21 years," she said, "you get good customers, and when you have to move, it's really sad. This is like my second home. I've been here every day, 6 days a week, for 21 years." When Ms. Wangkeo's children grew up and she needed work to do, she opened David's Bagels in 1987. I asked why a former nurse and a native of Thailand would decide to open a bagel shop. "We have no bagels in Thailand," she chuckled, "but my brother had a side job at Bagel Nosh and he learned how to make them there." "Is your brother named David?" I asked. "Nobody is D...

The New World Order has been dying to erase Astor Place from the map for some time now. This winter, cloaked in "good for the hood" exhortations and watercolor paintings of vegetation-lush pedestrian malls, it begins. For the record, crossing Astor Place is a piece of cake--there's very little traffic--if you know how. [ Curbed ] Yes, Gothamist, I have indeed noticed that taxi TVs are NOT turning off. In two rides, I discovered the same awful trend. The first screen has a red OFF button. If you touch anywhere else on the screen, except for that OFF button, you get immediately sent to a deeper, inescapable level of Hell, in which there is no OFF button . And from there, you're screwed. The damn thing plays and plays and plays...and what does it play? Condo ads: David Kamp, originator of Vongerichtified , tells a fascinatingly twisted tale of urban Googling, accordion-playing aunties from Queens, iPod silhouette models, scruffy hipsters, and the cherry-poppin' Fa...

Remember the old "it's better than a Starbucks" rationale for embracing Varvatos on the Bowery? Well, it has spread to CB3, as members invoke the "magic words" that allow more and more frat-boy bars into the EV/LES. [ SLES ] Those Sex and the City tours have finally given the people of Perry Street a break and scratched "Carrie's stoop" from their route. Still, the tour creator is upset. Also worth noting, Bleecker Playground is “'an absolute hellhole' due to another Sex and the City tour side effect-- cupcake liners strewn on the ground." Says one resident of the tours, “First of all, it’s pointless and stupid ... It is such a failure of imagination. Why would people visiting New York City waste their time with a fake location on TV?” [ Villager ] At least one New Yorker has named her baby after the Magnolia bakery . Will it become a trend? [ NYer] "Parker came to symbolize an image of New York City over the last 10 years as...

Readers of this blog might assume I am against wealth and spending. This is not so. What I find troublesome is the current culture of financial decadence that is wasteful, hostile, and destructive. Raised in a lower-middle/working class home where government cheese was on the menu, I certainly aim to achieve personal wealth. I enjoy earning and saving money, and even like to go shopping--sometimes at chain stores (a few is okay--it's the over-proliferation of chains that troubles me). But I also believe in being thrifty and living within one's means. I seem to be in the minority these days. I Love Money: Meet the cast In a recent New York Times , David Brooks offered an enlightening Op Ed about money in America and the current "deterioration of financial mores" that has led to a culture of debt and stark polarization into the "investor class" and the "lottery class." To those who argue that New York, and the U.S. as a whole, has always been about...

New blog in town: In BoweryBoogie , a Lower East Sider jumps on the blog bandwagon and here looks at the correlation between dogshit and gentrification . Empower Jim Power! Looks like the Mosaic Man has a new website and blog. He is also in need of funds. [ EJP ] What we lose when we lose mom-and-pops: community connections. Here, the old New Barber Shop on 9th and 18th puts up an announcement about a death in the neighborhood and info about the funeral. Chains, condos, and upscale restaurants don't do that: Penmanship , the restaurant to replace Kurowycky Meats on 1st Ave between 7th and 8th in the EV, was approved for its liquor license "with provisos about closing early and keeping the noise level low ." Here's what we might expect , from the same owner. [ Eater ] I reported on the closing of Grace & Hope Mission this past spring. Today we hear it's turning into a frat-boy bar . [ Curbed ] Chelsea's getting yet another 20-story condo-hotel tower ....

As the Cooper Square Hotel has risen and spread, it has engulfed the block of Bowery between 5th and 6th Streets. Two original buildings remain: the tenement home of poet Hettie Jones and 35 Cooper Square, a building with a long and interesting history. That history has been painstakingly uncovered by artist and East Village resident Sally Young in an attempt to get #35 landmarked, thus saving it from the wrecking ball. Rumor has it, the hotel developers plan to have the building demolished. And Landmarks has turned Sally down, stating, "the property does not meet the criteria for designation." photo: sally young, 2008 Originally called 391 Bowery, #35 was owned in the early 1800s by Nicholas William Stuyvesant, great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant . When he died in 1833, the building passed through several hands, including an undertaker, a teacher, a hotelier, and a saloon owner. my flickr In the 20th century, it became a home for artists. Painter and photographer J. Forres...

The 10th Street Block Association is praying the Canadians who bought Commerce Bank will save them from "excessive and garish signage." But I doubt the Canucks can do much about the proliferation of petty nuisance crime on the street: Read this interview with the anonymous blogger behind the funny-sad satirical StuyTownLuxLiving , about which "Management is not amused." [ Times ] New, super-chic bar on the LES will have butlers and only let in "quality people"--it will also be disguised as a "new and used" bookstore . Remember those places? We used to have lots of real ones around here. [ Grub St. ] (Check out the Eater comments .) Yuppies, yunnies, and now yupres : "new and temporary arrivals" who will eventually go "shuffling off to middle America, suburbia or Los Angeles. Despite this, they define the (cultural) economy of New York ." [ Ventriloquism ] via [ Gawker ] How can we stop the flood of condos and chains? Pirate...

Earlier this month, The Real Deal reported that several of the small businesses at 125th and Frederick Douglass Blvd have settled their lawsuit against Kimco Realty, who plans to demolish the entire block of low-rise buildings and replace them with a big-box shopping mall. There were 16 tenants evicted by the Kimco plan--many of them, including Bobby's Happy House, have already closed. The block, once filled with life, is now half dead. formerly bobby's I went to 125th Street last fall , when Bobby's was still there. It was a chilly day, but there was a crowd out front of the 61-year-old business. In the window, a television showed Michael Jackson in his prime, and men were dancing along with him, mimicking his steps on the sidewalk. Bobby's closed on Martin Luther King's birthday this year. Today, the store is boarded up. The awning is down, revealing an old sign from a shoestore with an angry boot called "boss" who looks ready to kick someone. Bobby m...

The VNY Flickr group has been going strong. Now, inspired by Michael Dashkin's "Behavior Enforcing Signage," I decided we needed a place to put all those urban etiquette signs that have been proliferating over the past decade. So I started another group-- join here and add your stuff . ...And here's a rather colorful example. [ GVDP ] Landlords can evict you to gut renovate? Come August 12, NY State might make it legal. [ SLES ] Median household income for white toddlers in Manhattan ? $285,000. [ NYO ] Alex has a bunch of old photos, mostly of the LES as it was , complete with anarchy symbols and empty skies over Katz's. [ FP ] HunterGatherer discovers Rappaport's in the old East Village on TV. [ HGNYC ] Contrary to all predictions , the Sunshine Hotel , one of the last flophouses on the Bowery, has been given a stay of execution for the next three years. [ Curbed ]

The little triangle bordered by W. 4th, 8th Ave, and Horatio is vanishing. It was named for Reggie Fitzgerald , a gay activist and Village preservationist. Florent Morellet described him as "one flamboyant, aging queen, with tight leather pants, lavender, long-lapelled satin shirt and flowing neck scarf." When was the last time you saw one of those in this city? I used to see Quentin Crisp all the time in the window of the Cooper Square Diner, but such folks (and the diner) have vanished, too. I wrote last month about the demise of Nick's hair salon on the triangle. Walking by recently, a postman told me it's turning into an upscale barber shop . I peeked inside. The walls are subway-tiled, the mirrors trimmed in heavy oak. The postman, who turned out to be a font of information, expects "men's haircuts for 60 bucks." He also confirmed that, on the 4th Street side of the triangle, Action Care pharmacy has lost its lease. "The best kept secret in ...

At the suggestion of blogger HunterGathererNYC , I watched Moscow on the Hudson. It has some good scenes of New York in the early 80s: Boomboxes, breakdancers, muggers, New Wave yuppies. And the marquee and lobby of the St. Marks Cinema , now Cohen's Fashion Optical with the Theatre Condos above. In the movie, Robin Williams' character lives in a tenement apartment on 7th Street between 1st and 2nd--above an egg shop. Did you know there was an egg shop on 7th ( still open in 1991 )? Gothamist discovered a movie of the shop , where now you'll find Howdy Do. And, in the background, that's David's shoe repair with the yellow sign complete with Cyrillic lettering (none of that today). At the end of the movie, there's a scene in long lost Moisha's Luncheonette (239 Grand St.), where one legend claims the egg cream was brought to Manhattan from Brooklyn in 1920 by Moisha Zambrowsky. (See another shot here .) Moisha's is gone. The egg shop is gone. St. Marks ...