Vanishing New York Backup

We lost the neat little art gallery of the Ansonia Pharmacy Windows and gained...another bank! Realtor for 94 St. Mark's Place suggests you buy the place, raise the rents, and boot the Under St. Marks theater which has been there since the 1970s. [ EVG ] Film footage of the Times Square subway station in 1986 --when people really weren't in much a hurry and rode the K Train. [ Animal ] Tomorrow: Reconsider Jane Jacobs . [ MAS ] Saturday: Check out a discussion with street photographers Jake Dobkin, Clayton Patterson, and Matt Weber with curator Nathan Kensinger at Union Docs . Life at Stuyvesant High School in the East Village of 1992. [ LOM ]

We learned yesterday that Lenny Waller has recently passed away. Lenny was a prominent member of New York's leather BDSM community, a grandaddy of the Daddies, an institution in his own right. Lenny began working in the city's S/M clubs in 1968 and was perhaps best known for his longtime management of the Hellfire Club in the old Meatpacking District. In addition, he also operated The Vault, The Manhole, Cell Block 28, and others (he gave a tour of Cell Block 28 to New York magazine in 1990). During the 1985 anti-sex club crackdown in the midst of the AIDS crisis, Lenny fought to keep places like the St. Marks Baths open. Wrote Jay Blotcher in the book Policing Public Sex , Lenny fought the sex club laws and was victorious when he convinced the city "to exempt anal penetration with a dildo from their laws because, aesthetic objections aside, the act does not transmit HIV." An advocate for the LGBT and HIV communities , for 25 years, he ran the AIDS Candleligh

Welcome to the first guest post by Julian Brash : Thanks to Jeremiah for allowing me to guest blog for a couple of weeks. In my first three posts, I thought I'd briefly summarize the analysis of the Bloomberg administration's approach to urban governance that I lay out at length in my book, Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City . What is this approach to urban governance, which I call "the Bloomberg Way," all about? Well, it's not really about Michael Bloomberg. Or rather, it's not just about Michael Bloomberg. Often when Bloomberg's mayoralty is discussed, the focus is on the man himself: his experience, his personality, his foibles and eccentricities. But the political emergence of Michael Bloomberg and his approach to urban governance are products of a broad transformation of New York City's social structure over the past several decades: as media, financial, and business services have come to dominate the city's econ

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be featuring posts by guest blogger Julian Brash . You might remember him from an interview here on The Bloomberg Way . Assistant professor of Anthropology at Montclair State University, Julian is the author of a new book entitled Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City . In the book, he describes in depth the Bloomberg Way: "a philosophy that holds up the mayor as CEO, government as a private corporation, desirable residents and businesses as customers and clients, and the city itself as a product to be branded and marketed as a luxury good." As a guest blogger, he'll be tackling topics like bike lanes, High line(s), waterfront development, urban sustainability, and other aspects of life in Bloomberg's city.

A shiny monument to Andy Warhol comes to Union Square. [ NYM ] Patti Smith Just Kids sequel in the works. [ NBC ] Little Italy Unity rally comes off subdued, without "much chanting, heckling, or violence" directed at anti-feast boutique owners. [ BB ] Still, Mulberry boutique owners fear retribution , says DNAInfo . Thanks to the reader who sent in this warning sign in the window of the boutique where the now infamous " greasy fingers " comment came from: Photos from the march to remember the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. [ JKM ] Atomic Passion's space reopens as a cat adoption center . [ EVG ] Update from the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors : "Kudos to Rosie Mendez's office for getting the owner of 35 Cooper to agree to a meeting with us to discuss possibly saving 35 Cooper Square ... However, the building's recently damaged rooftop is exposed to the elements. Write to the developer's rep, Jane Crotty (Jane@gacnyc.com), and urge them

This weekend ended the Single Fare 2 show on the Lower East Side, an exhibit of some 1,300 artworks all presented on Metrocards. The show started last year in a Brooklyn studio and has since expanded. Says the Single Fare blog , "Inspired by the notion that the city’s subways and buses allow for a kind of creative interchange unmatched in human history, 'Single Fare' sought to create a unique art event where art and artists could come together to form a monumental event made from a tiny, innocuous piece of plastic: The MetroCard!" It's gimmicky, sure, but the sheer diversity of art here is impressive, and it's wonderful to be able to take in so much art in a single dose. If you don't like something, move over an inch or two. You're bound to find something. And many of the works are incredibly painterly, in a time when we just don't see painterly paintings anymore. It's also a startlingly democratic show--every entry they received was exhibited

March tomorrow for Little Italy and the Feast--while a letter to the Villager 's editor calls the leader of the Save the Feast movement a bully and a clown . [ Villager ] Supporters of pop-up gutter cafes "drowned out by boos and hisses." [ Eater ] When Barney's was the "cut-rate clothing king"! [ ENY ] The East Village--now the home of the Dockers demographic. [ EVG ] A newsstand survives while its neighbors drop like flies. [ Restless ] Walking Brooklyn's Columbia waterfront . [ FNY ] 3/29: Gary Indiana and Arthur Nersesian at St. Mark's Bookshop . A strange story about a Park Slope cupcake shop and the Ricky's chain. [ HPS ] KATSU on University Place:

Spotted in Chelsea: " Welcome to Bloomburg ...Owner and CEO Michael R. Bloomberg": Even FAO Schwarz not permitted in glitzy Bloomburg. [ Racked ] How does the world end? " Not with a bang, but an iPad ." [ NYS ] In Williamsburg: "poor people who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for luxury condominium units are finding that their upscale paradise is turning into a ramshackle ghetto ." [ Gothamist ] Liz Taylor 's New York. [ CR ] The artisanalization (?) of 7th St. continues. [ EVG ] March 29: Don't miss Brian Rose speaking on the LES before and after , complete with fantastic photos. [ BR ] Don't forget, this Saturday: Rally in Little Italy . [ FB ]

One last little thing about that block of 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th . Awhile back, people were excited to take pictures of this faded Souvenirs sign, revealed when a newer sign came down. They emailed it to me or added it to the Vanishing NY Flickr pool. It also turned up on other blogs. Though it didn't inspire quite as much blogospheric buzz as Dapper Dan , it got its fair share. Matt Law, flickr For what it's worth, this sign appears in a 1981 photo that I used in yesterday's post. By the 1990s, it was covered up. bustalk, 1981 There it is, way off to the right, partially chopped, nestled in between the Embassy (formerly the Mayfair) and Tad's Steaks. It has since been covered up again . I think my favorite thing about the sign is the word JOKES. It's like NOVELTIES or APPETIZING , words you used to see often on signs but don't anymore. The last time I recall seeing JOKES on a sign was also in Times Square, at the Funny Store , which

My investigation into the eastern block of 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets began with the secret porno theater of Playland Gifts and continued through a look at the artifacts of the Mayfair movie palace . These discoveries made me curious about the whole block. It's a rarity because it's one of the few blocks in Times Square that has not been recently demolished for glass towers. Every building standing on it has been standing for a long time (except the Mayfair, they rose after 1910 ). You can actually imagine the past here. I've put together pretty much every image of this block I could find from the past 40 years. Let's take a tour of what used to be, and what is still hidden behind the billboards and souvenir shops. photobucket It's nighttime on Times Square. Standing on the northern end of the block, on the corner of 48th and 7th Ave., start off the night with an Orange Julius and a hot dog to charge your batteries. Next, duck into the Doll

A new sign outside McSorley's , on the Avenue of Puke: Why save 35 Cooper Square? Because it's "all that stands between two angled, glass-and-steel buildings." [ EVG ] The bike lane wars rage on. [ NYM ] ... and City Hall responds, saying Bike Lanes = good . [ NYO ] The gentrification of Inwood , complete with noisy, boozy brunch. [ CNY ] Inside the mysterious and very blue R&A Discount . [ OMFS ] Phase 2 of the Washington Square Park redesign is ready for its unveiling. [ WSP ] Beatniks in the Village of 1963. [ FP ] Some residents fear that Chinatown "will soon be unrecognizable , transformed by the relentless forces of development." [ REW ] Tomorrow: A talk at NYU on the Triangle Fire 100 years later. [ P&W ]

It's not just the secret porno theater at Playland Gifts that makes the block of 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets a treasure trove of old Times Square for casual urban archaeologists. There's much more here. On my recent visit to the block I came upon some artifacts from the lost Loew's Mayfair theater. NYPL, c. 1935 The marquee is gone, yet the terracotta remains, tucked up behind scaffolding and giant billboards above what is now the Phantom of Broadway souvenir shop. But it's the interior that is most exciting. Like the nearby fossils of the lost Automat hidden in plain sight at another souvenir store, you can find bits and pieces of the Mayfair's lobby here. Right inside the door, look up through the cacophony of TV screens and glittery T-shirts--the ceiling is painted with stars and carved with scrollwork. Each decorative spear comes down to a pointed church-like window , from which people must have looked out from the mezzanine years ago. And each

Recently, I found myself back up on Times Square, loitering inside the Playland Gifts souvenir shop, hoping to scout more remnants of its XXX past and to get another glimpse of the forgotten porn theater in its basement. It's been a few years since I sneaked down the stairs of the shop to stumble upon "Theatre 3 & 4." Once again, I lingered by the staircase. The clerks watched me closely. No way I could get down there, as much as I'd like better photos than my one hurried, blurry shot. 2006 I've often wondered since then which porn theater this place used to be. Now, thanks to some Internet digging, I can say that this was once the Show Follies Center . Owned by Richard Basciano, it was a cousin of the great Show World over on 8th Avenue , a multi-tiered extravaganza of smut. photobucket, 1993 This photo is from 1993--it doesn't seem that long ago, but that's a very different city. A close-up of the doorway shows the diamond-mirror pattern that can s

Since 1993, filmmaker and photographer Richard Shpuntoff has been documenting the LGBT Pride Parade in his home neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens. That work has evolved into a feature-length documentary about the 1990 gay-bashing murder of Julio Rivera and how it brought a whole community out of the closet. Mr. Shpuntoff is raising funds for the film on Kickstarter--please click here to watch portions of the film, read more, and consider a donation. I asked the filmmaker some questions, he answered. Julio Rivera Most people, when they think of the gay neighborhoods of New York City, don't automatically think of Jackson Heights. How did it come to be? From my childhood in the '70s I remember knowing of at least three gay bars: The Betsy Ross, which later became The Magic Touch and was a few doors down from the Earle porno theater, The Love Boat, and the Billy the Kid. Though people didn't discuss it outside of LGBT circles, 37th Road was the cruising strip kno