Vanishing New York Backup

Has Jade Mountain already been saved? Thanks to the tipster who wrote in to let us know that the endangered Jade Mountain neon sign has been taken down from the roof of Shoolbred's. Sitting on the sidewalk guarded by two guys, the sign is waiting to be picked up in a van and taken to an undisclosed location for who knows what purpose . This is all the guys knew about it. There is no sign of CHOW MEIN . Jade Mountain looks pretty beat up . Many of the neon tubes are broken and the metal is dented and bent in places. The REMAX rental sign remains riveted to the thing, like a cluster of barnacles stuck to the carcass of a beached whale. Let's hope it's headed for revival and not to the dump.

As an update to yesterday's post about the damage to the old Jade Mountain neon sign, many readers are concerned about preserving what's left of it and have ideas about how to save it. Anonymous described in a comment two attempts to save the sign a few years ago: "Let There Be Neon, the Manhattan based neon sign company that made the neon Shoolbred's sign offered Mrs. Chan, the owner of the building that once housed Jade Mountain, money to buy the old neon sign and the Chow Mein sign. Jeff the owner of LTBN refurbishes classic old neon signs and saves them or loans/donates them to a neon museum. She never responded to him." Photo from warsze "Shoolbred's carefully removed the sign and placed it face up so as not to break the neon. Originally, Shoolbred's owners, (Robert Morgan and William Ivey Long) asked if they could buy/use the old sign while it was still up and work it into the new bar somehow. The original plan was to keep the sign in place an

Thomas Rinaldi runs the blog New York Neon , "a documentary homage to old neon signs in New York." He's also the author of a book by the same name, due out next year. I asked Mr. Rinaldi some questions about the city's neon signs. Here's what he had to say. Why publish a whole book about neon? What's so special about neon signs that you can't get from LEDs? I suppose the short answer is that neon signs, particularly those of a certain vintage, are an endangered species. Signs are so important to our visual experience of a built landscape--they often make more of an impact than the buildings they hang from--but that importance does nothing for their longevity. Seeing New York's old neon signs vanishing, I felt it was essential that some enduring record be made of them. Of course the big signs, the Times Square spectaculars, are well documented. But the storefront signs seemed poised to disappear with almost no trace. I have nothing against LED signs

Check out the documentary on the defunct Chinatown Fair . [ BB ] Mars Bar demolition has begun. [ EVG ] Google's NYC headquarters are styled in the exquisite corpse of dead New York. [ AMNY ] A new take on the urban bookmobile . [ Curbed ] Uniqlo-sponsored High Line skating rink moves in where 10th Ave Tire Shop used to do business. [ Racked ] Fran Lebowitz : "Real estate is all people in New York think about. Except now, we also think about bedbugs. So here we have this combination of really expensive real estate—with bedbugs! That didn’t even exist. I never even heard of it. It was like something from the 19th century. Who could have predicted the return of bedbugs? So, perhaps, there will be a return of movie theaters like the Elgin." A look at New York's superhero history. [ BBs ]

This week, Grieve alerted us to the removal of the Chow Mein neon sign from above the old Jade Mountain Chinese restaurant on 2nd Ave., thanks to some work being done on the building. I got nervous for the Jade Mountain neon sign that has been lying face-up atop the roof of Shoolbred's since the restaurant closed in 2007 . a few weeks ago Recently, the inner text of the sign popped up, like a body suddenly sitting upright in its coffin. Walking by, you could see the last letter N in "mountain" peeking out with its distinctive chinoiserie shape. Perhaps it knew what was about to happen to it. Now, that N has been crumpled like an aluminum can , smashed under the boots and equipment of the construction workers. I hate to think about what the rest of the sign looks like. today I got in touch with Thomas Rinaldi, author of the blog New York Neon and a forthcoming book by the same name. His response: " What a heartbreak! " He wrote, "I think many people woul

The mainstream news has jumped on the Tompkins Square rats story [ EVG ]. 1010 WINS concluded their report this AM with the score: " In Tompkins Square Park it's red-tailed hawk: 1, kids: nil. " Chelsea Hotel to close for a year : " if you want to spend one more night at the Chelsea Hotel before it closes, now is your last chance." [ LWL ] Drinking at Pete's Tavern . [ MAD ] Park Slope kids invade Gowanus --creative types booted. [ Curbed ] Coney loses a good friend. [ ATZ ] Is the lower Lower East Side being rechristened LoDel by the real-estate machine? [ BB ]

Have we lost CHOW MEIN forever? [ EVG ] Hipsters in the Hamptons --they're called "Hampsters" and they have their own shelf at Bookhampton bookshop. [ NYer ] "It's as if there's some unwritten regulation that every corner of the city, from Times Square to Coney Island, must have an Apple store and a Shake Shack . And people seem to want this sameness everywhere. We've become a city of people afraid of originality and the unknown, like tourists who go to Paris and eat at Burger King." [ AMNY ] Joe Liberatore, "the last of the original 117 food merchants who first opened in 1940" on Arthur Avenue , has passed away. [ Grub ] What's it like to get old in NYC? [ Restless ] Read all about the original " Panorama of New York City , a 3,000-foot-long painting depicting the streets, residents, and sights of lower Manhattan." [ CP ]

As 14th Street between 2nd and 3rd prepares to become a so-called " foodie haven ," and we've all by now learned that an IHOP will be opening at 235 East 14th, let's take a look at what used to be there. The building that IHOP is going into happens to have been built on the burial ground for what was, when it closed in 1988, one of Manhattan's longest running theaters--and most notorious houses of smut . NYPL, 1934 The theater opened innocently in 1914 as the New 14th St. Photoplay . In the above and below photos, we see the profile of the marquee in 1934, with a lighted vertical sign, and 1936--playing two unforgettable classics: Hips, Hips, Hooray! and O'Malley of the Mounted . It also sported an open-air roof. Some accounts place the theater at 241 E. 14th, but these NYPL images show it clearly at 235, two doors east from today's Beauty Bar. NYPL, 1936 In 1940 it was renamed the Arrow, then again renamed the Metropolitan in the 1960s. I

Art from the Chelsea Hotel is mysteriously vanishing at a rapid clip. Where is it going? [ LWL ] Can Mars Bar rise from the dead? [ EVG ] Pop-up bookstore opens in Chelsea today with lots of art books. [ LM ] Another Saturday night with the rats of Tompkins Square Park . [ NMNL ] Village has a " rogue pisser ." [ Gothamist ] A night of dining at Sylvia's in Harlem. [ MAD ] Three ways to cool off old-school style. [ ENY ]

Thanks to Mick Dementiuk for pointing us to Vintage Sleaze 's collection of Irving Klaw advertisements, and for drawing our attention to the address on the ads: 212 East 14th Street. This was once the home of Klaw's pin-up business--Movie Star News--where he and his sister Paula photographed gals like Bettie Page and sold their sexy photos along with tamer celebrity stills. Silent Porn Star blog Richard Foster's The Real Bettie Page recalls that the first Movie Star News opened in 1939, across the street at 209 E. 14th. Before long, they moved to 212, right next to the Jefferson Theater --movie fans loved Movie Star News. So did fans of cheesecake and bondage. Trying to find images of the shop's exterior in its heyday has proven impossible, but if you search for the more often photographed Jefferson Theater , you can find some slivers of it. In the early days, 212 E. 14th (to the right of the Jefferson) sold pianos. Much later, by the 1970s, the first flo

VANISHING Manhattan is losing yet another independent bookshop. Reader esquared told us in a comment yesterday that Bookberries at Lexington and 71st "will be vanishing soon . saw a going out of business sign." Lia Raum A couple years ago, the Woman About Town blog wrote, "Thomas Jefferson once wrote to John Adams, 'I cannot live without books.' For those who love books and who relish the experience of browsing for a good read, Bookberries, an independent bookstore on the Upper East Side, is a treasure trove." Meanwhile, on the Upper West Side, Avi chronicles the loss of neighborhood bookstores and remembers the day when the shops in that part of town said "intellectuals live here; being smart is more important than being rich; and, of course, nerds are welcome." We now live in a time and place where people would rather live without books. They've got their Kindles and Nooks, iPads and iPhones, and that's all they want. The rest of

How to spot a narcissist: "They're considered more stylishly clad, cheerful, and physically appealing at first sight than are those who score lower in narcissism..." [ PT ] What's up with the chirpy, optimistic narration on this death of Coney Island video? [ NYT ] Like the rest of the city, Grand Central Terminal upscales and boots out its long-time tenants. [ NYT ] Get ready to be disgusted: Bowery flophouse becomes boutique hotel --with homeless people still living in it. [ Curbed ] One blogger's guide to surviving in New York. [ VL ] Karl Fischer comes to E. 12th. [ EVG ] July 23: Celebrate the life of Nuyorican poet Cheryl B. , and attend the fundraiser for her partner at Dixon Place. Before I found Jesus ...on the side of a shuttered Thai restaurant in the EV:

The Manhattan of 1982 was a city of delis, dry cleaners, and hardware shops. Of greasy diners, stationery stores, and donut pubs. We can see this thanks to photographer Dan Weeks' exhaustive project Street View New York 1982 . The website and accompanying blog features black-and-white panoramic photos of Midtown, giving us a detailed glimpse into what the city used to be. I asked Dan about the project and here's what he said. Detail: 8th Ave. between 45th and 46th "During the 1970s and 1980s I was a dedicated photographer . In NYC my work was 'discovered' by Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton on the eve of their film Reds . Later I shot Barbara Streisand’s Yentl and Places in the Heart with Sally Field. In the midst of all the commercial work, I wanted to create a photographic portrait of New York City that would 'live forever,' something that would capture a slice of time that recorded the little details that are often forgotten. What if we could look at a

On why we shouldn't miss Mars Bar : it was "such a dump that it's safe to say that 99% of the people who are partaking in this outpouring of emotion probably never even went to the bar." [ Eater ] "Mars Bar was proof that the New York of old-timer lore really did exist , and there was a sense that once it was gone, that would be the end." [ Grub ] 10 indie bookstores you could be buying books from. [ Racked ] Has the backlash to "artisanal" and " curated " finally begun? [ Grub ] More meatballs for the East Village. [ EVG ] If at first you don't succeed, keep trying new concepts. The cafe on 13th and 6th began as Maximo Pino. In March it became Rockography , a "Hard Rock" kind of knock-off, but only for about 15 seconds. Now it's been totally renovated as the Blitz! Brasserie . More from the candlelight vigil for Mars Bar . [ NMNL ] Check out Sid Grossman's 1940s street photography . [ ENY ] What does a summer fra

A few years ago, it was announced that the egg cream required reinvigorating by the foodie tastemakers in town, and they went about artisanalizing the thing, mixing it with flavors like espresso and hazelnut. Today shaved ice is getting its turn with the glamour treatment as the People's Pops pop-up comes to the neighborhood to serve a classic Lower East Side treat in local, greenmarket flavors. When this happened to the egg cream, I did an egg cream tour of the Lower East Side . Now, I offer a shaved ice tour. But first a bit of history. Piraguero, 1920 In New York neighborhoods wherever Puerto Ricans settled, a cup of flavored shaved ice is known as a piragua and the men who do the shaving are piragueros . Wikipedia tells us that the word "is derived from the combination of the Spanish words 'Pirámide' (pyramid) and 'Agua' (water)" because the piragua has a pointy, conical shape. For nearly a century, the city's piragueros have served sha