Vanishing New York Backup

The Gowanus building that houses the excellent Two Toms Restaurant is up for sale. A tipster on Twitter alerted me to the Trulia listing . It offers the building for $3 million and exclaims, "LOCATION EQUALS OPPORTUNITY! Searching for the perfect investment property found in one of the hottest neighborhoods in Brooklyn?" Also, as ominously noted, "Currently the space is occupied by Two Toms Restaurant, but this space may also be delivered vacant, if necessary." Two Toms has been in business since 1948 when it was opened by Tom Giordano and another Tom. It's been family-run since and is one of the last authentic red-sauce joints in a city where red-sauce joints are vanishing . Enjoy the wood paneling and definitely get the pork chop . Before some asshole comes along and fucks it up.

In Williamsburg, the Whisk kitchenware shop is being driven out by a massive rent hike. They've only been around for a decade, but even these newer small businesses get the boot by the big hyper-gentrification machine. Free Williamsburg has the story. In the owner of Whisk's own words: " It is a story of greed, commercial banking and the distortion of 'fair' market rents. When we opened Whisk on November 26, 2008, our rent was $8,625/month; it ended at $18,452/month. The thing is, we could sustain that high rent. We are a great, busy store and online retailers have not cut into our sales enough to hurt us. But to renew our lease for just 5 years, our landlords asked for no less than $26,500/month, or a 44% increase. To accept that rent would mean increasing prices and depressing wages. And that’s not the contribution I want to make. So how did it come to be that it’s $26,500 or leave? I believe the story goes like this: Developers identify Williamsburg...

Reader Mark Satlof writes in: " Court St. Office Supplies here in Downtown Brooklyn is going. They say they will be closing in about two weeks and have been there 40 years. Old-school, old-fashioned stationery and everything else store. It's really a wonder, not a small store. Really a loss of the fabric." On the shop's Facebook page , they write: "Our shelves are emptying as we say goodbye, and the store has been full of well-wishers. We'll be closing in a few weeks, but we're staying in the office supply business. So like us on Facebook, join our email list or stop by just to say hello." They will continue to run the shop online. Owner Jacob Gutman told Brooklyn Paper , “Our challenge has been the shift in how people purchase things these days. Our decision to close the store has nothing to do with rent.” So blame this one on Internet shoppers.

VANISHED It's the little places that make a neighborhood function like a neighborhood. Bodegas and other small, affordable markets are vanishing fast across the city. Here's another. Mike writes in: "I thought you might be interested in the closing of the M&H Deli (bodega) on Dekalb Ave and Saint Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Closing after 35 years due to rising rent, per the sign. It was your pretty typical bodega serving the community and the Brooklyn Hospital across the street." Once again, it's not due to lack of business. It's not the Internet. The sign makes the reason clear.

VANISHING Brooklyn music bar Hank's Saloon will close by the end of 2018. On Facebook , the owner writes: "the building was taken over by a new developer who had plans to build big. We knew it was only a matter of time before we got the news that we would have to close Hank’s and move along." And "it deeply saddens me that one of the last NYC bars of this kind will no longer exist. These places are extremely special to New York and add genuine heart and soul to the community." They're looking for a new space.

VANISHING Frankel's clothing shop has been in Brooklyn for a very long time. Tucked into the shadows of the Gowanus Expressway in Sunset Park, the shop's painted bricks announce: "An American Treasure Since 1890," "The One," "The Only," and "We're Still Here." But Frankel's won't be here much longer. Third-generation owner Marty Frankel has decided it's time to pack up and move the shop to Jersey. With its selection of steel-toed boots and Carhartt work clothes, Frankel's caters mostly to laborers. They've covered his doorway with union stickers. "You know how the Jewish people have the mezuzah on the door and they kiss it? The union guys do it with a sticker," Marty says. "They walk out and kiss it." He demonstrates, kissing his fingers and then touching them to the door frame. Before work clothes, Frankel's specialized in western wear. Cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Marty wou...

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...

VANISHING "I stay here," says Krystyna Godawa. "I'm not moving." For the past ten years, Krystyna has run the Park Delicatessen at the edge of McGolrick Park on Nassau Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The deli has been here since the 1930s. But the landlord recently doubled the rent and Krystyna can't afford it. She's looking for another spot nearby and plans to stay put until she finds it. Customers come in and out of the shop, ordering meals to go from the refrigerated case of home-cooked pierogi, potato salad, chicken cutlets, cole slaw, and beets. They stop to ask Krystyna, in Polish and in English, "Any news? When's the last day?" They promise, "I'll keep my fingers crossed." And then they touch Krystyna--they all touch the woman they call Babcia Krysia , "Grandma Krystyna"--on the shoulder, the arm, the back of the neck. Their touches are tender and familial. They are family. Krystyna holds their h...

From the Times , the view of gentrification from Cherry's Unisex in Bed-Stuy: “Gentrification is always on the periphery, always in the negative space of so many conversations that take place here. The wave of money and development is transforming Bed-Stuy along Fulton Street, and there are no guarantees that Cherry’s won’t be washed away with so many others. Little distinguishes it from any other shop on the strip except for how long it has been on Fulton, and the woman for which it’s named. 'When you call the police, they come,' Cherry said. 'Before, there was no policing at all. But now? Not only do they come, they’re arresting everybody.'" Photo: George Etheredge for The New York Times In the 2000s, black New York neighborhoods are becoming markedly less black (and brown) and more white -- as well as less poor and more rich. In the 1960s, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called the suburbs a “white noose” around America’s cities. Today, it...

Tomorrow evening, January 31, the NYPL's Martin Duberman Visiting Scholar, Hugh Ryan, will be presenting on " The Queer Histories of Brooklyn’s Working Waterfront ." I asked Hugh a few questions on the topic of his research. * UPDATE: Watch the streaming video of the talk here . Q: What are some ways that queer populations and the working class came together in New York of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century? A: For much of the period I’m researching (from the mid-1800s to World War II), there wasn’t really a “queer population” to speak of. Our modern idea of sexuality as a unique identity, separate from gender, was only just coming into existence (the word “homosexuality” wasn’t even coined until 1868). Of course, there were people who did and felt queer things. But they didn’t “come together” with the working class in the ways that we would imagine. Rather, they were part of the working class (as well as other classes), and in some spaces and at some...

This past fall, the journalist, author, and Village Voice editor Neil deMause published The Brooklyn Wars , the story of 21st-century hyper-gentrification in the borough of kings. I asked him a few questions about what the wars are all about. What are the Brooklyn Wars? Who are the competing armies and what are they fighting for? The last 20 to 30 years of this borough — the rise of the “New Brooklyn” and all that — has been portrayed as either a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective, but either way usually as a sort of unavoidable evolution. When you look more closely, though, it’s actually been the result of a series of pitched battles over what the borough would look like, who it would serve, and who would get to live here. The sides in these battles have been complex and shifting: You have developers, and politicians seeking “redevelopment” in various forms, and residents of all types who either promote or resist change, sometimes both at the same time. (One ...

VANISHING Publishers Weekly reports today that Brooklyn's beloved and excellent bookstore BookCourt will be closing at the end of this month . They've been open since 1981. In a public statement , the owners announced their retirement--and sent their regrets. Author Emma Straub is working on a solution. She writes on her site : "A neighborhood without an independent bookstore is a body without a heart. And so we’re building a new heart. We’ve spent the last few months looking at spaces, getting our math together, and thinking about light fixtures. We have secured initial funding and crossed our fingers. And so, dear Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Columbia Waterfront, and beyond…you won’t be lonely for long. Books are magic, and we want to make sure that this neighborhood is positively coated in bookish fairydust for decades to come." Fingers crossed. In the meantime, New York--you make me heartsick more and more every singl...

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...

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...

Park Slope has a new Starbucks. A gigantic Starbucks. It recently opened on the corner of 7th Avenue and 9th Street in a part of the neighborhood with very few, if any, national chain stores. This large corner spot was previously home to Brooklyn Flipster's, a burger place. Their lease was not renewed . Too bad the city won't stand up to corporations. Too bad they won't zone to stop the spread of chain stores. Too bad they won't pass the Small Business Jobs Survival Act or give us back commercial rent regulation, like we had decades ago. Too bad Mayor de Blasio, in his own home neighborhood, won't do anything to stop the homogenization of the city and the total destruction of the small business streetscape. Too bad no one in power will stand up and #SaveNYC .

VANISHED Reader Christine writes in to let us know that Rocco's Calamari of Fort Hamilton Parkway in Brooklyn has closed abruptly after 35 years in business. photo via Eating in Translation "This was my husband's childhood hangout every Saturday afternoon," writes Christine. "The Fried Calamari was to die for, fried zucchini was one of my favorites. Great home-cooked style meals at a great price. Freshly made everyday... Just a tremendous loss for everyone." The closure was sudden and unannounced, leaving customers reeling. After celebrating their 35th anniversary on July 9, on their Facebook page they wrote, "Rocco's will be closed for vacation from July 31st to August 8th. We will reopen Tuesday, August 9th!" But they did not reopen. A second Facebook notice reads: "After 35 years of serving the community, we are 'hanging up our hats!' We would like to thank our wonderful staff and loyal customers for their patronag...

It is 1996 and I’m in love with Coney Island. I’m in love with its decrepit, ancient buildings, crumbling but also vibrating with color and life. Ice cream, cotton candy, corn dogs, fried clams. I’m in love with the smell of grease and seashore. The feeling of being at the edge of the world. On the margin. Way out there. Beyond. And I can’t get enough of the freaks. I go to Sideshows by the Seashore to see their 10-in-1 show. Zenobia, played by Jennifer Miller, is the bearded lady. She wears plain clothes, pants and a shirt, no makeup, nothing theatrical. The focus is her beard, thick and woolly, a bit wild. With her long wavy hair, she looks, if not like Jesus, then one of the apostles. A hippie. She goes through her spiel: "I am a woman with a beard,” she announces. “If I called myself The Bearded Lady, I would be claiming that I, Zenobia, was the one, the only, woman with a beard in the entire world. The Bearded Lady. Could that possibly be true? Of course not. The world ...

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.