Vanishing New York Backup

If you've ever been to a movie at the Museum of Modern Art (or Cinema Village or Film Forum) you may have encountered a cinemaniac. Obsessed and cantankerous, they are masters of the shush. I once witnessed them nearly lynch an elderly woman for the crime of loudly unwrapping a hard candy. If you go to a movie here, you have to submit to the madness. Enjoy it. This is where all the eccentrics who've been driven from the streets of Manhattan have washed up. I don't go to the MoMA movies as often as I used to, but I hear those characters are still there. What makes them so dyspeptic? I suspect they shush so violently because, like many anxious obsessive-compulsives, they likely suffer from misophonia, an extreme sensitivity to annoying sounds . Researchers have also found a relationship between misophonia and the schizotypal personality . Schizotypals are your garden variety eccentrics. And they're a vanishing breed in New York City. These are people who don...

Gentrification is slow. Hyper-gentrification is fast . We're really not dealing with old-fashioned gentrification anymore, as much as people keep talking about it. For a look at what happened--and keeps happening--to large swaths of Brooklyn in less than 10 years, check out Brooklyn Flux, a series of before-and-after photos by Kristy Chatelain . all photos by Kristy Chatelain Taken along the waterfront of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, from 2007 to present, the photos mostly show the kind of change that is sweeping the city--from industrial and scruffy to sleek and trendy. Or vacant. Signs of the former population, like a Puerto Rican flag in graffiti, are replaced by the symbols of the new population, i.e., old-timey typefaces, gold-leaf signage, wine bars. And on it goes.

The Clinton Chronicle reports that beloved Hell's Kitchen dive bar Rudy's Bar & Grill is under attack by Community Board 4 for serving alcohol in its backyard late into the night. Saundra Halbertstam and Eliot Camerara report that members of Community Board 4 have "actively worked to shut down and destroy Rudy’s Bar and Grille, a Hell’s Kitchen landmark, in business since 1933." The writers says these members have "prompted complaints against Rudy’s Bar" and "smeared Rudy’s by sending word through the community that they were operating without proper licenses." So far, Rudy's owners have spent $24,000 defending the bar. It's a lengthy story--to read the whole piece, pick up a copy of the Clinton Chronicle or read the PDF here . Saundra gave me the upshot in an email: "By closing the backyard, they will force Rudy's to close, since the back represents over 30% of their revenue." photo: retro roadmap News of n...

The Pathmark supermarket on East Harlem's 125th Street closed this weekend amid controversy , more controversy , and the despair of 30,000 customers who have few places left to buy groceries. After the Pathmark opened in 1999, a number of small grocers shut down, leaving residents dependent on the big supermarket. The Times reported that the grocery store's intended role would be to increase development : "the Pathmark's popularity is having a big impact on the neighborhood. Not only has it altered the fortunes of the unsightly intersection where it is located, it is also helping to spur development across 125th Street." At the time, Karen A. Phillips, chief executive of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, who put in the store, said the supermarket had "done what it was supposed to do -- inspire new commercial development" through the heart of Harlem. Then, last year, Abyssinian sold the Pathmark site to mega-developer Extell for nearly ...

A couple of years ago, I visited Jerry Ohlinger's amazing movie material store in the Garment District. In business since 1976, it was the last store in New York City dedicated to movie photos. Struggling with the rent, Jerry closed his shop and moved most of his "one million and one hundred thousand" photos to a warehouse in New Jersey as he downsized to a much smaller shop on West 30th, with limited hours. Now Jerry needs help. The items in the warehouse need to be moved again, and there's no money to do it. Visit his GoFundMe page and consider giving him a hand. Read my whole story on Jerry's former shop at The New Yorker .

The following is a guest post by Mitch Broder, author and blogger . It’s unlikely that nineteenth-century New York had an oatmeal saloon, but it reportedly had several hundred oyster saloons. The city more or less launched its food scene with its oyster joints, which set the stage for the present-day oatmeal joint, not to mention the present-day stuffed-bagel-ball joint. In this century, spots like those two have been proliferating, not surprisingly as store rents have been tripling and sextupling. Non-billionaires who have a dream of opening a traditional city restaurant often find themselves scaling the dream down to, say, a city schnitzel spot. This economic reality is what inspired me to write a book called New York’s One-Food Wonders: A Guide to the Big Apple’s Unique Single-Food Spots . The book tells the stories of all our offbeat one-food places, along with the stories of all our offbeat one-thing places. My previous book, Discovering Vintage New York , covers the cit...

Lately, there's been a reappearance of the infamous East Village graffiti symbol "The Party's Over," the upside-down martini glass created by Peter Missing to protest gentrification and development in the neighborhood. You'll see them around if you look. There's one now on the plywood that wraps the construction of Ben "The Sledgehammer" Shaoul's 100 Avenue A, where the ground-floor retail space was just listed at $24.5 million . In silver marker someone has written EAT THE RICH and MUG A YUPPIE. "The martini glass became a symbol of causing trouble," radical comic book artist Seth Tobocman told the Times in 2002. "To a lot of people it said, 'Start something." Is someone trying to start something today, in this new age of hyper-gentrification? Peter Missing replies on Facebook: "this is not my writing ,,,,nor would i ever write mug a yuppie ,,,,,,the sad side of people coopting my logo." For histor...

The Lost Arcade , a new documentary film by Kurt Vincent and Irene Chin, tells the story of the legendary Chinatown Fair. On Mott Street since 1944, the arcade owners lost their lease in 2011 and made plans to move to Brooklyn. New York Daily Photo "Its very existence was an anachronism," said The Verge ; "the lone hold-out of a culture that had been long since overshadowed by the meteoric rise of home consoles." The arcade managed to re-open in the same spot, but it wasn't the same. Co-owner Lonnie Sobel called it "a cross between Dave & Busters and Chuck E. Cheese." "But as the neighborhood gentrified," the filmmakers write, "this haven for a diverse, unlikely community faced its strongest challenge, inspiring its biggest devotees to next-level greatness." See The Lost Arcade at its world premier November 14 and 18 at IFC Center as part of DOC NYC. Click here for tickets. Exclusively for Vanishing New York...

Norwood Rexall Drugs in Astoria has been in its spot for 60 years, but it was recently forced to move by a rent hike, according to a note in the window. Reader Scott Levine sends in a photo of the letter to customers from owner Syed Naqvi, who's been running the shop since 1977. He explains that the building was purchased by TK Management. And then, " All of a sudden, the new owner wants to double the rent , plus add the real estate taxes, without giving us reasonable notice." photo by Scott Levine The storefront is an antique, with curved, deeply set window displays and a vintage Rexall sign on the glass. 2014 -- photo by Nancy A. Ruhling Mr. Naqvi was featured in a HuffPo piece last year. He told Nancy Ruhling about his move from Pakistan, and how he worked hard to take over the drugstore and keep it going over the years. "The price wasn't high because the owner was retiring," he said of the time, "and the shelves were bare because he...

This month, Verso Books publishes Kenneth Goldsmith's Capital , "a kaleidoscopic assemblage and poetic history of New York." Inspired by Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project , Goldsmith has spent the past decade researching and assembling a super-abundance of quotes on New York City, and then organizing them into categories like Celebrity, Danger, Graffiti, and Sex. The result is far from a simple quote book, however. Reading Capital feels like walking the city, through time and space, jumping neighborhoods, going in and out of buildings, slipping through wormholes. It's a kind of exuberant eavesdropping on the muttering, shouting narrative of the twentieth-century city. I asked Goldsmith a few questions. He answered. Q: I've been enjoying Capital, but is it meant to be enjoyed? You've called yourself "the most boring writer that has ever lived." Capital is not boring. Does this book feel like a departure from previous work? A: I actually ...

After the heartbreaking loss of the Market Diner , we're about to lose yet another vintage diner for yet another massive luxury development. Over on the West Side Highway, between Clarkson and Leroy Streets, there is--and was--a block of low-rise buildings, a wonderfully crummy vestige of pre-glitz New York City. There was a car wash, a company that specialized in structural steel fasteners, an autobody shop, and a former old-school adult entertainment joint. In between stands a chrome and lime-green Kullman diner that dates back to the 1940s or '50s. It was the Terminal Diner , the Lunchbox Diner, and a few other places before it shuttered in 2006. This past weekend, a green wall of plywood was erected around the block-long site, readying it all for demolition and the construction of 357 West Street , an undulating luxury condo tower from Ian Schrager. While the coming of the condo development has made news, no one seems to have mentioned the little Kullman diner-...

VANISHING Art Cove has been selling art and craft supplies in Ridgewood, Queens, for 44 years. But no more. On their Facebook page they've announced: "Ridgewood, New York, has become too fancy for Artcove. After 44 years we will be closing at the end of this year." Ridgewood Social writes: "Art Cove is a craft supply store lost in time. With its original awning still in place, they have become a staple of Ridgewood’s past. As major craft chains move towards only scrap-booking, Art Cove maintains its roots as a place to buy supplies for all sorts of crafts." But as we keep hearing, Ridgewood is the new Williamsburg . Or the new Bushwick , which was once the new Williamsburg. Anyway, it's the " next big neighborhood ." It's even got a Twitter page called Gentrify Ridgewood! So much for those cheaper rents. Think you're safe in your outer borough hideaway? Think again. No neighborhood is safe from the juggernaut of hyper-ge...

VANISHED Artie's hardware store on West 14th Street has been forced to close. A merger of Aaron Hotz Locksmith and Hardware Mart, in one form or another, Artie's was in business for over 85 years. Reader Tom Bernardin writes in to report: "I was told the rent was going up to $30,000." Artie's was in a Pratt building. Now Pratt's got the windows papered with a giant advertisement for a fashion show. Pratt recently made news for evicting staff and faculty members from the art school's Brooklyn campus , including 79-year-old head engineer Conrad Milster, the man in charge of the once-beloved, now vanished New Year's Eve steam whistle. So there you go. photo: thomasokeefe's instagram

VANISHED This weekend I had a last meal at the Market Diner, shuttered now and waiting for the Moinian Group's wrecking machines to flatten it, so yet another soul-murdering, high-rise luxury condo can rise. Aren't there enough of those already? The place is surrounded by luxury towers. In fact, Moinian has another pair right across the avenue. From the windows of the Market Diner you can watch "The Sky" rise, wrapped in the slogan: "Live the Sky Life." With 1,175 rental units, The Sky is currently the city's biggest residential tower , literally blotting out the actual sky. And right next to that is Moinian's massive Atelier condo tower. The 13-story tower to rise on Market Diner's grave will make it a trio. These buildings are here because the city rezoned the far west side as part of the Special Hudson Yards District and the Special Clinton District. They're here because the city government wants them here. Meanwhile, insid...