Vanishing New York Backup

It's the time of year for end-of-year lists and roundups. In 2010, the losses seemed fewer in number, but there were some big ones in there. We lost more of our old newsstands and watched too much of Coney Island collapse or get pushed out ( Ruby's and Paul's Daughter and the Shore Hotel ...). I'm still in denial about Coney. Otherwise, at the top of my list of grievances, there's Skyline Books , a great bookshop gone and still mourned. The closure of Gino remains a major heartbreak, as is the demolition and reappropriation of Fedora . I'm not getting over those two. Carmine's at the Seaport was a third Italian joint to go. While the little bakery Les Desirs was not a place close to my own heart, it was of major importance to many senior citizens in Chelsea. The closure of St. Vincent's Hospital , of course, was a tremendous blow for many Villagers. The shuttering of Atomic Passion marked another death to vintage and thrift in the East Village, w

I've been reading David Rakoff's new book, Half Empty , and immensely enjoying what feels like a meeting of the minds. He champions the positive power of negative thinking, in general, and here and there, has something to say about New York City. In his essay "Isn't It Romantic," he goes after the musical Rent for being bad in many ways. This quote from the essay stood out and I reproduce it here because how often does someone sum it all up so neatly? "...New York was becoming far too expensive and criminally inhospitable to young people who tried to come here with dreams of making art, and how regrettable that the town's vibrancy and authenticity were being replaced by a culture-free, high-end-retail cluster-fuck of luxury condo buildings whose all-glass walls essentially require a populace that doesn't own bookshelves or, consequently, books. A metropolis of streets once thriving with local businesses and services now consisting of nothing but Ma

Something to do when you need something to do, and you find yourself in the lower reaches of the Upper East Side, or wanting to get away from wherever you are, is to have a meal at Donohue's Steakhouse and then drinks at the nearby Subway Inn . Grieve has written about Donohue's before, and he's got the history down, so I won't repeat it. Suffice to say, the decor--dark booths, red tablecloths, nautical paintings--are straight out of a certain childhood, back before the term "child-friendly" was invented. It's the sort of place your parents took you because they wanted to go for dinner someplace "nice," someplace grown-up. The sort of place where you had to behave yourself, and God help you if you didn't, because your mother would take you for a dreaded trip to the ladies' room where she'd straighten you out good. But now you're the grown-up and you can go to Donohue's on your own, order a cocktail and a big plate of food, l

New York is filled with beautiful lobbies. Most of the lobbies of the city are rooms you'll never enter. If you don't work in the building, if you never make a delivery there or visit for any other reason, the splendor of the lobby will go unseen. So it's good, now and then, to wander into a lobby. I did that recently in the News Building on 42nd Street. Long the home of the New York Daily News (no more--why do newspapers abandon their splendid monuments?), the building was completed in 1930. Its facade is carved with a bustling urban scene, the skyscraper above it all, like a god in the heavens-- exteriors like this often indicate a lobby worth seeing . Inside, under a black glass dome, a giant glowing globe seems to float in white light. Decked out for the holidays with faux snow-covered fir trees, it creates an unearthly view of Earth. On its axis, the globe slowly turns, clunking and ticking like a heavy clock. Along the glass steps of the lighted pit that holds it ar

Looking back at The Year of Bedbugs . I bet 2011 will top that. [ Racked ] From the bartender at Stoned Crow: " You know, I'm done with Manhattan. I'm convinced that in ten years, Manhattan will be a gated community. You'll have to show your ID or a card to get into places. Less than one month's notice! And no job! I moved to Astoria, to the last stop of the N line to get away from it. But it's happening there. It's starting to happen. They'll just keep pushing and pushing until we're all pushed out. I'm leaving after this. If the Mars Bar can close—and that's an institution! I'm done." [ Eater ] Gentrific EV vegetarian joint Counter to close. [ Gothamist ] What were the 10 Best NYC Events of the year? [ VV ] Give the gift of Mars Bar --while they last. [ EVG ] Two stories about the kooky things overburdened rich people do for Christmas. [ NYT ] and [ NYT ]

Reader Dimitrios Gazis writes in with a report from Nostalgia Bus #9098 : "If you had asked me prior to my ride, I would have probably responded with a big 'Meh.' I'm quite surprised at just how satisfying an experience riding that bus across town was. I hope I can catch another one this month." Here's Dimitrios' full review: 1. Much more comfortable. People with heavy coats could sit next to each other without squirming and squeezing. Since the 1960s, bus designers seem to assume Americans have shrunk, even though we've all packed on 40-50 pounds of beef. 2. The noise and the stench of diesel was comforting --you felt like you were on a bus, not a shuttle with ion drive and inertial dampeners flying to your nearest zero-sensory Moon spa (not that there's anything wrong with that... IN CALIFORNIA). 3. Other folks on the bus seemed to enjoy it, and the heavy, difficult, completely manual doors actually forced people to interact , as we young 'u

Kate's Paperie on 13th to close: Our pal Miss Heather just might be the most ripped-off blogger in town --this time, Fox News takes her wonky balcony scoop to the tube. [ NYS ] Cherry Lane Theater up for sale. [ Curbed ] Brooks is bringing out the dead of 2010. [ LC ] Poems are being removed from the subway, so people can be even stupider and more oblivious. [ CR ] Enjoy the pervy collectible figurines of 57th St. [ Restless ] EV rents up 46 - 57% since 2000. [ EVG ] Walking on Stanton Street. [ FNY ]

Now and then I like to go to the Saloon at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. It feels like a secret, even though it's far from it. There's an entrance off one of the station's passageways, but I prefer to cut through the Oyster Bar restaurant--to walk through the fish-smell and under the vaulted ceiling's century-old Guastavino tiles... ...past the case of beige and brown, old-timey desserts, all custardy and moussey on their plates, sweets too dull, too 20th-century to be found in trendier locales... ...past the white U-shaped rear counters, the one in back reserved for staff, who, in white uniforms, sit on white swivel stools eating their own meals during breaktime... ...and through the swinging saloon doors into a dark-wood tavern that looks like a place where advertising men used to knock back martinis before hopping on the 7:16 train back to Westport. Indeed, it is commuters, mostly, who fill the room today. They lend a strange suburban feeling to the atmosp

Where Gino used to be, now the plywood for Sprinkles cupcakes stands with the promise of "Coming Soon." Next door, the Diesel store tells the city to BE STUPID. Tonight at IFC: A screening of They Live with a discussion between Jonathan Lethem and John Hodgman. [ IFC ] Papa John's moves into the East Village, decides to change the name of the neighborhood. [ EVG ] Marty does Julius' Bar --long may it stand and never become faux-stalgia'd. [ 365 ] "Coney Cretins" threaten boardwalk holdouts with more threats. [ NYO ] BED BUGS on Park Slope Pavilion marquee. [ FIPS ] A reader sends in this nostalgic video collage of 1970s NYC set to Herbie Hancock. [ youtube ] ...And another of Allen Ginsberg . [ youtube ]

As I mentioned yesterday, the new Fedora has a new neon sign. The old sign, rusted and hand-painted is gone. The new sign is a replica, a reasonable facsimile thereof, minus the rust, the dings, and the obvious brushstrokes of a long-ago hand. Thomas Rinaldi , author of a forthcoming book on neon signs in New York City , spotted the new sign and offers us a comparison with the old. Old (on top) vs. new --click twice to enlarge What made the old Fedora sign important to you, as a neon historian? I've never been called a neon historian before, but if the shoe fits... There are a number of things that fascinate me about signs like the one that used to hang in front of Fedora. For one thing, they've become increasingly rare, especially as the city has changed so much in the last decade. For another, there's something almost miraculous that an object so fragile could survive so long in a relatively hostile environment, against the odds . Most of all, a good old sign usuall

The new Fedora has lost its old sign and gained a replica--without the dings and rust spots of history: Hickey's has closed --the dive bar near Penn Station was expected to shutter in 2008 . Now it has. [ EVG ] Greenwich Village bar The Stoned Crow is closing . Says Marty of his encounter with the owner of the photo-covered dive: " Betty looked sad... she told me the bar is closing due to steep rents from her greedy-ass landlord." [ 365 ] The Walker finds "real, honest-to-God local entertainment" on the shuttle train. [ WIC ] Riding the holiday Nostalgia Train . [ BB ] Some people oddly excited about new bank branch . [ NYO ] Take a walk from Coney to Midwood . [ FNY ] Go back in time on a Coney Motordrome bike. [ ATZ ] Along the fence at the 13th Street " mystery lot ," a new work of art--clothing and hangers arranged to spell MATERIALISTIC :

Back in 2008, when they were ready to tear down 61 Fifth Avenue, I wrote here about the building's history --originally as a Schrafft's, then the Lone Star Cafe, then a down-and-out gallery for street art . Photo by: Samuel H. Gottscho, from MCNY Now, the MCNY digital collection offers an array of amazing interior shots of 61 Fifth when it was a Schrafft's. And it was a beauty. You entered through a revolving door to a long cocktail bar on your left and a glass case of cookies and pastries on your right, heaped with floral arrangements, gift baskets, and boxes of chocolates. Photo by: Samuel H. Gottscho, from MCNY Ahead, the dining tables draped with white linens surrounded a grand staircase that swooped upward, framed with glistening art-moderne banisters, and burst through a semi-circular opening in the ceiling where second-story diners perched. Critic Lewis Mumford hated the place. In 1938 he scrutinized this Schrafft's "screwy" curved front,

Marty visits Max Fish and finds "it stills retains a vibe of the East Village of yesterday." [ 365 ] Fedora is now going to be "more of a bar." Hence the bar extension . [ HP ] For the East Villager in your life, the only gift guide you need this holiday season. [ EVG ] Restless wrestles with the bike-lane zealot future. [ Restless ] Enjoy Benno Friedman's photos of Times Square's once sleazy underbelly of 1979. [ VS ] 14th St. is losing its Passion: Looking back at the destruction of Beekman Street . [ TGL ] Literary stuff still happens on the increasingly dim-witted Bowery. [ CR ] Finding the long lost Translux theater on the UES. [ FP ]

Digging through the treasure-trove of the MCNY's new digital archives, I found a shot of Adler Shoes on 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in 1922. Wurts Bros, 1922, MCNY : Close up detail It's interesting mainly because they sold elevator shoes for short men. They also had great advertising slogans, like “Build up your ego, Amigo! Now you can be taller than she is!” from 14 to 42 Men who bought these shoes tended to be discreet about it, as this ad promises the Adler catalog will come delivered in "a plain wrapper," the way pornography was mailed. Adler elevators stayed in the closet, a private affair between a man and his heels, until the 1970s, when TIME announced, "Now, inspired by the fancy footwear of rock stars like the Temptations and the Rolling Stones, the Elevated Look has come out into the open." The elevator shoe was vanishing, but the store managed to stay on 42nd and 6th until the mid 1990s. As an aside, the full photo of the shop a

Demolished and unpreserved Day-O now totally plywooded and padlocked in utter secrecy: Remembering the old days of Max Fish : "It wasn’t what it is today: chicks with $5,000 bags thrown on the floor drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon." [ NYT ] Lower Second Avenue gets a new restaurant with an appropriate name: Heartbreak. [ EVG ] As bloggers sell Brooklyn for Ford cars, a borough becomes a major brand. [ NYT ] MCNY digitizes portion of photo archives --bloggers cream their jeans. [ MCNY ] Bed Bugs make Village Voice top 10 for 2010. [ RS ] The latest from the Scribbler Wall :

As 2010 approaches its end, I checked in with Marty Wombacher to see how his quest to visit 365 New York bars in 365 days was wrapping up. With the impending loss of both Mars Bar ( #85 ) and Max Fish (Marty, get there fast!), the timing seems right. I asked Marty some questions, he answered. Q: You started your quest last January, and 2010 is soon coming to a close. You've probably visited more bars in the city than any other human on earth. As an accidental anthropologist, what have you learned about the city's bar culture as it stands in 2010? A: The city seems divided in bar culture. When I was growing up a bar was just that, a bar. It was a place to go, knock back a few, socialize, and get to know other people and exchange ideas and points of views. There are still bars like that, but there's also bars that encourage kids and others to get schlocked out of their gourd in five minutes or less and are filled with gimmickry, gadgets, and bullshit. God knows I've ha

The LES has experienced a 20- to 50-point increase in median income since 2000 alone. [ NYT ] Marky Ramone is selling jars of pasta sauce. [ LM ] Of lost dive bars, who will remember the Golden Swan ? [ ENY ] Saturday night: Support P.S. 64/Charas community space. [ EVG ] Saying goodbye to the OTB . [ LC ] Inside Park Slope's Mega Glass & Sashes. [ HPS ] Who's in the Park Slope 100 ? [ OTBKB ] Coney's Shore Theater gets landmarked. [ KC ] Rye Playland on a winter's day. [ SNY ]

As the New York Aquarium gets a new look , let's look back at the old Aquarium. It was originally contained within Castle Clinton at Battery Park, where it opened in 1896 and was closed by Robert Moses in 1941. 1900 Described in 1900 as " the only place of amusement to that part of the city's population that lives below Canal Street ," the Aquarium was built around a big circle with the walls lined with over 100 tanks, and 6 large pools placed around the largest in the center. from Guide to the NY Aquarium , 1919 The rendering below shows aquatic mammals in the pools and the Guide to the New York Aquarium of 1919 confirms that dolphins, porpoises, and manatees were sometimes kept in these confining tanks, though it appears they did not last long there. Sea lions fared better and were kept regularly and for many years here. The Aquarium also had alligators and crocodiles, beavers, frogs, and the usual assortment of fishes. Corbis Proud of its acquisitiveness, like ma