Vanishing New York Backup

I love this Best Housekeeping sign on Avenue A. Selling appliances since 1924. But how long can it really last? ...before some genius entrepreneur turns it into an appliance-themed bar. "Brooklyn has become as much a brand these days as a location. Slap the word 'Brooklyn' on a piece of clothing and it’s instantly edgy, and quite likely to sell." [ Inc ] The Amato Opera House has lost its commemorative plaque honoring the decades of work from Tony and Sally Amato. They just can't have that on the bar/lounge to come. Is nothing sacred? [ EVG ] Richard Price on the LES : " there were lines going around the block to buy heroin in an apartment that today probably sells for about $2 million ." [ BB ] Frank Gehry's IAC Building looks like " a plastic iceberg , proud to be likely the last iceberg on earth." [ Restless ]

Boy, an apartment in Stuyvesant Town sure was big back in the day. And ruffly. This vintage ad comes from Samuel Zipp , author of Manhattan Projects : Check out the queer HOT Festival at Dixon Place. A call to rally around Stonewall veteran Storme Delarverie . [ LWL ] City's oldest Papaya King is closed for a re-do. [ Grub ] Roy of Mars Bar has passed away. [ EVG ] Hoteliers work fast on the LES. In May 2009, fire destroyed two tenements. Today, plans for a hotel on the site have emerged. [ BB ] Lafayette and E. 4th-- in 1912 and today. [ FP ] A list of places where people, for reasons I will never understand , like to stand in line . [ Eater ]

Back in October, I wrote about how the portrait of Joe Gould has gone missing from the Minetta Tavern, ever since Keith McNally took over the place. I noted how a commenter to Greenwich Village Daily Photo discovered that the painting is now "collecting dust in the owner's 'private collection.'" my flickr That commenter, video-game designer Dave Gilbert , recently wrote me an email about how the Minetta, Gould, and Joseph Mitchell have become players in a series of video games that he created. I asked Dave a few questions. digital Gould What roles do Gould and Mitchell play in your videogame? They play roles in two of my games. There are three games in the Blackwell series --Blackwell Legacy, Blackwell Unbound, and Blackwell Convergence. Mitchell plays a part in the second game (Unbound), which takes place in the early 70s. The main characters are investigating two unusual deaths, and it turns out the victims are people Mitchell had written about. You can go...

More on the art of heroin . [ Stupefaction ] Thanks for Jack Szwergold for scanning these flea market photos of NYC from the 1960s and 1980s. More and more theme-park bars for the East Village. [ EVG ] Woody Allen doesn't think Manhattan is one of his best? [ P&W ] Who knew anyone cared about the V Train ? [ BB ] A history of and requiem for St. Vincent's . [ youtube ] Running into punk stalwarts at the K-Mart . [ FP ] Seen at the Brooklyn Flea, Brooklyn's ghostly scaffold signs on t-shirts by Live Poultry :

The plywooded corner of 10th St. and 4th Ave. continues to become more interesting since the plans to build a boutique hotel here evaporated. Some time ago, someone wrote a series of messages that are anti-Bloomberg ... ... anti-Marxist (and not anti-Muslim)... ...and anti-psychiatry . The messages seem to be spreading. Other people have responded in their own notes. Some simply call the writer an "Asshole," others offer their own opinions. It's the old-school analog form of the blog-style comment thread . There are even grammar and spelling police--my favorite kind. One corrects the spelling of Frances Farmer's name and the myth that she was lobotomized, a fantasy perpetuated by the 1982 movie Frances , starring Jessica Lange. Most recently, into the monochromatic montage walked this interloper, a wheat-pasted nude with black ski mask and erection spouting floral ejaculate.

After the departure of Treasures & Trifles , western Bleecker loses another antiques shop . Leo Design's sign--printed in the same font, on the same paper, as T&T's--says goodbye and "We're being turned out." They will, however, be relocating: Levinstein photos at the Met : "Though it’s hard to imagine now, there was a point when New York was truly the creative engine of the international art scene... That all began to change about a generation ago, as gentrification smothered the city in upscale conformity." [ TONY ] The Tenement Museum puts its photo archives online. [ TM ] Manhattanville set to be bulldozed by Columbia . Take a look back in photos. [ Curbed ] All over Manhattan, junkies are lining up for their drug of choice. [ Gothamist ] The art of heroin , the "ultimate ephemera." [ Stupefaction ] Farewell to a tugboat bard . [ CR ] There are lots and lots of bars on Ave. A. [ EVG ]

Florent documentary premieres. [ Gothamist ] Hotel Pennsylvania is back on the chopping block for demolition. Visit soon and say hello to bellhop Barrington Lovers who doesn't like wheeled suitcases. [ LM ] CB3 denies Frank's 165-seat restaurant for Ave A. [ EVG ] A former stripper and quinquagenarian horns in on the Naked Cowboy 's territory. [ HP ] Scenes from Punk Island . [ FIB ] Some lovely old store signs . [ ENY ]

VANISHED Planet One Cafe is gone . On 7th Street for decades, the little vegetarian restaurant has been shuttered. Inside, the window is stacked with cardboard boxes marked FRAMUS--inventory from the new guitar shop next door. I guess custom-made guitars are expanding and vegetarian food is not. I don't know much about Planet One, except that it seems to have been there forever and have a very neighborly vibe. And now, without a goodbye sign, they are just gone. Does anyone know what happened here? Here's what Vegetarian New York City had to say about Planet One:

Urban Outfitters is creating a fake, "old New York" Upper West Side . Writes one blogger, "Coming next--a theme park where you can meet actual 'mom and pop' actors portraying independent store owners. Bring your kids! Watch actual small business owners cry as their dreams are dashed by sky-high rents!" [ WSI ] Raised on the Upper West Side in the 70s , a blogger defends her childhood home from "bad old days" attacks from Commentary and City Journal . [ CGW ] A letter of opposition to crowded outdoor cafe on Ave A. [ EVG ] "Forget the clopping of hoofs, it was the clipping of hair that beckoned Saturday at Belmont Park." Anyone up for a haircut at the race track ? [ via Fat Al ] The condos coming to replace Frank O'Hara's last home have been revealed. [ Curbed ] Are we about to lose the signage of Katz and Sons ? [ BB ]

When Gino closed , many of us wondered what would become of their signature zebra wallpaper. Sprinkles , the Beverly Hills cupcake chain that is moving in to the location, wanted to keep it on the walls, but as Obit reported, Gino co-owner Michael Miele said, "We take our zebra with us." And they have. JVNY reader Karen McBurnie sends in a gut-wrenching photo of a gutted, de-zebra'd Gino : Karen & Jon's flickr Without the old wooden bar, without the tables filled with patrons, without the zebras leaping across their tomato-red walls, the place has no character. It amazes me how all that feeling can simply vanish, leaving a shell that looks just like any other vacant storefront, a dull rectangular box, soon to be churning out cupcakes.

What happened to the Empire Diner's Empire State Building ?! It used to stand at the corner like a glittering hood ornament . I hope those Coffee Shop people are just polishing it up to be put back: "In the late 1970s, the historian Christopher Lasch famously described America as a culture of narcissism. Today we might well be called a nation of dysregulation . The signs that something is amiss in our inner mechanisms of control and restraint are everywhere." [ NYT ] Walking the Seaport . [ FNY ] If there are mermaids , then it must be summer. [ Blah ] Who's designing NYU's big tower ? Grimshaw, the creators of the Cemusa news boxes. It's all a matched set . [ WSJ ] Looking at the watery ruins of the Hudson. [ SNY ] Fairey mural just can't win. [ EVG ] Tomorrow night, author David Freeland speaks at the Skyscraper Museum . In the Bronx: "Today’s bland urban landscape of concrete towers and big box stores rests atop what was once Freedomland , whi...

Ever since I first discovered its existence some years back, while researching the city's past, I've had a mild obsession with Sig Klein's Fat Men's Shop . From the late 1800s until who-knows-when, it stood at 52 3rd Avenue, near the corner of 10th Street. For close to a century, it served the needs of fat men all over. Let's take a look back at Klein's timeline... from under the 3rd Avenue El Klein's was the subject of a New Yorker "Talk of the Town" piece in 1931, a year before Mr. Klein died in 1932. Ben Shahn photographed the shop around 1935. The painter Paul Feeley painted it in 1936. Klein's can also be seen in the background of Berenice Abbott's 1937 photo of the Stuyvesant Curiosity Shop . Ben Shahn Kiplinger's Personal Finance wrote in 1949, "The store is well-known in New York for its huge weather-beaten sign featuring an enormous fat man wearing a form-fitting union suit," above the famous slogan...

Italians in Williamsburg maintain their traditions while coping with hipsters and yuppies who drop their pants during church processionals. "They don’t respect us, all these young kids--artistes, whatever you call them." Warning : This article will make you angry. [ NYT ] Take a look inside an old theater on Ave B . [ EVG ] Dispatch from the Noise Wars of the 1980s: "Hey, look man, New York is party city, that's why we moved here ...if you don't like it, you can move to the country, old man." Sound familiar? [ FP ] In the Village, an urban etiquette sign shows the new nervousness of bar and restaurant owners-- please be quiet so the neighbors don't stop us from having our liquor license renewed: TGI Friday's really is coming to further humiliate Union Square. [ Eater ] Bloomberg backs down "somewhat" from banishing art vendors in the parks. [ NYT ] Taxi Driver is playing at the Sunshine. [ BB ] Looking back and forward at Lafayette...

Also on the hunt for Hopper's diner --check out the conclusions from Nighthawks Forever. [ ShadeOne ] Newest NIMBY war : Wine bar vs. Street fair. [ Eater ] Tie up your dog , watch your ass. [ EVG ] Remembering the General Slocum . [ GL ] Bobby Steele at Niagara. [ SG ] "Fauxcade" all wrong for the non-Nighthawks triangle. [ Villager ] Beware: "the digital hive mind has no superego." [ CR ]

In 2004, Zito's Bakery closed after 80 years in business. At the time, along with rent increases and the rising price of coal, Mr. Zito cited the war on carbohydrates. Since then, the beloved bakery has remained empty and unrented. The facade has become a miserable canvas for junk graffiti and stickers. One of the tinted glass panels above the window has popped out, leaving behind a dark cavity. But this month a building permit has gone onto the door for a $160,000 renovation--for a " BUILD OUT OF A PIZZERIA ." So much for the war on carbohydrates. A quick search online reveals an article from Crain's , who reports that " Pizza Roma is taking over the former home of the famous Zito’s Bakery ... The new eatery, which has outposts in Rome and Barcelona, is expected to open its first Manhattan location within four months and hopes to follow up with more New York eateries in coming months." So, Zito's is getting a chain--at least it's Italian. Will Pi...

Allen Ginsberg's apartment is being gutted--and the neighbors wait for the move-in of a "long-past-teenage idiot amping-up to Baba O'Reilly." [ Blah ] Landmarks tries to save Bowery buildings. [ Curbed ] All these people moved to New York in 2008. [ Gothamist ] The debate over banks vs. crowded restaurants . [ EVG ] Pre-demolition at Coney landmarks . [ ATZ ] There is still nothing happening at Chumley's , though the plywood piles have been moved around:

The excellent blog Lost City has now been lost from the city. Brooks says goodbye. [ LC ] Historic ghost sign disappears from Houston St. [ EVG ] The new South Ferry gets a Jetsony space station. [ Restless ] The iguana from lost 61 5th Ave . gets a new home. [ CR ] Gay youth shelter vandalized in Queens. Rally tonight. [ HP ] The owner of Apotheke, the "speakeasy" on the wondrous Doyers St. , has been arrested for his cocktail-fancy fire shows . [ Eater ] Coney needs mermaids! [ ATZ ]

In his invaluable book Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville , David Freeland of Gotham Lost & Found takes us into Times Square's Grand Slam, "the Number 1 tourist store in Manhattan." Next to the hideous new American Eagle Outfitters (replacer of HoJo's and much history ), Grand Slam is three stories of New York souvenirs--snow globes, giant pencils, tons of Yankees stuff. It also happens to be the site of the former Horn & Hardart Automat , the big one, the flagship, the glorious Times Square Automat. Most of its glories, however, have been covered up. Most of them, but not all. Armed with camera, taking Freeland's words as a guide, I went inside to seek out the remnants of that lost landmark. all color photos from my flickr Of the smooth, brass-railed stairs, Freeland writes, “ If the stairway appears proud, stranded amid the miles of tourist ephemera, it has a right . A genuine Broadway survivor, it can remember the days when ham sandwiches were sold i...

It's time to really start worrying about Meatpacking holdout Hector's says Scoopy. [ Villager ] 20,000 Legs Under the Sea , a surrealist burlesque manifesto at Coney. [ Spectacularist ] Gay Pride parade rerouted to save rich NIMBY wickets. [ Gothamist ] The beautiful W. 4th newsstand is revived. [ BB ] Meet Moe Stein of Frank's Sport Shop. [ CR ] Grieve uncovers mystery behind the Blvd of Broken Dreams . [ EVG ] Revisit the speakeasy days on W. 54th. [ GLF ] Another obit for Gino . [ Obit ]

To round off the week of Edward Hopper , a trip to his studio on Washington Square North. It was here, when he wasn't on Cape Cod, that Hopper painted from 1939 until his death in 1965. all color photos: my flickr In her Hopper biography, Gail Levin reports how NYU tried to evict the Hoppers in 1947 , along with all the building tenants, raising the rents by 20% and refusing to renew any leases. Hopper told the press, "It's getting worse and worse. They're tearing studio buildings down and none are going up. We think it is inhuman and cruel to evict us from here. The University is supposed to be an educational institution, in sympathy with the arts. Is this the way to show it?" His wife accused NYU, with its real-estate hunger, of " Hitler-like aggression ." The Hoppers managed to stay on as holdouts, becoming the only remaining tenants in an otherwise empty and desolate building, though NYU continued to harass them. Berenice Abbott Bereni...

Days go by. I am finding it extremely difficult to let go of the notion that the Nighthawks diner was a real diner, and not a total composite built of grocery stores, hamburger joints, and bakeries all cobbled together in the painter's imagination. The poetry of that idea is lovely and all, but I want the damn thing to have existed, in real time and space. And, if possible, to still be standing. Thinking again about that line from the Vogue editor who reported that Nighthawks was "based partly on an all-night coffee stand Hopper saw on Greenwich Avenue ," I look back at the possible corners , second-guessing my rule-outs. Somewhere, there is the source, the brick-and-mortar genesis for the Nighthawks diner. A coffee stand on Greenwich Avenue. NYPL, 1933 Walking north on Greenwich, I decide there's no way it's the nascent White Castle burger joint at Mulry Square. That's too far-off. That pointy florist was a newsstand/candy store, not a coffee shop. Two Boo...

One Jackson Square , that marvel of luxury undulation and keeper of the Greenwich Village spirit , has a first floor tenant--across what looks like the entire first floor. And it's--wait for it, wait for it--a BANK! Two trendster restaurant/bars on the Bowery are now squabbling over who gets to call their joint "SRO" --another unfortunate appropriation of poverty-related language by caterers to the affluent. Hey, why not call it Flophouse? Or Soup Kitchen? Or Skid Row? Wouldn't that be hip? How about Scabies? Anyway, here's the scoop on the swank place coming to the former Sunshine flop annex. [ BB ] Enjoying the alleys of Downtown Brooklyn. [ FNY ] The New Yorker 's softball team gets trounced by The Nation . [ NYer ] Touring with David Freeland of Gotham Lost & Found . [ P&W ] A fire on Second Avenue. [ EVG ] St. Marks Bookshop points us to this essay by Sven Birkerts on reading in the digital age. [ SMB ]