Vanishing New York Backup

After 20 years of working on Wall Street, Chris Arnade walked away in 2012, disillusioned with the business. He kept walking, all the way to the Bronx, with a camera in his hand. In Hunts Point, he got to know and photograph the other humans of New York , the ones at the margins--prostitutes and drug addicts, living in poverty. Collected in a series called " Faces of Addiction ," the images are both beautiful and heartbreaking. Arnade has also photographed the pigeon keepers of New York , the people of Brownsville and East New York , the tricked-out bikes of New York , and much more, including the transgender sex workers of Jackson Heights, Queens. When we look to the Meatpacking District and wonder where did all those girls go -- they went here. all photos by Chris Arnade The following text is excerpted from an essay by Chris Arnade, from his flickr page : At 4:00 am the 7 train over Roosevelt Avenue provides the rhythm for Jackson Heights, Queens. Each train spill...

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...

Reader Eric sends in the following report from Kingsbridge, around Broadway and 236th St.: Since the Stella D'oro cookie factory was demolished , all these fancy chain-store shopping centers have been popping up, and slowly the little businesses are leaving. All photos by Eric Bell: BJ's and T Mobile The Bronx Ale House moved into the neighborhood a few years ago. With great food, craft/local beers, it's the classic first wave of change in the neighborhood, the one really nice restaurant in an otherwise kind of rundown area. Riverdale Crossing is the shopping complex with all chain stores going in. There's been scaffolding up there for quite some time. Before that, there were just some bodega-type stores. Bank of America Just south of that, Broadway Carpet just recently closed up. Don't know if their lease wasn't renewed, or if this building is going to become part of the Riverdale Crossing complex. They were a warehouse/wholesale carpet dealer....

Ubu.com found this amazing artifact of old New York. Made in 1931, it shows 11 minutes of life on a Bronx street. From the text:   "A Bronx Morning is a 1931 avant-garde film by American filmmaker Jay Leyda (1910–1988). Described as 'city symphony,' the eleven-minute European style film recorded a Bronx street in New York City before it is crowded with traffic... In 2004, A Bronx Morning was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.'" Visit Ubu to view the film.

This past weekend, the Bronx Documentary Center organized and hosted the first annual Bronx Gentrification Conference. From past experiences at similar events, I expected a small crowd, but the place was packed to the rafters (turned away at the door, people stood outside in the cold to listen). From past experiences at similar events, I expected a docile group, but the people were angry, passionate, and desperate to be heard. First, the panel made their opening remarks. It was, unfortunately, an all-white panel, made up mostly of people who worked in preservation and development. One man, an employee of HPD, talked about how his organization hasn't done much to bring in luxury development, but "we're pushing," because "we believe in economic diversity," and that the local community boards have been "demanding higher quality retail...national chains that best serve everyone in the community." The audience began to groan. But when he said, ...

A reader sent in these lovely shots of "the Vanished Bronx in 1967-68." She writes, "The photographer's name is Steve Rowles. He was just a student, walking around with his camera." Today Mr. Rowles is a violin and guitar maker, who makes beautiful one-of-a-kind instruments. The photographer describes this first shot: "You've just gotten off the train at the Burnside Avenue stop on the Lex Jerome #4 IRT, and you're looking right, to the east, before going down the steps from the El to the street." "This grocery was on Fordham Road, University Heights. 'SE' stood for Sedgwick."

VANISHED The Whitestone multiplex cinema has shuttered after 30 years in business. It was purchased for $30 million last year by real estate development company the Lightstone Group, who will be turning the site into New York City's first outlet mall . For their final marquee, a goodbye note: from South Bronx Network 's facebook page The Lightstone Group is best known these days for its massive luxury development of Gowanus , but they have developed a number of outlet malls--full of typical mall chain stores . The one at Whitestone will be a chain itself--in the Paragon Outlets chain of outlets--and will "feature an open-air racetrack design and showcase over 100 global brands." Last year The Observer noted, " New Yorkers, secretly covetous of the bland, sprawling suburban malls that can be found in the city’s hinterlands, are ecstatic ...incredibly enthusiastic about the prospect of opening more places in New York that feel exactly like the soull...

The Times just did a story about Stan's , the dive bar that has stood right outside the bleachers entrance of Yankee Stadium for 30 years. With the stadium rebuilt and moved, Stan's no longer has that prime real estate and the owners worry about losing business. Stan's Last fall, at the season's end, I visited the scruffy bunch of bars and souvenir stores outside the stadium, concerned that the change would leave them in the cold. It's not just Stan's we have to worry about. What will happen to Ball Park Lanes? the lanes the front desk Bowling alleys are vanishing all over town. One of the things that has kept this alley alive for so long is that it supplied fans with a much-needed bag check . Wrote the Times , " Ball Park Lanes has become the primary storage closet for Yankees fans carrying more than weighty expectations... John Gianos, the alley’s co-owner, figures that if someone is coming to check a bag, they might stick around for a beer. They might...

The Yankees have left the stadium. Fans today are grieving for the sacred soil as they look forward to the handsome new ballpark, which physically resembles the 1923 original, gut-renovated in the 1970s, though spiritually it will resemble something more like a luxury spa for the very wealthy. Says one angry sports writer: " The Yankees are blowtorching all this glorious history --not to mention the unmatchable history generated by Yankee Stadium I--for luxury boxes and premium seats. Those 8 million people passing through the Yankee Stadium turnstiles the past two years? The wrong kind of people. Modern sports economics have no interest--absolutely none--in the common man. You do not matter. The Yankees are only interested in the kind of people who will populate the luxury suites and who will pay somewhere between $500 and $2,500 per person, per game, to sit in the first five to eight rows of the new ballpark. These are the kind of people who, as a Yankee Stadium website explains...

VANISHING: 2009 Admittedly, I am not a Yankee fan, but even the most apopleptic Yankee hater has to love the House that Ruth Built. Born in 1923, it's the third oldest park, after Fenway and Wrigley. But New York despises the old and celebrates all that is young and new. Like Shea Stadium , and like the elegant and elegiac Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium is coming down. Already, the cranes are raising its replacement. photo from urch At least New Yankee Stadium will still be called Yankee Stadium, instead of something inhuman like Virgin Mega-Field or Starbucks Park. However, they'll sell naming rights so a company with deep pockets can dub the joint "Yankee Stadium at (corporate name) Plaza." The local residents are not happy about the new stadium, but I can't tell how fans feel about it. Other than one polite New Yorker and this baseball fan , I haven't come across many complaints. What's that about? Still, in this essay , writer and Dod...