Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHED The Chelsea Gallery Diner has closed after 30 years in business on 7th Avenue near 14th Street. photo: Visual Raconteur's flickr Scott Stiffler has a eulogy for the place in Chelsea Now , and JVNY reader Tim Kirk sent in the sad news with a quick video he took of the shutter signage. Quite pointedly, the sign reads : "Due to our Madison Ave. lease and a dying customer base we have been forced to close our doors after 30 yrs at this location. We have watched our quaint neighborhood turn into the very ‘upscale Chelsea’ of today’s Manhattan . So let us remember a time when this diner was a meeting place for so many strange, unusual & different people to say the least. All were welcomed at a time when St. Vincent’s stood tall, the Halloween Parade was small and our diner at any given time could turn into a fun free for all." Writes Tim, "This was the kind of place where the management would feed locally known homeless people fresh food right outsid...

VANISHED I am sad to report, the Atlas Barber School and shop closed forever this past Saturday after the landlord raised the rent to an impossible $11,000 per month . Just off Astor Place in the East Village, on 3rd Ave. and 9th St., Atlas had been in business since 1948. all color photos from last day of Atlas When I heard the news from tipster Marcus, I ran in for a last cut. I talked to Sheila Gray, director of the school. She was too upset to talk much about the closure, except to express frustration about the rent hike and sadness about closing. She pointed to a statue of St. Jude in the back office, a room cluttered with papers and framed certificates, and said, "See that statue of St. Jude? My father carried it everywhere. He's the saint of lost causes." She shrugged as if to say "so much for that." When I told her that Atlas had kept me in haircuts during my early lean years in the neighborhood, she gave me a hug. (She asked me to wait to post this sto...

The mainstream media got itself into quite a lather over those High Line flyers from Anonymous last week--and it tells us something interesting, something critical, about the city and its changing face. Shawn Chittle's TV After I first posted the news, Fox 5 picked up the story with a video called "High Line Hater." One woman interviewed said, "Before they rented in this place, they knew this exists," referring to residents who live along the High Line. NY1 interviewed a young man on video who said, "It's the Meatpacking District, the nightlife here is crazy, so you should be kind of used to it. Live somewhere else if you don't like the noise ." CBS Channel 2 found someone to say, "This is New York City, if you want space, move to the country," while another called the flyer's rules "civility." The New York Post , with their take titled "High Line anxiety: Neighbor rips raucous rubes," also featured...

We know that not everyone is happy with the High Line (thanks Mandy !) and the way it is putting old Chelsea out of business while attracting monstrous levels of luxury development and crowds to the area. Now someone is plastering Chelsea with a pointed message to the High Line tourists. "Attention High Line Tourists," says the flyer, "West Chelsea is not Times Square. It is not a tourist attraction." The flyer goes on to ask the tourists to "consider the following": "Do not sit on the 'stoops' of buildings or take pictures of and film buildings or residents. Buildings are not tourist attractions: people live there , and sitting on the steps and taking pictures is as invasive, rude and inappropriate as a group of strangers sitting on the steps of your home and taking pictures of it and you from the yard. Think how you would feel in the situation were reversed and act accordingly. 3,000,000 (3 million) of you come to West Chelsea and walk the ...

As you may have heard, the great and wondrous Prime Burger is shuttering , heartbreakingly, ass-kickingly, on Saturday after 47 years in Midtown (74 years if you go back to Hamburg Heaven). Photographer Molly Woodward visited yesterday and shares her gorgeous shots at her website Vernacular Typography . all photos: Molly Woodward One piece of hopeful news: The shutter signage says "We hope to see you in the near future at a new location." Let's pray they take the beautiful faux-bois clock, the baby-chair swiveling tables, and everything, just as it is. My fingers are crossed, though I doubt this will happen. Until then, go now, eat a burger, drink an egg cream , enjoy the atmosphere untouched since the 1960s. It's another funeral for New York. Previously: Prime Burger PB Egg Cream Vernacular Typography

My heart is fucking breaking for Prime Burger --vanishing soon. [ Eater ] More on Prime Burger --the last day is Saturday. [ Gothamist ] Prime Burger, 2008 The realty people are thrilled that Astor Place is becoming Midtown . Cooper Union, this one's on you. [ EVG ] A dream about artworld assholes in Astor Place. [ DVNY ] An update on the Chelsea Hotel demolition. [ LWL ] Ethan Hawke accompanies his daughter Maya performing at the almost-vanished Caffe Vivaldi. Where's Uma? [ youtube ] Googa-Mooga filled with violent, smartphone-obsessed foodies. [ NYM ] A dozen old-school lunch counters in NYC. [ Eater ] Don't you wish you could be in California right now to see Randy Hage 's miniature New York on view at the Flower Pepper Gallery ?

Yesterday, Corey Kilgannon at the New York Times reported that my favorite barber shop, the New Barber Shop on 9th Avenue and 18th Street in Chelsea, will be closing very soon . He mentions the closure on the fourth page of the slideshow and adds: " the other small businesses on this stretch of Ninth Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets are set to close as early as May 31 to make way for a bigger tenant ." 2008 We first heard this terrible news in 2008. Back then, I reported on Morris Moinian's purchase of the building that spans nearly the entire block of 9th Avenue, from 17th to 18th, and his plans to replace all of the small businesses there with high-end retail. Weeks after breaking that news, I attended a rally to save the block . Organized by Andrew Berman, Miguel Acevedo, and Gloria Sukenik, the rally attracted 200 angry locals. Senator Tom Duane and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer spoke to the impassioned crowd. Assembly member Dick Gottfried said, ...

Last week we heard the rumor that a new McHale's bar was coming back from the vanished. A tipster spoke to the owner who claimed he'd bought the name and that Jimmy McHale himself would be there once a week, along with the chef from the former McHale's. Then we learned, from someone who spoke to Jimmy, that Mr. McHale has nothing to do with the new McHale's, which is coming from the owners of Playwright's Tavern. Now Fat Al sends in a shot of the place: The name might be the same, but the feeling? Previously: The Real McHale's? McHale's Redux

The controversial St. Mark's Place 7-11 has its Grand Opening "Prize Wheel" event today . They're giving away iPads and selling Slurpees for 11 cents. How can our local bodegas compete with such bread and circuses? Intimate photos inside the old Chelsea Hotel . [ FW ] The Chelsea Hotel is losing its vintage phone booths . [ LWL ] Photographer David Monderer shows his photos of " Holdouts ," the storefronts of NYC that struggle to survive. [ SP ] More luxury condos for Bowery. [ EVG ] Hysteria and the history of vibrators at the Sunshine. [ BB ] Looking back at the neon of the vanished Terminal Bar . [ NYN ] Documenting the art and architecture of ABC No Rio . [ KS ] Save the Oak Room at the Algonquin--sign the petition. [ Change ] Full-color photos of NYC in 1971 . [ Retronaut ] What's this cryptic symbol coming to the former Estroff Pharmacy on 2nd and 8th? Fro-yo? Mashed potatoes? (Hence my anxiety dream about it.)

Against my better judgment, I have started another blog: " Dreams of the Vanishing New York ." I had noticed that many readers of this blog were reporting dreams about the lost city. In emails, comments, and Facebook messages, these dreams kept floating in. I also regularly have these dreams. I started posting them to the blog around March, back-dating old dreams I had written down elsewhere, and asked readers via Facebook to send in new ones. A place to gather dreams about the vanishing city, " Dreams of the Vanishing New York " provides a view into the city's collective unconscious. If you have a dream about lost New York places, people, and things, or about anxieties and wishes for what could be lost or regained, please send it to me at jeremoss [at] yahoo [dot] com. Include plenty of detail, along with any name (or Anon) you might want to be credited by. I will gently edit them.

Two readers followed up on this week's rumor about McHale's bar coming back from the vanished. Flying Saucer writes, "Spoke to Jimmy [McHale]--he has nothing to do with this new bar. It's the owners of Playwright's and McGee's... Jimmy was approached to go in with partners, but went against the idea . He told me he has no involvement. Sadly you can never have another McHale's." That's for sure, but one reader is hopeful. Wrote Anonymous, "I stopped in there a few days ago and asked about the connection to the old McHale's. The owner who I spoke with was very nice and despite the fact that he was busy working, was excited that I had stopped in to ask questions. Turns out the bar is going to be more of a tribute to the old neighborhood and a number of the old bars. The name might be McHale's, but I was assured that they are not trying to be, or compete with, the old McHale's . And I will definitely give the bar a chance. ...

Straight from Paramus, Sugar and Plumm Purveyors of Yumm [sic], the candy and sweets store that mad-as-hell Upper West Siders went after with pitchforks and torches , is opening a second Manhattan location. According to Chain Store Age (yes, that exists), the shop is coming to the Village--to the corner of Bleecker and Cornelia . (A third location is headed for beleaguered Downtown Brooklyn.) mirabest The blogger at Stop Sugar and Plumm told DNA that the Upper West Side shop "'swept away...businesses run by average people to replace them with a chain owned by a member of the 1 percent club,' ...referring to Sugar & Plumm's CEO Lamia Jacobs, reportedly a former oil trader who grew up in Paris and now lives in Greenwich, Conn." The Landmarks Commission, when reviewing Sugar & Plumm's architectural proposal, called the design “cutesy,” and “disheartening,” and said the plan "tarts up" the building, reported Stop Sugar & Plumm. T...

After all the speculation about graffiti artist Kidult collaborating with Marc Jacobs on last week's hot-pink graffiti bombing , I asked Kidult if it was true. His two-word answer in an email to me: "no collaboration." Now he's added his own t-shirt design to his website , showing the nighttime work in process. He calls it "Final Ending" with the cryptic slogan in Jacobsian typeface: "Not Art by Kidult": kidult On his Twitter feed he adds: And in case there's any further confusion about his feelings for Mr. Jacobs' work, he labels this one " Bourgeois Thug ": kidult Previously: Jacobs T Re-T'd Marc Jacobs Attacked Marc Jacobs Attack T More Jane, Less Marc The Future is Marc

When McHale's beautiful bar shuttered in 2006, its building razed and replaced with a dead tower of glass, many in the city wept. We heard stories that McHale's might reopen one day in another location, but that fate did not come to pass. Now a tipster is telling us something very curious. 2006 Peter writes in: "This past Friday I was walking with friends in Midtown and we stopped by the gin mill on West 50th St that has the old McHale's 'BAR' sign . The lady standing in front told us that ' McHale's is re-opening on 51st St. ' We immediately walked over to investigate. There is a bar under construction on the north side of 51st St between Broadway and 8th Ave, real modern looking, no sign up. We yelled in to what appeared to be the owner or at least manager who was going over blueprints or something. We asked 'is this place McHale's?' and he said yes. We cried that 'how can you name a place after a former business?' an...

The Kidult and Marc Jacobs story goes on (apologies: I can't seem to get enough of it). A tipster here first broke the news last Tuesday morning that a Marc Jacobs store in Soho had been hit with hot-pink graffiti. Jacobs then turned graffitist Kidult's anti-corporate assault around by printing the image on t-shirts selling for $698 . Some speculated that Kidult had collaborated with Jacobs, others say Jacobs made the shirt to get revenge on Kidult. It's hard to tell what's what. My original tipster went back to the scene of the crime and checked out that t-shirt to see if it was real or another joke. It's real. It's on a mannequin in the store window and on another right up front. The tipster sends in some photos and writes, "It's so cheaply made, like an iron-on stuck to a crappy t-shirt. The cotton is really thin." With a shirt that seems so hastily put together, my tipster concludes, there's no way Jacobs was in on the graffiti bombing. ...

It was inevitable. On Tuesday morning, I first reported that the Marc Jacobs store on Mercer Street had been attacked by hot-pink graffiti. The tipster who sent the photos asked the workers cleaning up, " Is this an art show or marketing or vandalism?" The workers responded that someone had made a "joke." Marc Jacobs twitter screenshot Other blogs followed up and discovered that the work had been done by graffiti artist Kidult and that Jacobs was making the most of it by tweeting pics of the vandalism. On Twitter, Jacobs acolytes praised the image as "cool," "so cool," and "sweeet" [sic]. Now Jacobs has apparently come out with a t-shirt featuring the "attack," calling it "Art by Art Jacobs." Reports High Snobiety , "It certainly looks a lot like Marc Jacobs, the brand, and Kidult have been working together in this marketing stunt. The t-shirt costs 689 USD and 680 USD, signed by the artist and is available i...

EV Grieve took a look at the corner of St. Mark's Place and Second Avenue a little while ago, highlighting the St. Mark's Cinema circa 1984 , so it seemed like a good time to put up these 1934 and 1935 shots of the spot from the New York Public Library. NYPL Fifty years before Sixteen Candles and Mask , there were 10-cent double features of Bottoms Up and Palooka, then Werewolf of London and Laddie . NYPL And next to the theater, in the spot that would later become an infamous Gap store, stood a frankfurters and root-beer stand extraordinaire. NYPL From the Municipal Archives, here's the same corner in 1929, when St. Mark's was paved in cobblestones and streaked by trolley tracks. NYC Archives And across Second Avenue, where BBQ is today, a simple drugstore and second-floor dentist: NYC Archives