Vanishing New York Backup

A question ... ...and an answer ? That lovely wilderness in Gowanus will soon be another Whole Foods . There goes the neighborhood. [ BSr ] Brawl at Arthur's Tavern. [ Eater ] On the Death of Coney Island : "we should've seen it coming." [ LM ] Test-tasting the mozzarell' of Grand Street. [ LC ] Memories of performing arts high school. [ ITHNY ] Ridgewood Theater to become a supermarket. [ Curbed ] 14th and A still not looking good after fire. [ EVG ]

As is often reported, the New York City accent is vanishing. Some people are even paying good money to unlearn it , much like Radio Days ' Sally and her diction lessons . Bronx-born filmmaker Heather Quinlan is working on a documentary all about it. If These Knishes Could Talk is both, as Heather says, "an homage to my father and grandparents, who had wonderful accents I don’t hear anymore, and also to celebrate that which makes New York so unique." Heather and I chatted over email. I asked some questions, she answered. Pete Hamill, author : "Hold ya horses." People in your film talk about a "Manhattan accent," yet we rarely hear about that. Usually it's the Brooklyn, Queens, or Bronx accent that gets the attention. What is the Manhattan accent? There is no borough-specific accent. Italians in Brooklyn will tend to sound like Italians in the Bronx or Italians in Staten Island. (With the exception of some slang here and there, but then you get in...

Eagle-eye photographer Brian Rose discovers the origin of the mysterious Houston Wall . Going way back beyond its long history as a street artist's canvas , the wall was once part of a handball court--as seen in On the Bowery . [ Brian Rose ] This 1981 doc on the Chelsea Hotel will break your heart. [ Stupe ] The owner of the new Polonia: "my staff and myself are hoping that the old customers which really enjoy to nag and complain will find somewhere more suitable to their liking. Besides, we are starting to attract a younger, career-oriented crowd." [ EVG ] Celebrate the history of the Bowery , Tues night at Dixon Place. [ TIX ] Longtime tenant battles her new landlord--the Italian-American Museum. [ TLD ] Checking in with the Rag & Bone mural . [ BB ] Swimming out to Rat Island and the Pelham Pesthouse. [ ENY ] Check out Lisanne's art show in Gowanus. [ FIB ] "Academics have a word for what the [East Village] has become: a nightscape . Bars and restau...

Don't ask me why, but lately I've had the 1950 Pincus Sisters rendition of the Moskowitz and Lupowitz radio jingle in my head. This is odd, considering I wasn't alive in 1950, I don't speak Yiddish, and I never visited the Romanian-Jewish restaurant that stood on the corner of 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue until 1966. source unknown The restaurant ( where “the finest Jews come to eat” ) was founded in 1909 by Romanian immigrants ( Joseph Moskowitz was a child prodigy on the cymbalom and went on to a somewhat illustrious music career). It was known as a sophisticated hotspot--the tables were covered in linen, the waiters wore black ties--and thus became a favorite of Yiddish actors and many celebrities of the time, like Milton Berle, Eddie Cantor, and Sid Caesar . Artie Shaw with M&L's Anzelowitz, Live & Be Well Its listing in the 1939 Federal Writer's Project guide to the city, under Jewish food, notes that lunch could be had for 55 cents and dinner from 85...

What's the ugliest building in the EV? [ EVG ] Guss' Pickles on LES now an upscale cigar shop. [ Racked ] What's the most hideous Thanksgiving window display in Brooklyn? [ NYS ] Get eccentric beauty and bath supplies at Ray's. [ LC ] Could the beautiful industrial holdout Kleen-Stik building be getting ready for Ludlow hipster living? [ Curbed ] A poetry publisher is born in Brooklyn. [ LM ] Behind Ray's grade B. [ Scoopy ] RCN and Chico have words about the recent blue-washing of the Obama mural and future plans for the wall. [ DNA ] Susan Stetzer on the old and new East Village : “It was a much stronger, much closer community then. Everyone knew everyone, and they weren’t necessarily people like you.” In a neighborhood known for its activism, she added, people used to meet one another at conferences for one cause or another, or while handing out petitions on tenants’ rights. “Nowadays, if someone’s giving out something,” she said, “it’s for a sale.” [ NYT...

In November, the gingko trees on East Eleventh Street are even more thrilling in the dark than in the day. Lit by lamplight, they glow while music plays from the windows of the music school. Usually violins or piano. I remember walking down this street years ago, when the streetwalkers used to stroll and ask for a light or the time, then ask for a date. I lit their cigarettes and looked at my watch. I never went with them. Walking under these trees today makes me think about those girls and wonder where they are now. There's something arresting about these golden gingkos. They make you stop, look up, and be still.

Major Polonia overhaul planned by new owner--at least he's in the family. [ Eater ] Check out vanished music venues of the city. [ WNYC ] "A New Yorker is someone who longs for New York, and looks askance at the Americans flooding in these days , that unstoppable wave." [ LOM ] Keith Haring designs on baby bibs at Duane Reade. Enough said. [ BB ] Coney businesses considering crappy compromise. [ Gothamist ] Realize your dream to open a bookstore-cafe on the LES. [ EVG ] Don't bother seeing Bright Lights, Big City . [ FP ]

In a blog interview, me and Grieve chat about breakfast, books, bars and other things. [ ILNY ] Arm-wrestling in a Queens basement. [ CR ] Looking back at black-and-white New York in Blast of Silence . [ Restless ] A sad goodbye to Paul's Daughter of Coney. [ ATZ ] Walking upper Amsterdam . [ FNY ] The future of two historic buildings on E. 4th. [ EVG ] How to speak in 1938 New York . [ SC ] Speaking of speaking, check out the Bowery slang . [ BB ] Grace Church and the birth of the bread line. [ EVT ] The death of the corner bar --in the 1920s. [ ENY ]

When we learned that a popular restaurateur would be taking over the Fedora , we heard about his intentions to " keep most of the cherished design details " in place, along with the accessible atmosphere. Of course, we've been watching closely and eagerly to see what transpires. The Feast The Feast recently aired an interview with the new owner , complete with a tour of Fedora's gutted interior. In it, he explains some of his plans. The floor is going from red tar to marble stone. The original bar from the restaurant's speakeasy day is being refurbished and replicas of its details are being created to extend the bar to twice its length--and from 6 bar stools to 16 . All those bar stools will have black leather seats. A "black diamond-tufted leather banquette" will wrap around and extend down the length of the opposite wall. And the chairs will also be black leather. All in all, there will be quite a bit of black leather. The only black leather I recall f...

Vintage sleaze from 1950s Christopher Street. [ VS ] In a follow-up to my story about the vanished Chico mural , DNA talks to an RCN spokesperson who says, "The bottom line is the building had illegal graffiti on it and we cleaned it up — period." [ DNA ] ...and Grieve finds an RCN tweet about "regular maintenance." [ EVG ] Dan Clowes teams with Alexander Payne to bring his misanthopic Wilson to the big screen. [ Deadline ] Sad, single-girl bedbug story : "bedbugs aren’t really that big a deal. But they are, I maintain, one of the lonelier afflictions out there." [ NYT ] Visiting Esposito's pork store in Carroll Gardens. [ NYT ]

When I walk up Second Avenue in the East Village, through the frat-bar gauntlet, I get an overwhelming feeling of deja vu. It's not the pig. It's not the memory of vanished Dick's Bar . It's something else...I can't quite put my finger on it... Can anybody help me figure out why something here seems so strangely familiar?

Coffee porn fetish jumps the shark as Brooklyn shop calls beverage "coffee porn in a cup." [ NYO ] Patti Smith scores a National Book Award for Just Kids . Recalling her days at Scribner's , she says, “Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.” [ NYT ] Here's a better prize giveaway than cupcakes-- bedbug eradication services. Apply now! [ RS ] Meanwhile, sour chocolate milk runs wild in the East Village. [ EVG ] Looking back at Wanamaker's great fire. [ EVT ] Cool blog for vintage Times Square cinephiles. [ TOS ] Remembering the Palladium Ballroom . [ 92Y ] Shots from Sophie Crumb 's gallery opening. [ SG ] The gorgeous City Hall loop is now legal--don't get off that train. [ NYO ] Looking back at the last days of Coney . [ GAF ] Fran Lebowitz on keeping kids in strollers until they're past puberty: "Babies"

The Williamsburg mom who told the Times she wanted more and more chain stores, setting off firestorms of blogospheric rage, called up a Williamsburg boutique to say she was misquoted and just "kidding about Dunkin' Donuts and Food Emporium, etc." [ CB ] A new mural for Houston St. [ BB ] What will the Bowery look like in 2033? [ EVG ] As old theaters become chain stores, a new indie theater is born from an old bodega. [ Gothamist ] Inside the last Greek synagogue . [ 13 ] Playing chess in the rain. [ NSC ] After a long wait , Doughnut Plant really moving in to the Chelsea. [ Eater ]

Rally today to save the Greek Revival houses of E. 4th St. [ GVSHP ] Check out a Tenement Talk tonight on the Bowery's past, present, and future. [ TLD ] A slice of the old city still found on West 30th. [ FNY ] " American history vanishing before my eyes." The closing of Paul's Daughter at Coney: photo by Single Linds Reflex You could live above Trash & Vaudeville . [ EVG ] Walking the New Yorker Art Walk . [ Blah ] Looking up at some bridges between buildings. [ Restless ] Tomorrow night: Shteyngart talks about LES Lit at the Educational Alliance . [ TLD ]

Thanks to reader Grand Street for calling our attention to the New York Times ' recent slide show of city movie palaces--after they've become chain stores . For the second time in a week, the paper manages to find someone who loves chains so much they want more and more. The first time was a newcomer to Williamsburg, a woman who loves Duane Reade and begs the universe, “Please, can you bring in Dunkin’ Donuts too. I also want a Bank of America.” Chopin Theater In the movie palace slide show, the Times gets a quote from a 24-year-old woman in Greenpoint who said "she was glad the Chopin Theater had become a Starbucks . 'I’m terrified of movie theaters these days because people are getting bedbugs in them,' she said. 'I also like pumpkin spice lattes.'" Let's take a look back at what she's glad has vanished. The good folks at Cinema Treasures give the history of the Chopin Theater. Formerly the American Theater, hence the eagle, it opened in 1...

Rally tomorrow to save EV townhouses from the wrecking ball. [ UNY ] Help convince Landmarks to save the last Federal rowhouse on the Bowery--and a man's home. [ CFR ] Tonight: Join photographer Marlis Momber to discuss the changing Loisaida. [ EVG ] A new Walker in the City recalls Old Helen the Greek and the Penny Man. [ WIC ] Meet Jim Jarmusch at Anthology. [ AFA ] Would you reveal your bedbug history to a new landlord? [ Gothamist ] “Everyone’s getting sucked into the whole bedbug pandemonium ,” Mrs. Silver said. [ NYT ] "...the typical artist will still be unable to afford to move in. But the sudden re-awakening of the artist-in-residency requirement is making it hard for SoHo to keep up its real estate vibe." [ NYT ]

This past spring, when the graffiti mural on the Lora Deli at 5th and D was painted over , we worried about the nearly block-long Chico mural on the wall owned by RCN Cable along Avenue C at 6th. Last week, it was covered completely in blue paint. today At the time of the Lora Deli's white-washing, I took some photos of the Chico mural, figuring one day, probably soon, it would vanish. I didn't think it would last six months. It was a large piece, starting with a pair of Puerto Rican and American flags, followed by an exuberant F-Train with a giddy graffiti artist cheering from the open window. all mural photos from April 2010 Next came a GOODBYE to George W. Bush (or is that John McCain?), a giant white-haired beast with a comb-over, shown bursting from the globe, paired with a spewing oil well. A big red X cements the sentiment: Good riddance. At the corner came a triumphant Obama, smiling before the backdrop of a bright American flag. That was another time, when the blush of...

Often I have asked the universe, " Who are the monsters who actually want the city to turn into a big mall? The ones who beg for more chain stores? Do they even exist?" Well, yes, they do--and the New York Times talks to one who says, "Please, can you bring in Dunkin’ Donuts...I also want a Bank of America.” Curbed's commenters (mostly) rip her a new one. [via Curbed ] Paul McDonough's photos of 1970s NYC . [ Lens ] Save this EV willow tree from condo people! [ EVG ] Save the Bowery with Poor Baby Bree. Get tickets here . The bedbuggers weigh in on so-called BB repellent. [ BBF ] Today, artists recreate bohemian apartments . [ Eater ] You have to be cool to eat at Sam's . [ Eater ]

At this year's Mix Festival, Quentin Crisp's East Village apartment has been recreated, brought back to life by Crisp's great-nephew Adrian Goycoolea and Crisperanto curator Phillip Ward. The installation, entitled "Personal Effects," is open until November 14 . I talked with Mr. Goycoolea via email and asked him a few questions. all photos courtesy of Adrian Goycoolea Q: I remember seeing Crisp walking the streets of the East Village, sitting in the window of the Cooper Square Diner, and the sight of him made me feel that I was in the presence, however fleeting, of the extraordinary, not the mundane. What was it like to have this extraordinary person as your great-uncle? A: Quentin was indeed an extraordinary person and his figure always loomed large in our family narrative. Personally, he was the closest thing I had to a grandfather as all of my actual grandparents had died before I was born or when I was very young. I first met him when I was six or sev...

" Marc Jacobs is the Michael Bloomberg of the West Village and also its Sam Walton." [ NYT ] How obnoxious are New York food fetishists ? Very. [ NYT ] Growing up in Brooklyn today--with Rick Moody . [ NYT ] The Ageloff Towers burning. [ EVG ] Looking back at the original Swing Street . [ 13 ]

As the Scribbler seems to have stopped adding commentary to the 10th Street wall, having filled every available white space, a new Scribbler offers similar communication in spots across the East Village. The New Scribbler worries about the treatment of the mentally ill, Obama, the economy, just like the Original Scribbler. But this graffitist is also worried about new strains of the influenza virus, the possibility that diabetes is being used as a form of genocide, and torture at the hands of the CIA. Brainwashing and witchcraft, stem cell cures, Obama's relationship to Big Pharma--it's all unholy and undead. Stripping and pornography, NAMBLA, and "2 trillion to bail out Jews" during World War II--"what in return? What about us?" It's the voice of the American far right, gone mad, scribbling its way in small letters across the city.

A lawyer for the embattled businesses of Coney says: No way they're leaving . [ Grub ] For fans of the old Fedora , see what the inside looks like today. [ Eater ] from ricksterbot's flickr On Public Speaking , Fran Lebowitz speaks : "They are making this city for tourists . Let me assure you that Bloomberg would be just as happy if all of the citizens of the city just left and sent him our tax money." [ BB ] A list of 25 books from 2010 set in and about NYC. [ WOBA ] Landmarks says no thanks to new Meatpacking tower . [ Curbed ] Looking way back at the spirit of E. 5th St . [ EVG ] Bobo wins Village Paper space--and a long-quiet corner will now be something else. [ Eater ] Bulldozing the Bank of Coney Island. [ ATZ ] Taking a look at Red Square , the building that helped launch hypergentrification in the EV. [ FNY ] Can we save the city from this t-shirt and all it signifies? Gothamist

As the " Shacking of America " continues, Shake Shack is "gentrifying the only good pizza in town," according to a Fulton Mall pizza man who just got the boot . Developers and the City have been dying to gentrify the Fulton Mall , and now it's happening with the simple addition of a single, powerful burger chain. Curbed The whole thing reminds me of the intentional introduction of alien species . In this practice, humans introduce a foreign species into an existing ecosystem where they hope to gain something from the introduction. Economic gain is the number one reason for doing so. Often, the alien species becomes an invasive species and takes over. Kudzu is one example. The mongoose in Hawaii is another. Originally used as biological control agents, invasive species breed prolifically and spread, destroying major elements of native flora and fauna. I'm not sure what it's called when this is done with businesses in cities, but it seems a lo...

Check out the new EVTransitions --a blog after my own heart. [via EVG ] Visit the Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge and its lovely dancers--it recently shuttered after 100 years. [ EVG ] On the Bowery returns to Film Forum--don't miss it: 11/19 - 25. [ FF ] See BAN's Bowery exhibit on the same day for an all-Bowery afternoon. [ GSN ] Remembering when the Deuce was still dirty. [ TASOL ] A way-too-large percentage of Gothamist readers prefer today's Olive Gardeny version of Times Square to the classic. I don't get it. [ Gothamist ] Quentin Crisp 's East Village apartment gets recreated--at MIX .

Thanks to reader Andy Reynolds for sending in this music video from 1984: "In the Evening" by Sheryl Lee Ralph. It begins in a graffiti- and trash-strewn Astor Place subway station, where a bag lady dressed in pink chiffon and cat-eye glasses is defending a precious box of red shoes from a pair of thugs who wake her from her cardboard bed. After fighting them off, she emerges to Astor Place, passes the old newsstand recently replaced , and heads down St. Mark's. Outside the vanished Dojo, she digs through the trash and finds an image of her other, more glamorous self--the woman she becomes "in the evening." I ate many meals from Dojo's, but commenter Flower Power at NYPL recalls in the 1960s when it was " an ice cream store that sold treats with drug names like Panama Red or Acapulco Gold ice cream. Kids showed up with dreams in their eyes and safely slept on the sidewalk lined up like sardines." From Dojo, the bag lady hustles past the former ...