Vanishing New York Backup

Last month, the Times reported on the transformation of Broken Angel, a wildly creative Brooklyn treasure, into high-priced condos . Wrote Ronda Kaysen: "as Clinton Hill, like so many Brooklyn neighborhoods, reinvents itself as yet another gentrifying enclave, Broken Angel recalls a moment in city history when such a creation could seemingly rise out of thin air." New York Times Filmmaker Michael Galinsky of " Battle for Brooklyn " is putting together a documentary about Broken Angel and its creator, Arthur Wood. He's got a 5-minute short on his site, and hopefully more is to come:

New Yorkers are really getting tired of watching their local small businesses shutter, forced out by rising rents and demolitions for the construction of condos, hotels, and dorms. They want to do something . Some of us take to the blogosphere. Others get out the Scotch tape. Here are a few notes from neighbors that recently appeared. 1. When Bleecker Street's Mambo Sushi closed some months ago, people were upset, especially by the removal of the blue-green tiled "roof." photo: NY Magazine One person put a sign on the window--not to complain about the roof removal, but to make a desperate plea: "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't make this space into some useless tourist trap. PLEASE put something good here that people of the neighborhood can enjoy. We need more neighborhood spots. I know tourists bring in revenue but if the place is truly good, everybody will come. Thanks, your neighbor." photo: Tommy Raiko Reader Tommy Raiko sent in this photo of the...

On Second Avenue in the East Village, the B&H Dairy has been going strong since the 1930s when it was opened by Mr. Bergson and Mr. Heller (hence the B&H). It is now run by Fawzy Abdelwahed and Ola Smigielska. And it is absolutely adored by New Yorkers all over town. Myself included. Since the Second Avenue gas explosion and collapse, the B&H has been shuttered. Fawzy and Ola have consistently paid the rent and bills while they struggle to reopen, but it has not been easy. Fawzy and Ola, today's mom and pop of the B&H, photo from GVSHP I spoke to Fawzy who explained the barriers they're facing. Due to the explosion, safety requirements from the city have intensified. Before the explosion, the B&H passed inspection. But now they must upgrade the fire system at a cost of $28,000. To do so, they also require permission from Landmarks and the Department of Buildings. The papers have been submitted, but nothing is moving. Andy Reynolds, local East Villag...

Romy Ashby writes the blog Walkers in the City , which you should know about if you don't already. She has just published a novel called Stink . The book tells the story of a young person who flees to a mysterious New York-like city for a series of occult adventures. I asked Romy some questions--about dreams, books, farts, and gentrification. JM: Your book starts with a dream. Do you remember your dreams? Do you write them down? RA: Usually I don't dream and/or don't remember. I never write them down. I had a wonderful series of dreams once over several years about a beautiful cast-iron train. I'd see it in the distance and marvel, and whenever I would have a new dream about the train, I'd think, oh, it's this dream! Then I finally had a dream of a funeral procession with old men in uniforms carrying a large framed portrait through the streets. I asked what the procession was, and one of the old men said: “This was the conductor of the train you always dre...

This is what the Quad Cinema looks like totally gutted: It's been closed since May for renovations. You might recall the news last year that the cinema was sold to real-estate developer Charles Cohen, who plans to use it to film selections from the Cohen Film Collection , originally known as the Raymond Rohauer Film Collection, after the man who built it. Cohen acquired it in 2011. According to Wikipedia , Cohen's realty corporation "owns more than 12 million square feet of real estate" and "specializes in 're-positioning' commercial space to increase its rental income." Cohen is also a film lover. The Quad opened in 1972. It was New York's first four-screen cinema. It is expected to reopen in the fall.

Recently, a store called Taxi Parts, Inc., moved in to the East Village . It had been up on Tenth Avenue for the past 25 years, on the ground floor of an old tenement building near Hudson Yards. But it had to leave that spot. "The buildings are coming down," a man at Taxi Parts told me the other day. The buildings sit alone on the corner of 10th and 35th. Earlier this year, Sean at the 116-year-old Veterans Chair Caning shop, across the street, told me that those tenements were still standing thanks to a holdout, a man who lived upstairs. Who knows what happened to him? (Looks like someone tried but failed to prove last year that the building was rent-stabilized.) And so  the Hudson Yards Effect claims more victims -- and takes more space for its bloated glass construction. Sean told me that developers want "to knock down those buildings and put up the tallest tower in North America." That would be the gluttonous " Hudson Spire ." Last ye...

I chatted via email with DW Gibson , author of the recently published book The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century . Filled with the real voices of New Yorkers, from both sides of the gentrification fence, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in what’s happening to our city in this era of rapid displacement, runaway development, and socioeconomic injustice. Just before our virtual chat, Gibson had come from moderating a conversation on art and gentrification out on Governor’s Island. That got us started on our own conversation. JM: I was out in Bushwick this weekend for the Open Studios event. It gets bigger every year, and the demographic is shifting--more Greenwich housewife types and financiers in alligator shirts. Near the center of this event, on Grattan Street, a local family had set up a barbecue. Right nearby were all these kids doing performance art. I wondered: What is the relationship between these two groups? Do they...

You've seen them around town. Rolling on the asphalt at Astor Place and Union Square in their underwear. Sometimes in the rain . Bearded men in women's one-piece bathing suits and motorcycle helmets, women in glitter and furry brassieres, getting dirty, joyfully grappling one another, repeating the same words over and over. (Sometimes, the Van Gogh lookalike walks by .) They operate like a hive-minded flock, moving like starlings, in fleshy murmurations. Coming together, splitting apart, reforming in a new shape each time. Some weeks ago, I came upon them in dishwater-dull Times Square, during a hunt for something New York, something startling and weird . Some sign, to quote Frank O'Hara, "that people do not totally regret life." In the soul-deadening crush of selfie sticks and Bubba Gump, I felt greatly relieved to see them in their strange and sweaty scrum of pre-Bloombergian delirium. But who are they and what are they all about? I reached out to group co-o...

VANISHED The NYC Firestore has been in business since 1991, first on Lafayette and then on Greenwich Avenue. Owner Noam Freedman wrote in to let us know that his shop has been forced to shutter. " The end came five years ago when they closed St. Vincent's Hospital ," Noam says. "This pulled several thousand people out of the area each day. For the past five years we have been dying a slow death, borrowing from here to pay there, depleting our savings, selling our home, trying to find a level where the math worked, but each year the target moved a little further away. This year we were finally done in by construction all around the shop, road closures, and the final blow--the building was wrapped in scaffolding two months ago. A perfect storm for retail failure." It's an all too familiar story for small businesses in the post-St. Vincent's urban blight of the Village . Noam and Annie. Photo: DNAInfo Noam offers the following description of t...

VANISHING In the Parkchester section of the Bronx, an entire block of mom and pops -- run by dozens of small business people -- are about to vanish , thanks to one $15 million development deal. The Real Deal reported last month: "The buyers are planning to demolish all structures and will likely construct one large building on the site." Google street view Local resident Nicholas Farfan alerted me to the story and kindly supplied photos, quotes, and reports from just a few of the many business people who are being pushed out with little notice. all photos by Nicholas Farfan Delia Velovic has owned Leonard's Bake Shop for over 37 years. "I'm not ready to move," she told Farfan. "I don't want to go somewhere else. This is where we started. We're an old-fashioned bakery. We can't compete." She explained how her former landlord, Mr. Eisenberg, allowed the bakery to operate out of the back of the building after a car crash...

Earlier this month I shared the sad news that Louis Shoe Rebuilders, after 94 years in business, is getting the boot from the Empire State Building . (And it was there before the Empire State Building.) This Thursday, June 18, starting at 12:00 noon, #SaveNYC is holding a funeral for the shop. Please take some time on your lunch break to show your support , not just of Louis, but of all small businesses in the city that have stood the test of time, continue to be good tenants and provide valuable services, but still have no power when the landlord hikes the rent and says it's over. Enough is enough. Meet at the shop, 25 W. 33rd Street, street side of the Empire State Building. Bring old shoes and flowers as an offering. Dress in funeral black. Eulogies welcome and encouraged . We expect the great Penny Arcade to deliver a fierce one. Click here for the Facebook invite Read about the shop Join #SaveNYC and add your voice to the fight

Last week, author and journalist Amy Rose Spiegel asked me to make a diary of my Saturday for her site Enormous Eye, where writers record the details of their Saturdays, including people like Luc Sante and Tavi Gevinson , and a whole bunch more. Here are a few photos to accompany my Saturday diary, which you can read here , should you so desire.

The deli/market on University Place and 13th Street is no more. On Twitter, Deb Schwartz posted a photo of the shuttered spot and noted that the place has been here for 47 years: Chris Bandini sends in a shot of the market's heartfelt goodbye sign. Lee, its author, begins: "Thank you for letting us serve you for last 30 years," and remembers watching children grow into adults, get married, and pass on. This is why we grieve the loss of mom and pops as they're evicted and replaced by national chains, luxury condos, and banks -- because they are family. They know us and we know them. This was a good market--an alternative (one of the last) to the glut of ever-spreading chains in the area . I don't know why the University Place deli has closed, but this entire area is being wiped out . The deli's building is right next to what had been the Bowlmor Lanes building , gutted and soon demolished for luxury condos. What will be the fate of this little tenem...

VANISHED? This past April, the nearly 90-year-old Palm Restaurant closed for renovations . Now we hear speculation that The Palm may never open again. A tipster who wishes to remain anonymous shared the following in an email: "There are very strong rumors that the original Palm Restaurant is not merely closed for renovations. I have heard from a very reliable source, who is in touch with people who work at other Palm restaurants in the city, that the building is not salvageable. What was supposed to be less than a one-year renovation may actually be a tear down. This would be another major loss for NYC." I've shared rumors here before -- the takeover of El Quijote , the destruction of Caffe Dante , the murder of Manatus --  and I don't do it lightly. Unfortunately, while owners deny and neighbors say "no way," the rumors usually turn out to be true. If this is the case for The Palm, it will be another tragedy on the scale of Chumley's...

VANISHING Reader Shade Rupe writes in with the news that Tribeca Cinemas will be closing: "just last week the landlord told them they have to move out by the end of the month. They’re razing the building and...you know the drill." The drill, according to the New York Post , is that the building is on the market and "could be transformed into all residential or all office... 'We think it will trade for over $120 million,' the broker told the paper. ' It has high ceilings and is great loft space--it’s what Tribeca is all about .'" As the Real Deal reported last year when the building was first being shopped around, "The property also comes with unused air rights which could allow for the construction of more units." While the Post does not specifically mention the cinema's closure, a source close to Shade spoke to some employees: "They told me they just found out last week. Everyone there is really shocked as this came ou...

VANISHING Last year, after more than 25 years in Chelsea, Alan's Alley video store, beloved by many, was forced to close . The rent was too damn high and, as Alan told me at the time, "the landlord's got plans. He's looking for a new tenant." The shop relocated to West 25th, to a fifth-floor location far away from pedestrian street traffic. Now we hear that Alan is having to close again. The follow message appeared on his Facebook page last week: Meanwhile, the store's old space on 9th Avenue remains empty, another example of " high-rent blight ."

Filmmaker and poet Stephanie Gray has been filming the city since 1998. From June 12 - 14, she's having a three-day retrospective at Anthology Film Archives . On June 14, her experimental films of lost places, like Zito's Bakery and the Cheyenne Diner, will be the focus, accompanied by live musical performance and her own poetry. I asked Steph to tell us about her work: " I made the films to preserve what is fading from NYC authenticity and from our memory due to hyper-gentrification . I picked places that were closing soon or places that evoked a certain kind of NY character. Of course, not all places have I gotten to film. The music and poetry allows for viewers to move into their own reflection of these disappearances. These authentic mom-and-pop places often disappear when we are not looking. Each and every one of these places holds a piece of a real and not hyper-manufactured NYC. Gertel's and Five Roses Pizza got some attention but not as much as other ...