Vanishing New York Backup

Reader Monique wrote in to say: "The Sile sign is gone on Centre Market Place, seemingly overnight. I work on the block in a converted gun shop and was comforted by its sight daily. All of a sudden it is gone, turned into white... nothing." The white nothing, photograph by Monique I wrote about the vanished gun shops of Centre Market Place back in 2011--trust me, it's a fascinating bit of history . The Sile sign was the last remnant of the gun district. These little things. They matter in the psychogeography of the city. 2011

VANISHING After 40 years, Angelica Kitchen is closing. Civil Eats Gothamist reports: "The restaurant had been struggling for several years, particularly because rents in the area have become almost unbearable for independent businesses. A new lease McEachern signed in 2014 was for over $21,000 a month—keeping in mind that doesn't include additional expenses including utilities, taxes, insurance, payroll, etc.—up from $450 a month when the restaurant first opened nearby on St. Marks Place."

On April 4, at the New York City International Film Festival , you can see Roger Paradiso's "The Lost Village," the story of NYU and real estate in Greenwich Village. Here's the synopsis: "Once a haven for the proverbial starving artist who brought creativity as their currency, the Village is now a hangout for cover bands and Wall Street hipsters hopelessly aspiring to recreate something that is lost. We encounter testimony of NYU students turning to prostitution to pay NYU’s predatory tuition that fuels NYU’s real estate ambitions. We find 'Mom and Pop Shops' in trouble. Their closures have changed the culture and character of our Village. High rents and no regulations cause over 1,000 small businesses to leave New York City every month. Can the Village be saved? Or is Greenwich Village lost forever?" Watch the trailer here : The Lost Village Trailer 2.28.17 from Roger Paradiso on Vimeo . See the film at The Producers Club, 358 W...

The trophy hunters have snared Pearl Paint and stuck its head on a pike. Curbed reports: "Pearl Paint, the beloved downtown art supply store, closed in 2014 , but a piece of the shop still lives on—in the new, pricey rentals that have just hit the market in its former Canal Street headquarters. Listings for four apartments that sit atop the former art shop just appeared, with the cheapest going for $16,000/month, and the priciest—a top-floor penthouse—asking $18,000/month." And: "Unsurprisingly, they’re using the store as a selling point: the brokerbabble touts the apartments as being part of 'the stunning residential conversion of the iconic art store,' and the neon 'Pearl Paint' sign that once hung on the flagship is now installed in the building’s lobby. (One could see this as either a nice piece of historic preservation, or an egregious way of capitalizing on the store’s historic cachet. We’ll let you make that call.)"

If you haven't yet gone to see the Martin Scorsese show at the Museum of the Moving Image , go soon. You've got another month. It is pure New York. That's all I've got to say about that. And this is the table and chairs from Scorsese's parents' home on Mulberry Street, as seen in the great 1974 film " Italianamerican ."

Back in the "crime and grime" 1980s, Michael DiPaolo walked the streets of Times Square (and "other equally sleazy parts of New York City") with a hidden camera, secretly filming the whores, hustlers, homeless, and other denizens who came out after midnight. The result is " City of Sin ," a compilation of footage from DiPaolo's nighttime walks. I asked the filmmaker a few quick questions: What inspired you to do the hidden camera? Well my “day job” at that time was videotaping confessions for the Brooklyn DA’s Office, where I also did some surveillance stuff and I thought I could get a more “real” unguarded view that way. In addition, I was planning on going down to the West 20s/30s to video the prostitutes, and I knew that there would be no way in hell to do that without hiding the camera. Finally, I wanted to get some background footage for a couple of shot-on-video features I would later complete in 1988 and 1989--Bought and Sold and Requie...

VANISHED photo by Brian Brian writes in about the closure of Merchants, a popular Chelsea restaurant that had been at 17th Street and 7th Avenue for 25 years: "The owner was papering up the place because they closed on the 28th. I knew that the day was coming because a developer bought the corner of that block and shuttered the health food grill and the bodega last year. In fact, the bodega owner I’d known for 16 years was so upset that he went home and died of a heart attack. They had just put money into remodeling, a brand new awning, and repainting. Now it’s a graffiti magnet." I reported on the bodega's closure in July . It is, indeed, still sitting empty, more high-rent blight, collecting graffiti and garbage. The new awning has been carved up, the name of the store removed. Brian continues: "I spoke with the owner of Merchants and he told me landlords in the area are using the new Barney’s as a benchmark for their rents , meaning they’re not g...

Many of you have noticed the vintage Loft's Candies sign downtown on Nassau Street--I wrote about it here back in September. Two Boots Pizza is moving in to the space--and they say on Twitter they're restoring the sign. So it's not going anywhere.

For over 20 years, I've been going to Katz's deli on the Lower East Side. I go because I love the atmosphere, the history, the aroma. I get hot dogs, mostly, and egg creams. I go alone and I go with friends. But, lately, I don't go at all. I can't get in the door. There are too many tourists . Way too many. Sure, tourists have always filled Katz's, but now it's out of control. They line up down the block, keeping New Yorkers from easily accessing this local treasure. The last time I tried to get into Katz's, I thought maybe the line was from a tour, waiting to go in as a group, so I walked in the door. The bouncer--yes, the bouncer--stopped me and told me to get in line. No, thanks. I left. I'm not sure if I'll ever get back inside. It's like this every day. And now that the Carnegie Deli is gone , the tourist hordes will only get worse at Katz's. No longer content to stay in tourist-centric parts of town like Times Square, they...

Last night, someone slathered the East Village with posters of the President of the United States explaining his method of sexual assault. It's the old "grab 'em by the pussy" speech. Just in time for today's Women's Strike .

I wrote the following essay three years ago, when Cobble Court, aka the "Goodnight Moon" house,  was under threat of possible demolition. (It seems to be safe now.) I interviewed Mrs. Bernhard, who moved the house to the Village, but never posted the story. This week marks the 50th anniversary of the house's move. So here's the story--as written in July 2014. New York Times There is a house on Charles Street in Greenwich Village that captivates every passerby. Long ago named Cobble Court for the cobblestones that have surrounded it, the two-story dwelling looks like something out of a storybook. In its white clapboard and blue trim, the house slants at odd angles, standing asymmetrically on a green sheet of grass framed by a high wall covered in ivy and climbing roses. In spring, a cherry tree lowers its bright red fruits over the wall, almost low enough to pluck. If this fairytale wooden farmhouse looks out of place among the hulking bricks of former tenements ...

From HarperCollins' Dey Street Books, Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul is now available to pre-order wherever books are sold. (Nudge, nudge, buy it from your local independent bookshop.) Look at that cover! What's the book all about? Here's the copy: An unflinching chronicle of gentrification in the twenty-first century and a love letter to lost New York by the creator of the popular and incendiary blog Vanishing New York. For generations, New York City has been a mecca for artists, writers, and other hopefuls longing to be part of its rich cultural exchange and unique social fabric. But today, modern gentrification is transforming the city from an exceptional, iconoclastic metropolis into a suburbanized luxury zone with a price tag only the one percent can afford. A Jane Jacobs for the digital age, blogger and cultural commentator Jeremiah Moss has emerged as one of the most outspoken and celebrated critics of this dramatic shift. In Vanishing...

VANISHED French bistro Chez Jacqueline opened on MacDougal Street in 1982. And now it's gone. photo: Judy's Book The last Yelp review was from January, so it must have shuttered recently. If you know what happened to Chez Jacqueline, please let us know.