Vanishing New York Backup

After nearly 30 years in business, Rodeo Bar closed in 2014 due to rising rents and encroaching chain stores. This summer, Kips Bay Corner reported that the Gem Saloon would be moving in, a bar and restaurant by the owner of Phebe's and Penny Farthing. They're doing a "complete makeover." So, as of today, there's goes the old neon sign. Heidi MacDonald, via her Instagram

Gleason's Boxing Gym , in DUMBO before it was fashionably DUMBO, moved locations yesterday. It hasn't gone far, just around the corner. But the gritty old joint is packed up and gone, and the new place is shiny and, well, new. As Alex Vadukul wrote in the Times last week, "the relocation leaves behind an era’s worth of sweat and grime that has accumulated in this temple to the sweet science." Jared Goldstein Jared "The NYC Tour Guide" Goldstein shared a few photos of Gleason's last day in the old spot, just as it was being dismantled. Jared Goldstein I can't say I've ever been a boxer, but I went now and then to Gleason's twenty years ago, just to be in its atmosphere. I remember walking there through a Brooklyn waterfront wasteland, smoking a cigarette while standing in some yellow weeds full of trash. I was heavy into Joyce Carol Oates' "On Boxing, " which I recommend, if you want to read something beautiful...

Reader Pat lets us know: "a new diner finally replaced the old Lyric," in Gramercy. "Don't know much else, I only used to get breakfast in the Lyric, so not sure how the prices compare. Anyway, it is a diner, the new Tivoli." The Lyric vanished, then returned, then vanished again last spring. This summer, DNA reported that Gus Kassimis, owner of the Gemini Diner on East 35th, planned to open the Tivoli. He calls it a "traditional diner with newer flair." Score one for Greek diners. And just in time, too. Yesterday, George Blecher at the Times published an evocative piece about the city's vanishing diner culture : "Losing New York diner culture would probably be a watershed in the city’s history. How will New Yorkers get along without these antidotes to urban loneliness?" “The coffee shop orients us here, in this city and not another,” Jeremiah Moss, of the blog Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, said. “If we are regulars, we bec...

Like many of the lobbies and entrances of our old buildings, the Garment District's Bricken Arcade Building is getting a glossy contemporary makeover. Reader Leah Mulartrick wrote in to let us know: "I am sorry to report that the elevators were replaced in the Bricken Arcade building where Mood Fabrics is at 225 west 37th. The elevators were beautiful and old and had operators. Much to my dismay, I went to Mood Fabrics the other day and the elevators were replaced with generic silver boxes ." BEFORE. Source: 42 floors What a difference it makes. I have not been to the Bricken Arcade, haven't visited Mood Fabrics nor taken a ride in the elevators. But it's clear from the photos that something warm and humane has been taken away. AFTER. Photo: Leah Mulartrick And what happened to the elevator operators? A number of Mood's customers have posted photos of them online. One called the men "chivalrous." Leah recalls, "I would exchange ...

A reader writes in to let us know that the Schwarzenbach Silk Clock has been returned to 470 Park Avenue South. New location--unfortunately shared with a Capital One sign In the spring of 2014 we heard the clock had been removed during an upscale renovation of the building, and that it might never be returned to the exterior where it has been enjoyed by the public since 1926. When we checked in this past spring, the clock had still not returned . Alfred Schwarzenbach's granddaughter wrote in, expressing her dismay. Finally, we heard from TIAA-CREF, who runs the building, that the clock would be restored and returned. Our tipster adds: "The new clock location is at the northeast corner of the building (or the southwest corner of Park and 32nd). I heard it took 8 hours to reinstall--and the clock mechanism isn't working yet." So the question remains: Will the clock still function? Save America's Clocks called it "One of three mechanical clocks in M...

This morning I shared the news that the Lenox Lounge might be demolished completely. Now Harlem Bespoke offers the architect's rendering of what's to come (thanks Andrew)--and it's horrifying: Horrifying. Right down to the architect's choice to depict Harlemites as rich Anglo-Saxon conquerors with cell phones, shopping bags--and formal wear.

Is it possible that the former Lenox Lounge will be completely demolished? *UPDATE: Yes--and here's what's coming. New York Yimby notes: "An anonymous Midtown East-based LLC has filed applications for a four-story, 18,987-square-foot commercial building at 286 Lenox Avenue." So, either two stories will be added to the existing building, or the whole thing will be torn down and replaced. The Lenox Lounge closed on New Year's Eve 2013 after 73 years in Harlem. The landlord had doubled the rent from $10,000 to $20,000 and handed the lease to Richie Notar, the jet-setting entrepreneur behind the Nobu luxury restaurant chain. "I don’t want to change a thing about how it looks," Notar told the Daily News , adding that his renamed Notar Jazz Club would be "not too much different than what it is now." But lounge owner Alvin Reed stripped the vintage facade before he left, rather than have its history co-opted. Someone spray-painted "...

This morning, the Astor Place cube is finally spinning again. No lights. No motors. No bells and whistles. Just, at this moment, a lady in a red beret--pushing with all her might.

Some good fucking news for a change! I got this email last night from Toby Cox, owner of Three Lives & Co. bookshop. Their building sold to a luxury developer last month and many of us were in a state of panic about their fate. Dear Three Lives & Company Customers, We have wonderful news to share with you – we are here to stay! As most of you know our building recently sold and after a tenuous month-to-month situation since January we have now completed negotiations on a new lease with the new owners. I have put signature to paper. We are delighted with the cooperation we have had with the new owners, grateful for the opportunity to work out a new lease to remain in our home of thirty-three years, and we thank them for their commitment to keep Three Lives & Company in the West Village. I would also like to thank our customers for the incredible support and amazing outpouring of appreciation we have received these recent months. Through all this uncertainty, hea...

VANISHED The last Chino-Latino restaurant in Chelsea has been seized and shuttered. El Paraiso opened on West 14th Street in 2012, replacing El Nueva Rampa, which closed in 2011 . These establishments began opening in the 1960s, when many of Cuba's Chinese population fled from Castro. Diners' favorites included La Chinita Linda and Sam's Chinita. Both are gone. And then there was La Taza de Oro, which closed in 2015 after 68 years in business. In the window of El Paraiso is a "Marshal's Legal Possession" notice dated from September. So I guess it's been empty since then. Unless someone does with El Paraiso what it did with El Nueva Rampa, that--I'm pretty sure--is the end of the Chino-Latino tradition in Chelsea.

Last week, Curbed shared photos from the marketing materials for the new luxury development of the former Domino Sugar refinery . The place is now being called "The Refinery." Because, yes, that's what the building was, but also--obviously--because that's what the developers (and City Hall) want the luxury development to do. It will help to refine the neighborhood. What do refineries do? They cleanse. They purify. Sugar refineries, in particular, take darker materials and turn them white. That is also being done--has been done--to Williamsburg and to much of Brooklyn and the city. New York is becoming exponentially whiter every day, thanks to hyper-gentrification. The process acts as one big refinery, a factory for smoothing and bleaching. Mayor de Blasio appears to be all for this. Or else he's been brainwashed by the neoliberal free-marketeer myth that luxury development is inevitable. (It is not.) He recently told Crain's NYC Summit conferen...

Jill Hing's brothers opened the San Loco taco joint in the East Village in 1986. A year later, Jill followed her brothers, moving to New York City from rural Nebraska. She soon joined the business. San Loco has been a Lower East Side staple ever since. On a personal note, I've been living off their tacos for half my life. Recently, Jill got in touch to talk about the struggles of running a small business in the city today. "We have been feeling unbelievable pressure caused by the increased cost of doing business for quite a few years now," she wrote. "At this point, we are not sure how much longer we can hang on." I asked Jill a few questions about San Loco's struggles in a rigged system where small businesses get the shaft--while big national chains get preferential rents from landlords, higher property values from banks, and corporate welfare from City Hall. Q: What's been the biggest struggle to San Loco's survival these days? A: Th...