Vanishing New York Backup

Support the other Vanishing New York , a new film in the making about our disappearing city. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation. And don't forget to watch the trailer . Best line from last night's DNC speeches : "We need a president who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney." The corner of 17th and 8th unveils its Capital One bank branch--and it looks a lot like a condo with that frosty checkerboard glass action. Oh, how they do inspire one another: The Howl Festival is coming up: Sept 5-7, Tompkins Square Park. Enjoy a sampling of New York street art . [ GVDP ] Brooks celebrates his 20th year in NYC and fondly recalls cockroaches. [ LC ]

Jerry Foust's Green House art gallery and artists' residence at 75 Greene Street in SoHo was, in the words of Bob Arihood, the " successor to the Cave Artist Co-operative ." Now it looks like the Green House has gone into the Dumpster, just like the Cave. photo by epicharmus Housed in a landmarked cast-iron building , SoHo's (most likely) last bohemian art space existed under the auspices of building owner Sue Stein. New York Art World writes about this "time capsule from New York’s wild frontier days of the 1970s," saying that Stein "wouldn't mind if it was fixed up a bit, but when asked if she could see it as a commercial space, she insisted 'that will never happen.'" The gallery and artists' home thrived for a while, a miracle in a SoHo that Trigger Magazine called "occupied with German-like precision by Chanel, Prada and John Fluevog" in their article about Green House. found painting This week, a reader of JVNY

Supermodel Kate Moss is cast in solid gold: "2.8 million, 110-pound solid gold...the largest such creation built since ancient Egypt ." [ yahoo ] Last year I visited the Antiques Garage , final holdout of the Chelsea flea market, soon after its building was sold to a developer for $42.7 million. It was just a matter of time, and today we hear it's leaving the hood for good . [ Racked ] Huge East 125th Street rezone flies right under the radar. [ Curbed ] Read this insane story about a self-described "loud, pushy," but "deeply sensative" [sic] wealthy mom's ad looking for a nanny--she's also looking for a book deal (aren't we all?). [ Times ] Bodega cats rock. And for that they deserve their very own flickr pool --for when the bodegas vanish, so will the bodega cats. Has NYC's flourishing bachelorette culture inspired little booze-flavored gummi penises ? Only if you can wear them around your neck. [ Grub St ] A commenter here mentio

"The end of Chinatown is at hand." Those words could be said today, but they were written in a 1907 New York Times story . The movement to erase Chinatown goes back at least to the late 1800s, when a supporter of its eradication proclaimed , "In all New York City, there is not a more disreputable street than Pell Street nor a more forbidding cow-path than Doyers Street." Together, these lanes were " cesspools of immorality vile enough to bring a curse upon the entire community." Despite the city's best efforts, Chinatown did not die and Doyers has since stayed in Chinese hands. Of course, with Chinatown unprotected from developers, this will likely change. I recently stumbled upon the wonders of Doyers and wrote about them briefly here . But like Oscar the Cat , I sometimes have an unsettling knack for curling up next to the dying in their final hours. Of course, it's not hard to spot the dying in this city--just look for what's old,

Sometimes, a new development that looks like luxury turns out to be housing for lower income people and/or the otherwise homeless. There's the Lee on East Houston , with "104 apartments reserved for homeless people struggling with mental illnesses" and another 54 for kids aging out of the foster care system. The Lee is being developed by Common Ground , creators of affordable housing. They're also behind one of the latest developments on the Bowery. Something the NY Press called "Flophouse Redux." They're turning the 99-year-old flophouse Andrew's Hotel into a "lodging house," which is a prettier name for a flophouse, as they aim to "save the aging buildings and their tenants from developers while reinventing the Bowery formula to serve a new generation of homeless," including "a dying breed of Bowery lifers who want to be left alone"--and drunk. The Times described the Andrew's Hotel in 2000 : "Walk up a ste

At the previously blogged-about 169 Bowery , Weiss Hardware's old sign has been repurposed for an art gallery opened by actor, director, and former model Norman Reedus, who says, "it's going to be sick" : Speaking of sick art, check out this graffiti next to the new American Apparel at Broadway and Howard. What's the new New York state of mind? Taking it from behind: So maybe it's time to shuffle off to Buffalo . Maybe if we all went, it would work. [ NYM ] Has Cornelia Street's Subterranean Records gone under? [ FP ] Fill a city with jocks and scaffolding , and you're gonna get a whole lotta pull ups. [ BB ] Holy shizzle, as the kids today say: Chelsea's super-luxe condo Yves looks like it's become desperate enough to convert to rentals. [ Curbed ] Sometimes, there's good news at the Chelsea Hotel: Two more tenants win rent stabilization . [ LWL ]

Bank of America arrives at Coney --Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins soon to follow. [ KC ] What will be the future of Times Square? Ask Benjamin Chesluk, author of Money Jungle. [ NYT ] A goodbye to Cafe Figaro in a city where "nothing is mourned" and cafes like Figaro have become unnecessary. [ Times ] Marc Jacobs: "I am a perfect being in a perfect world." Can you see the threads between this belief system and the carnage on Bleecker ? [ Racked ] New York "tycoons" eat sushi off platters made of naked women . Can you not hear the empire crumbling? [ NYM ] Jonathan Franzen mines more of the anti-cell phone territory he began in "Imperial Bedroom," and I love it: "Just 10 years ago, New York City (where I live) still abounded with collectively maintained public spaces in which citizens demonstrated respect for their community by not inflicting their banal bedroom lives on it. The world 10 years ago was not yet fully conquered by yak .&q

Brooklyn’s Park Slope Barber shop on 7th Avenue and 4th Street is celebrating a big birthday this year--but it's not entirely clear which one. In 1948 the Fiumefreddo family took over the business, back when it was still across the street, where falafel is now made under a tin ceiling. They inherited the leather chairs, the gas-powered hot towel steamer, the 100-year-old brass cash register, among other artifacts. They don’t use the hot towel steamer anymore because it’s against the health code. “Back in the '60s,” one of the Fiumefreddo brothers told me, “the Board of Health shut them down because they were unsanitary. They found a lot of barbers were using them to keep sandwiches warm .” Though the Fiumefreddos are celebrating their 60th, the shop’s birthday goes back another 40-odd years. The window says it was established in 1906 , but the awning puts it at 1904 . So which is it? “The guy who did the awning got it wrong,” Mr. Fiumefreddo explained, “We just left it like th

In the city today, entire blocks can be erased with the swipe of just one man's hand. You already know about 9th Ave between 17th and 18th . Now a VNY reader sends in this scary info, following up on last month's news of David's Bagels closing , about 1st Ave between 13th and 14th: "Turns out, the landlord wants to close/sell an entire string of stores along 1st Ave : Kathy's Jewelers, David's, and Wines on 1st, possibly continuing down the rest of the block (sushi place and small deli; not sure about GNC). A friend connected to one of these stores tells me the landlord wants to at least use the three stores named to open a bar (cuz lord knows what we need in the East Village is another effing bar). I blame the A Building for all of this." The buildings that house these businesses were once furniture warehouses, turned into condos back in the 1980s , with two-bedrooms then priced at $184,000. Already, the Lucky Huang gift shop next to Wine on 1st and the

The death of wonderfully anachronistic Doyers Street begins. [ GrubSt ] 12th Street Books is having its moving sale for the next two weeks: All books are 50% off and they're bringing a bunch of stuff up from the basement. Sorting out the whole Extell, Westbrook, Ben Shaoul, East Village Portfolio tenant-harassment thing. [ Curbed ] And EV Grieve has more. And here's who they're making room for: Corcoran's "broker to the stars" says of his "young, hip" and loaded clients, "we have many, many people who want to be in the East Village." It's time to leave. [ Curbed ] Gen Y gets more free shit just for being, well, them... “When it gets a little boring, I might pull it out"-- the mantra of the iPhone age , in which everything is apparently "a little boring" since these masturbation substitutes are always out, everywhere. [ Times ]

Remember that East Village Portfolio , the big-ass Extell sale of 17 buildings ? Here's more fallout: 40% evictions and lots of harassment . [ City Room ] Though it's still under construction, it looks like condo Yves is already welcoming new tenants . This guy walked out of the lobby, looked around, grabbed the scaffolding, and started doing pull ups. Someone tell him the scaffolding will not be one of the amenities: Skyline Books is having their annual 30% off sale --until around Labor Day. Go, go, go and support this shop, because you know they won't be there forever: Go see Pete Hamill tonight at the Tenement Museum. [ BBoogie ] Enjoy Nordic Delicacies with BaHa in Bay Ridge. [ SE ] Pandamonium: Just hipsters being nihilistic? or a meaningful, joyful, culture-jamming demonstration of that old NYC spirit? [ Gothamist ] Speaking of nihilism, check out this "Jews Against Obama" guy and the pseudo-Nazi stuff happening on the new Orchard Street. [ NYC ] Speak

Like most of the businesses on the block before it, the Salvation Army thrift store on West 8th Street is on the verge of vanishing . A sign in the window says “Prime Retail Space Available.” Their 10-year lease has expired and they are “in limbo,” trying to negotiate a new lease with the landlord. But with that sign up, and the way things are going up and down that ghost-town of a block, the future looks grim for what many New Yorkers, and Villagers especially, think of as the best Salvy in town. Even dedicated label-hunters find hits here, unearthing clothes and accessories from Hermes, Brooks Brothers, and many other designers, all for about 10 bucks or less. It may be one of the few remaining places in the city where rich, poor, and those in the middle can all go urban-treasure hunting together. You can even find a strange surplus of " Dubya Duds ." Now it may be time to say goodbye to Salvy’s “3 Floors of Shopping Excitement.” 8th Street Ghost Town More photos of the sto

"The bloom is off the Apple," says residential SoHo. (Remember, people actually live in that mall?) Furthermore, "no bar, nightclub, or construction site comes close to continually ruining our quality of life like Apple SoHo has." You go SoHo! [ AMNY ] Sounds like a good time to revisit the Urban Etiquette Signs flickr pool : Check out the AdBusters blog . Here's an interesting article on gentrification from Next American City : "Many gentrifiers are in college or graduate school, and the income that these newcomers report to the IRS often approaches zero ." Get inside the mind trying to keep Applebee's from going kaput . It's a place filled with "phrases like 'drink equity' and 'healthy indulgence rebranding.' Everyone is on the hunt for the next 'craveable.'" [ Times ]

Nostalgia for old-school hipsters in Williamsburg and hatred for those who go "woo" in the night. [ Bad Joke ] via [ Curbed ] One of our first drag kings, 87-year-old Storme DeLarverie , will be honored at the Chelsea Hotel August 21. [ LWL ] I guess the East Village just isn't authentically trashy enough for television--HBO's got to dump their fake garbage here. [ NMNL ] In downtown's BMW dealership , Mr. and Mrs. Stepford are shopping in their licensed apparel: Essex below Grand , largely untouched by Vongerichtification, is getting a wine bar. But is it kosher? [ BBoogie ] Another peek inside old Kurowycky Meats . [ HunterG ]

The sudden, if not entirely unexpected, closing of Nikos magazine shop on 6th Ave and 11th St was a devastating blow to periodical lovers all over town. Just 11 days later, Nikos has been renamed Nicky's. Any relation? The recessed entrance is gone, the door blown out to expand the space, and the windows have been cleared of all those curling journal covers faded in the sun, so you can actually see inside. A large refrigerator filled with Vitamin Waters and Cokes. The shelves full of People, Vogue, Newsweek , and the like. I could be wrong, but somehow I doubt we'll ever see Daedalus, Dislocate , Lacanian Ink, or the New York Quarterly in this new place.

Finding her beloved theater turned into a Sephora , Leslie Nipkow writes, "I want to sit in a theater seat and lose myself in somebody else’s imagination for a few hours. I want to be reminded that my world does not stop at the front of my face." [ Times ] The Stuyvesant Polyclinic is to be a "think-tank sort of thing" and not a private mansion , as previously marketed. I guess Lenny Kravitz wasn't interested after all. [ Times ] via [ EVG ] On Grand St., a developer's condo plans go up in smoke for a homeless shelter . He claims the locals were "jealous." [ NYP ] A look at one of the Bowery's last flophouses --and Sam Chang's (so far thwarted) efforts to turn it luxury. [ Metro ] “This might be the beginning of the end of the American empire .” [ Times ] The Cooper Union "hive" gets glass between the metal sheets: New blog in town : Check out "No New York." See Richard Sandler's films at the 6B Garden August 22-

Recently I reported a rumor on the street that the old Kurowycky butcher shop on First Ave in the East Village would become a video store--possibly a XXX video store. It's not XXX, but the rumor has been confirmed: Kim's is coming east again , four years after closing their "mean" location on Avenue A, where the original Kim's was born in 1987 . From a source close to the source, we hear that after the Community Board roadblocked Penmanship , the upscale eatery that may have preserved some of the vintage butcher shop elements, the building and former butcher shop's owner decided not to further pursue the restaurant route. Already, Kurowycky is being gutted. The sign recently came down--the letters were too brittle to save, crumbling in the demolition men's hands--revealing an older sign, spelled out in the ghosts of lost tiles: STASIUK BROS, the meat market bought out by Jaroslaw Kurowycky in 1974, long before these days when, as the shop's head butc

After last week’s egg cream controversy stirred up by the City Room’s article “Can the Egg Cream Make a Comeback?” in which the proprietor of Chocolate Bar offered to reinvigorate the lost egg cream for New York City by fancying it up with flavors like hazelnut and espresso, many people replied that the egg cream never died, so it isn't lost and doesn’t need any reinvigorating. An egg cream fan, I decided to embark on a tour of the Lower East Side to check in on the true state of this New York delicacy . A map of the following can be found on Eater. katz's I talked with Fred Austin, co-owner of Katz’s , who assured me, “The state of the egg cream is good. But it has to be served by a middle-aged Jewish guy with an unlit cigar clenched between his teeth and a wet napkin draped over his arm. Otherwise, it’s not a real egg cream.” Traditionally, because they didn’t serve dairy, Katz’s didn’t do egg creams until about 15 years ago. Fred, who grew up on Grand, used to get the

Addendum to today's earlier post : Disabled people will also get the boot in the new, Avalonized LES. [ Gothamist ] ...but that was unofficially announced last month. "It's like watching drunken sheep follow one another off the Cliffs of Moher." How the next Great Depression may already be upon us. [ Minyanville ] On Bleecker, in the window of Juicy Couture, a hypnosis reinforcement message for this street of sleepy sheep: The International Bar does its part to keep poetry alive in the EV--this week's reading featured avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas. [ Farfalla ] New York's "cuddliest anarchist" and anarcho-punk band Leftover Crack want us to protest police brutality, Sept 5 . [ NMNL ] More fun photos from New York's recent ancient history. [ FP ] Will the diners in Vento's new basement lounge be aware of what went on there not so long ago? [ Grub St ]

Lower East Siders are not going gently into the dark night of the planned rezoning. Yesterday, about 100 protesters let Bloomberg know where they stand. Members of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side were there, making themselves heard . The Coalition has been covering the city with arresting flyers featuring an Eric Drooker -style drawing of people being kicked out of their homes by a giant, evil developer. They also put together an excellent website . Their DCP Plan page is packed with info, including lots of colorful maps and graphs showing how the white and affluent stand to benefit from the rezoning while everyone else is, well, given the boot. It also includes a jaw-dropping rendering of a proposed development called Site 167, a ginormous Avalon-type condo box on Avenue D and 2nd Street. Here's the same corner some months ago, as shot by Google Maps: EV Grieve checked in on this corner back in July and found it ready for demolition. Below is the c

The latest stuff from my Curbed stint: Saga of a Condo Ledge Former Charlie's spot replaced by animal hospital

“... the Bowery is going to be the next meatpacking district ," with more wine bars than you ever imagined. Just in case you had any doubts. [ Grub St ] The dear old Cheyenne goes upscale. Maybe even...shudder...organic. [ Eater ] How to take baseball from the proletariat and hand it over to the bourgeoisie-- double the ticket prices. Also, serve "Sterling" food , because everyone knows Proles don't eat "frites." [ EVG ] Meanwhile, "a new breed of Mets fans" (guys from Connecticut) are working hard to run the working men and women out of Willets Point . [ Times ] The Cemusas keep coming . The old newsstand at Sheridan Square just got robotified. Now's the time run out and take snapshots of your favorite old newsstands. [ GVDP ] ...Like this jewel at 14th and 8th: Villagers, including Amy Sedaris, slam Vongerichtified Beatrice Inn for being too noisy, crowded, and obnoxious . [ Eater ] Brooklynites call 911 to stop club noise . [ Gothamist

As EV Grieve reported , a new TV show called Life on Mars is filming in the East Village. Originally from the BBC, it's about a detective who goes back in time to 1970s New York. I might have to watch this. Earlier this week, film crews turned back the clock to 1973 and filled 7th Street with hippies, rollerskaters, bikers, bongo players, and vintage cars. I took some pics and thought it would be too, too precious to publish them in black and white. You can see a few more here . Later, BoweryBoogie spotted them on Orchard. They better film fast--Orchard is vanishing every day. Life on Mars isn't the only production trying to capture the former New York. There have also been notices up about the John Hurt film An Englishman in New York , the second installment in the story of Quentin Crisp. The production company is seeking exteriors that bring to mind the 70s and early 80s. Too bad Quentin's beloved Cooper Square Diner has since morphed into "bizarre Thai restaurant