Vanishing New York Backup

I love this clip of CBS' 1984-1985 coverage of New Year's Eve in Times Square--hosted by Andy Williams (who just passed away in September) and Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the telephone operator. It's so unproduced, so unslick. They actually flub the countdown. The masses in the streets are a ragtag bunch, none of them in today's uniform of corporate-sponsored hats and inflatable bats, all in their own hats (including one in a knitted beer-can hat, remember those?), with lots of noisemakers. And it looks dark down there on Broadway, not klieg-lit, more like some grim, brown, coffee-stained light. The crowd's roar is loud in the broadcast booth, their noisemakers sending up an ear-splitting din that will eventually, in New Year's Eve broadcasts of the future, be blocked out by soundproofing. 2011's branded crowd on youtube Tomlin calls the crowd a group of risk takers for being in Times Square on this night, and she laments the fact that so many...

Every year, at the end of the year, we take a look back at what's been lost over the past 12 months. Some of the losses were big ones, some smaller. In chronological order (more or less), the ones covered here: The Holiday Cocktail Lounge After an illustrious history that included literary legends like Allen Ginsberg and W.H. Auden, after a few recent years of struggle, the great Holiday succumbed. It's been gutted and will be turned into a fish n' chips gastropub kind of thing. The Holiday had been here since 1965. La-Rosa Cigars This half-century old shop shuttered and left Manhattan for the Bronx, which is not exactly vanishing, but still--it was booted from a prime spot to the periphery. Atlas Meats In its never-ending vanishing act, the Meatpacking District demolished this Depression-era building. A glass tower is coming. Manganaro's After 119 years in business, Manganaro's Grosseria closed their doors and sold their building. After a painful...

The East Village's Whole Earth Bakery to close December 31 after 34 years in business. [ EVG ] Coney Island's Surf Avenue to become a miserable, soulless chain-restaurant mecca--" the zoning was written to attract" Hooters, Outback Steakhouse, Applebee's.. . [ ATZ ] Berliners use bricks and anger to fight back against gentrification--and get called fascists for it. [ Guardian ] Who are the people who can't live without chain stores? Ben Katchor puts them in a comic strip. [ BK ] Locals responding to Santacon in the East Village. [ HNY ] Pop quiz: Identify this sad and faded bit of street art... "Is Manhattan’s literary night life, along with its literary infrastructure (certain bars, hotels, restaurants and bookstores) fading away?" [ NYT ] Enjoy the latest chapter in Karen Lillis' bookstore memoir. [ KSPL ] Go see "My Brooklyn" in DUMBO. [ MB ] Tribeca then and now, the 1980s and today. [ TC ] Remembering the P...

Last week, the faculty of NYU authorized a no-confidence vote , a move that could lead to President Sexton's termination. They write, "The NYU 2031 Sexton Plan, the administration’s ill advised multi-billion dollar plan to expand the university within Greenwich Village, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back." And now, some key quotes from the must-read book While We Were Sleeping: NYU and the Destruction of New York . "It's not just NYU. There are days when I feel like I'm stranded in some upscale mall in Pasadena . Don't even get me started on the insidious transformation of Bleecker Street!" --Jessica Hagedorn " Those little garden plots on the corner of Bleecker and LaGuardia may not be on our way to anywhere. And yet we need them, we seek them out, to smell the wet earth, to remember the feel of soil drying on our hands, the smell of a fresh tomato, the wonder of a dogwood blooming. I'm sure NYU has computed t...

As we heard this past summer, IHOP signed a 49-year lease for the corner of Carmine and Varick, paying $300,000 per year and setting off a panic about its potential impact on a street that has remained authentically New York. As the Observer put it in a headline, this move is " Effectively Stabbing Village in Heart ." Now that heart-stabbing IHOP shows itself with blue awnings, signage, and the warning "Coming Soon." Photo thanks to Richie Cohen What does this mean for the neighboring mom-and-pops? Carmine Street is a place of survivors --though much has been lost --but for how long? Already, Unoppressive, Non-Imperialist Bargain Books is struggling. All of them are in the crosshairs of Big Development. The real estate agent who brokered IHOP's deal told the Wall Street Journal that Carmine, "was a dumpy street. Now it's top-notch." IHOP is "a big brand, and it'll help me convince other big brands to follow. People don'...

A couple of months ago we got to see some wonderful photos of the Meatpacking District in the 1980s , thanks to Yvonne B. Now, photographer and author Brian Rose sends in a link to his amazing collection of photos featuring the Meatpacking District in 1985. The desolate industrial neighborhood of the past stands in stark contrast to today's center of consumerism and luxury. In most of the photos there are no people, just shuttered meatpacking warehouses. The streets are quiet. No girls in Manolos. No cupcake eaters. No High Line tourists. Today, in the view seen above, condos rise and rise. Brian's photos are all in daylight, so you won't see any transgender prostitutes or leather men on the prowl. But there is evidence of their presence, like the hot-sheets Liberty Hotel, which still stands, and a rare shot of the entrance to the Mineshaft, the gay leather club featured in the Pacino movie Cruising . (Check out "Back in the Gays" for an insider...

NYU professors mutiny against president Sexton and his plan to bulldoze the Village . Support them at NYUFASP and "stand up for NYC." [ NYP ] An oral history of the Beatrice Inn that might make you ill. [ NYM ] A treasure trove of photos featuring lost neon signs of NYC. [ NYN ] A very detailed hand-drawn map of NYC. [ JS ] Ada Louise Huxtable on the destruction of the NYPL's incredible stacks: "This is a plan devised out of a profound ignorance of or willful disregard for not only the library's original concept and design, but also the folly of altering its meaning and mission and compromising its historical and architectural integrity. You don't 'update' a masterpiece. 'Modernization' may be the most dangerously misused word in the English language." [ WSJ ] Read more about the stacks here. [ NYPL ] Visiting Manhattan's print dealers. [ NYT ] "Men’s tights, for so long the preserve of ballet dancers and runw...

Autumn in New York has all but vanished, thanks to global warming, and now winter is beginning to fade. Last year, flowers bloomed as early as February . This year, it's looking worse. (UPDATE: Confirmation from the Wall St. Journal, 12/19/12 , that 2012 may be the warmest winter on record.) In the Village, the consistent warm weather has forced flowers to bloom. Pink blossoms have opened on the same branches where yellowed leaves still hang. Life and death coexist. Seasons collide.   In a street garden on the other side of town, green shoots emerge from a pile of autumn gingko leaves. The flat spears look a lot like iris. It's barely the middle of December. And a few more shots from today:

For years, every time I passed a certain laundromat on West 4th and Bank Street, I'd take its picture. Especially at night. There's something sad and a little bit romantic about a laundromat at night. But I also took the laundromat's photo because I worried about it vanishing. It has that look--old and shabby, and therefore real, a Velveteen Rabbit of a place. The woman who works there could often be seen at a makeshift desk by the laundromat's rightmost window, working behind the shop's odd, geometric metal grill. She would regularly hang the grill with orange peels. Over time, the peels dried and created a sort of abstract art. I loved seeing the woman and I loved seeing the orange peels. (At this time of year, she also hung candy canes.) I worried about the laundromat because it was old, but also because it was being encroached upon. A Marc Jacobs store opened across the street and another came right next door. The juxtaposition of the two win...

It didn't take long for the landlord to find a new, higher-priced tenant for the space previously occupied by Movie Star News on West 18th. We learned in July that the venerable shop would be closing after 73 years of history in the city . By the end of that month the owner had packed up and sold Irving Klaw's entire Bettie Page collection to a Las Vegas collectibles company. The space, once loaded with bins full of colorful movie posters and towering shelves overflowing with Hollywood glossies, has been gutted and turned into a pure, white hollow. A paper taped inside the window says Lefroy Brooks is coming . Lefroy Brooks sells luxury bathroom fixtures. They have one elegant collection of faucets, towel bars, soap dishes, and toilet paper holders called " Kafka ." Is this all a bit Kafkaesque? Franz Kafka's biographer, Frederick R. Karl, defined the term "Kafkaesque" to the Times : " What's Kafkaesque is when you enter a sur...

After nearly a year of discussion and speculation, Bleecker Bob's has made it official. On their Facebook page this weekend they announced: "well, it's SAD NEWS people. don't really know how to say this so here goes..... after 40+ years in existence, BLEECKER BOB'S will be closing!!!! looks like another month or 2 maybe . we'll definitely be open thru to the New Year, maybe even a couple of months into 2013. as of right now though we're still buying, selling and trading music PLUS we have new tshirts in stock so you can remember us and tell your kids or grandkids about the legendary Bleecker Bob's!!" Back in January, I passed along the news from Ken Mac at Greenwich Village Daily Photo who first shared the shocker that Bleecker Bob's was being taken over by Starbucks . That rumor was shot down, but later that month, the store confirmed to Ken that they were looking to move to the East Village . However, said the owner, "we are def...

Last night I dreamed about a second, overlooked newsstand perched above Gem Spa... (send in your dreams...). [ DVNY ] An amazing photographic journey of the NYC subways in 1973--courtesy of the EPA. [ Narratively ] Enjoy the wonderful neon of New York City. [ Stupefaction ] Sal Mineo shops for smut in an adult bookstore of 1965 Times Square. [ VS ] "The Shore Theater’s iconic sign will not be coming back to the landmarked Coney Island building, according to the property holder, who says that the Hurricane Sandy-mangled marquee is unfixable and will have to be replaced." [ BD ] Inside the East Village Eye. [ EVG ] Watch the Deli Man--as the delis of NYC keep vanishing. [ vimeo ] Looking back at Manhattan's lost diners. [ NY90s ] Take a walk through a (mostly vanished) Hell's Kitchen. [ J&KM ] There's now a Brooklyn neighborhood being called "Rambo." [ Curbed ] Where do all the new New Yorkers go? To the most expensive neighborho...

Support New York City's independent queer bookstore. Oh, wait, New York doesn't have a queer bookstore--Oscar Wilde, A Different Light, they all shuttered and became boutiques or condos while we were busy shopping on Amazon. But now there's BGSQD , The Bureau of General Services Queer Division (a mouthful of a name), also known as The Bureau. I interviewed the co-founder here and he talked about how important it is for an LGBTQ bookshop to exist in Manhattan, the borough that is becoming blander by the minute. Now is your chance to support The Bureau's endeavor. They've got a pop-up bookshop open now at 27 Orchard Street and a Lucky Ant drive running for the next two weeks . They're hoping to raise $15,000. Please visit their Lucky Ant page and send them some money (there are prizes). Consider it making amends for every book you bought on Amazon. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who voted, to the judges, and to the Village Voice for voting me "Blogger We Love" in last night's Web Awards! And congratulations to all the winners. Check out the list right here . Winners received a giant foam hand, perhaps to symbolize the copious and warm embrace of your cyber love.

VANISHING The parking lot and two small brick buildings at the corner of Wooster and Grand are about to vanish. They have been, for some time, a beloved and well-used graffiti spot . In recent years, the lot's walls have hosted a Banksy rat , a Fairey paste-up, and French street artist JR's paste-up of a giant photo of a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. But it's around the corner where the real fun happened. Those walls belong to what's known locally as the Candy Factory, a spot that the New York Times published a visual guide to in 2005. It has changed many times since then--images constantly coming and going--but here comes the biggest change of all. The Candy Factory and the parking lot are wrapped in plywood and readied for condo-fication. The parking lot is being hammered and drilled. I miss the colorful collection of street art hidden here at the back end of what was once a Tootsie Roll factory at 325-329 West Broadway. my flickr, 2010 ...

VANISHING? This past spring, the Daily News reported that Harlem's legendary Lenox Lounge was losing its lease. Now we hear from Black Enterprise that the club will be closing its doors December 31. The rent has increased from $10,000 per month to $20,000. Owner Alvin Reed, Daily News Writes Black Enterprise, " Richard Notar, Managing Partner in Nobu Restaurants, will be taking over the space the bar currently sits at and plans to open a new spot named 'Notar Jazz Club.' Notar has already applied with the local community board for a liquor license." (Notar Jazz Club, LLC, was formed back in August , under Notar's company Raptor Capital Management. Raptor .) Gawker describes Notar as "a 16-year-old from Jamaica, Queens when he landed a job as a busboy at Studio 54. He spent the next few years partying with the best of them, gobbling down Quaaludes by the fistful, he says, and getting high with the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat." He is no...

It's been awhile since I've taken a walk past the former St. Vincent's Hospital, and it was a shock to see just how far along the demolition has come. The main buildings are wrapped in scaffolding and shrouded. Entire floors of brick have been stripped, rooms empty and exposed to the streets. The western wall of the stately old building on W. 11th has been almost completely sheared off. Is the building being demolished, or readied for attachment to the new condo tower to come? People suffered and died here. Many had their lives saved here. They left their notes and names on plywood after St. Vincent's closed, begging for a new hospital to open here, or anywhere in Greenwich Village. But the luxury machine has to eat. And eat, and eat...