Vanishing New York Backup

VANISHING The Riviera Cafe will have its last day of business tomorrow, on August 31, as previously reported here . So I went for a last meal. They've redone their menu to feature a goodbye note and family photos. "Yes, it's true," the menu reads. "We will be closing our doors for the last time on August 31. It has been a great run of 47 years ." The letter recalls the old days--and the old prices--and says, "the current landscape is nothing like it was... we are now saturated with restaurants that keep coming and going. They usually don't last long, but sure enough someone else always shows up to take over. After nearly a half-century, we decided it was time." "Simply put, given the current environment we can't survive and be what we've always been: a nice neighborhood coffee shop/restaurant that welcomes all with no pretense at an affordable price. And we aren't going to change that format to 'keep up with t...

This summer, Columbia University Press published Do You Have a Band? Poetry and Punk Rock in New York City by Daniel Kane. I asked Daniel a few questions about his book. Q: You make the point throughout the book that poetry in the 1950s and 60s, specifically New York School and Beat poetry, was far more transgressive than rock and roll of that time. How so? A: Well, poets could write things like "fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy" as Allen Ginsberg did in his poem "Howl," or publish a magazine entitled "Fuck You: a magazine of the arts," as Ed Sanders did, and kind of get away with it. Sure, these poets faced hassles with the law--Ginsberg's publishers were charged with obscenity, as was Sanders later on, but these charges were later dismissed. These poets set the stage for the literary freedoms we've enjoyed since. Pop music at the time simply didn't have that kind of radical ambition or sense of possib...

VANISHING Clayworks pottery shop and studio has been on E. 9th Street since 1974. In mid-September, it will be forced to shutter. In a letter to her customers, potter Helaine Sorgen writes: "Clayworks survived everything the mad universe pitched at it--Hurricane Sandy, blizzards, The Great Recession, swastikas painted across the storefront, the front window being intentionally blown out, water main breaks, ceiling caves, the crack epidemic, and of course 9/11... That is, until the recent and well documented invasion of the EV by predatory landlords and perfidious financiers. You see, Clayworks now occupies real estate deemed too valuable to allow it to stay. The new building owner and the plethora of shell companies he hides behind wants me out, and this is a war that I cannot win. I have spent the past 2 years fighting. I am tired and my time is up. Let me be clear—this is not the story of an unsuccessful store hanging on for dear life. This is the intentional stomping...

The Golden Food Market on 7th St. and 1st Ave. shuttered suddenly a few weeks ago. As Grieve reported at the time: An LLC bought the building for $5.8 million. "According to a reader who spoke with the Golden Food Market (aka Ali's) staff, the lease was up for renewal and the new landlord wanted an increase that was more than the store could manage." This week, someone has expressed their displeasure about the closing, writing "EXORBITANT RENT" across the front door. Inside, the place is already gutted. And through an upstairs window, an apartment is gutted, too. No doubt, there is more to come. This graffitist has a lot more work to do. If the City Council had passed the Small Business Jobs Survival Act by now, we might still have our corner market. You can help before the next one goes.

We knew it was coming, but still. To stroll out of Tompkins Square Park on a hot summer evening earlier this week and see a Starbucks, smack on the corner of St. Mark's and Avenue A, well, it was shocking. And yet not shocking enough. To say it doesn't belong there feels right, but "there" isn't there anymore. New York recedes into the past. Our old pizza place long gone. Same corner, 2011, Google Maps And all that came before. So continues the devolution of authentic to mass-produced, local to globalized, mom-and-pop to corporate monoculture. Call it whatever you want, just don't call it "alive." Same corner, 1980s, photo by Brooke Smith How did it begin? Starbucks was already on Astor Place when they sued local East Village shop Little Rickie in 1999 for selling stickers that changed the words on the Starbucks Coffee logo to say FUCK OFF. Starbucks also sued a number of other local businesses for distributing the stickers, i...

The Village Voice is vanishing from the streets of New York--and something critical will go with it. Yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter announced that the Voice will soon be going digital only. No more print. No more paper. No more ink. After 62 years of gracing the streets of the city, from newsstands to red boxes, no more. The decision came from the paper's latest owner, Peter Barbey , media mogul and heir to the billion-dollar fortune behind retail brands like The North Face and Timberland. Barbey has recently been at the center of a struggle with the Voice 's union workers--they published an open letter to him just last month, asking him not to weaken the union and cut benefits . And now this cut. Across social media, public outcry against the decision was swift, with many New Yorkers fondly recalling the days of waiting for the paper to come out each week, lining up at the old newsstand on Astor Place to grab the first copies from the pile, to be the first to ...

Two years ago, a little taxi parts shop called, aptly, Taxi Parts, was forced out of its long-time home and moved to the East Village. Now it's gone. As E.V. Grieve reported, they moved to East Harlem . We can guess it was the rent that pushed them out. Before this, the shop had been up on 10th Avenue and 35th St. for 25 years, on the ground floor of an old tenement building near Hudson Yards. They had to move when it was decreed that the building would be demolished for the Hudson Spire, planned to be the tallest building in the United States. But, as Curbed reported last year, " those plans have since been abandoned ." So the original Taxi Parts space sits empty. And now the next Taxi Parts space sits empty -- along with a few other empty spaces along First Avenue in the East Village. This is what happens in the hyper-gentrified city. Stable, long-lasting small businesses get pushed around by rising rents and developers, and then they're not so stable anym...

The first building in the luxury mega-development replacing Williamsburg's Domino Sugar factory is now seeking tenants. 325 Kent just put out the welcome mat, a big banner on view to Manhattanites along the East River. Go close-up and you'll find their "Walk-ins Welcome" signs feature different flavors of doughnuts. They look artisanal, of course, because it's Williamsburg. (Does the neighborhood still hawk hundred-dollar doughnuts dipped in 24-karat gold ?) They're also square, like the building, and no doubt are meant to appeal to the foodies who have claimed Brooklyn in the 2000s. Anyway, I walked in, but didn't feel especially welcome and walked right back out. As Curbed reported: "market-rate apartments in the building will start at $2,495 for studios, $3,250 for one-bedrooms, and $5,195 for two bedrooms." And "The first retail tenant will be a 4,000-square-foot outpost of Clinton Hill craft beer bar Mekelburg’s, known f...

Empire City , a documentary film from 1985, is now streaming for rental on Vimeo . While it was originally meant to contrast 1980s New York with the "golden age" from 1830 - 1930, it provides a rare and fascinating glimpse of the city at the very moment it shifted fully from the socially progressive era and into the Neoliberal Age of radical free-market economics . Looking back three decades later, we can see the beginning of the glossy, greedy epoch in which we now live. The film features the creators of today's city, from Donald Trump to Felix Rohatyn and David Rockefeller. In one scene, a young Trump stands with Mayor Ed Koch at a topping-out ceremony for yet another Midtown tower and says, "This mayor has created such a tremendous atmosphere with respect to the city of New York. Eight years ago, I must say, I was embarrassed to say I was in the real estate business in New York. Today, I can honestly say I'm proud of it." That atmosphere was on...

Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese has qualified to debate Mayor Bill de Blasio. The first primary debate is scheduled for August 23 at 7:00PM (aired on NY1 and WNYC radio), and the second is on September 6 at 7:00PM (WCBS-TV, 1010 WINS, and NewsRadio 88). photo: Jennifer S. Altman From the press release: "Sal Albanese’s mayoral campaign reports that not only has the campaign had its best fundraising month ever – bringing in about $65,000 – but that the campaign has exceeded the financial 'raise and spend' bar required to be in the official debates. The campaign has raised approximately $190,000, and has spent at least $174,000. 'I never doubted that we’d raise enough money to be on the debate stage,' said Albanese. 'Each month, as our message gets out, we are raising more awareness and more money. Everywhere we go, people are unenthused and even angry about Mayor de Blasio’s performance. He is uninterested in the job, and is a part-time May...

Recently I posted on the closure of French Roast's Village location . Here it is today, the windows covered in paper. A sign on the door says, "We are closed for renovation" and "Thank you for all the great years together as French Roast." Which makes me wonder if this restaurant is coming back as some other version of itself. Or not.

As part of their online Historic Image Archive , the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has just released a new collection called Carole Teller’s Changing New York . Veselka, by Carole Teller, c. 1980 They write: "Carole Teller is an artist who has lived in the East Village since the early 1960s. As a photographer, she had a keen and often prescient eye, capturing in her daily travels people and places that struck her, but which were also often on the precipice of change or disappearing. In some cases these were buildings in the process of being demolished, like Penn Station or tenements being cleared for urban renewal. In other cases they were fading painted signs growing fainter by the day. But often these were people, businesses, street scenes, or layers of grit or decay which were integral parts of her New York, but which were frequently on the edge of transformation, revival, or removal." Astor Place, Carole Teller, early 1980s For th...

Last year, Gothic Cabinet Craft closed on Third Avenue in the East Village. As E.V. Grieve noted , this location was its first, "when Theodore Zaharopoulos set up shop on the corner in 1969." Now it's this. Blue Mercury: " an iconic high-growth luxury beauty retail chain ."

Back in 2009, we said goodbye to the great Amato Opera House , on the Bowery for 60 years. 2009 The building was sold and sold again. Recently, the plywood was removed to reveal this--a stark white box awaiting a luxury chain store or an art gallery or a restaurant. Certainly not a rag-tag, affordable opera house. As Bowery Boogie noted last year, infamous local landlord Steve Croman was "converting 319 Bowery into a mixed-use dwelling befitting Bowery 2.0. Three glitzy, full-floor apartments, including the aforementioned penthouse will sit atop the ground level store. The retail space was last on the market in 2014, asking a whopping $35,000 per month in rent."

The heart of old Music Row has been just been cleared for demolition. Fast Company reports: "The former site of Manny’s Music at 156 West 48th Street in Manhattan has been approved for demolition, according to a city permit issued last month. It’s a final nail in the coffin for the legendary music store that served as a mecca for generations of musicians and once stood as the crown jewel of New York’s famed Music Row." Manny's was here since 1935 and closed in 2009 . It was a mecca for musicians famous and not. Then Music Row started getting murdered . One after another, the shops shuttered, replaced by Dunkin Donuts or nothing at all. Rudy's Music Stop and Alex Accordion were the last to go. before I walked along that block of West 48th a few weeks ago to see what had become of it. The name MANNY'S embedded in the doorstep was oddly missing. It had been cemented over. Why? The only reason I can think of to do such a thing is to "scalp...

VANISHING? Sad news for yet another classic dining spot. Word went buzzing around social media last night that the Riviera Cafe in Greenwich Village is closing August 31. I've not confirmed it with the Riviera, but the source is credible. Michael Musto wrote on his Facebook page : "Riviera Cafe & Sports Bar is closing at the end of the month after 48 years. I recently plugged the place in the Post for its great al fresco people watching. I go virtually every Friday for dinner with Lynn Yaeger and I have the salmon burrito or the corn salad with chicken. I LOVE THIS PLACE and the manager, Jean. It has long been an essential part of a West Village jaunt en route to Marie's, Pieces, Hangar Bar and Rockbar. I pray some generic shithole doesn't go up, or worse a high rise." photo: Wally Gobetz The Riviera might look like just another sports bar, and a Boston Red Sox bar at that, but it's much more. A classic hangout for hipsters (the old-school kin...

UN-VANISHING After seemingly shuttering and inspiring teary goodbyes , the Great Jones Cafe is rising from the almost-dead. Word is shooting around social media, and the cafe's website confirms it: "The Reports of Our Demise Were Greatly Exaggerated (to paraphrase Twain). After a week off, we reopen Wednesday, August 2nd at 5 PM. See you then !!!" Said one commenter on the cafe's Facebook page, "This has been an emotional roller coaster ride." UPDATE: Here's the inside scoop .