Vanishing New York Backup

In Brooklyn there's a block of Bergen Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, that wasn't there a year or so ago. The block itself was there, the street, the sidewalk. People lived on it. But today, almost overnight, it has become a tightly constructed microcosm of hyper-gentrification . Urban scholars should study this block. It's a New Urbanist dream come true. It went up as quickly and completely as a Hollywood set and exemplifies everything that "White People Like." Which, as we know, is less about whiteness and more about " Bobos in Paradise ." In fact, the entire 21st-century, urban, upwardly mobile, heterosexual reproductive cycle can be completed utilizing only the new businesses on this block. Imagine a couple, let's call them Ben and Lauren. They are 35 years old, both of them "creatives" at a multimedia design "lab." They go on their first date at Melt, which they love for its " pure, honest and sustainable ...

It's a rare thrill to spot the Island Beverage seltzer truck. In NY Press , Joshua Bernstein described the sight, " as if a wormhole had opened, allowing the past to intersect with the present ." With its wooden cases of rattling siphon bottles strapped to the sides, it looks and sounds like a lost member of a gypsy caravan. Recently, it turned up at 9th St. and 4th Ave. in Park Slope. In this case, the gypsy is Ronny Beberman, described by Corey Kilgannon in the Times as driver of " the last real seltzer truck in New York , a wooden-slatted affair with crooked racks and side doors that are stuck open--the easier to strap the worn wooden cases to the side." The other, well-known New York seltzer man, Walter Backerman , used to drive a similar truck. He updated to a step van some time ago, and recently opted for an even newer model. These old trucks can be perilous. Beberman fell off his earlier this year while reaching for a case of cream soda at the top , and w...

Brooklyn’s Park Slope Barber shop on 7th Avenue and 4th Street is celebrating a big birthday this year--but it's not entirely clear which one. In 1948 the Fiumefreddo family took over the business, back when it was still across the street, where falafel is now made under a tin ceiling. They inherited the leather chairs, the gas-powered hot towel steamer, the 100-year-old brass cash register, among other artifacts. They don’t use the hot towel steamer anymore because it’s against the health code. “Back in the '60s,” one of the Fiumefreddo brothers told me, “the Board of Health shut them down because they were unsanitary. They found a lot of barbers were using them to keep sandwiches warm .” Though the Fiumefreddos are celebrating their 60th, the shop’s birthday goes back another 40-odd years. The window says it was established in 1906 , but the awning puts it at 1904 . So which is it? “The guy who did the awning got it wrong,” Mr. Fiumefreddo explained, “We just left it like th...

VANISHED: December 28, 2007 Unable to get to Park Slope on Friday, I sent one of my tipsters to the scene. She arrived in the afternoon and while there were still a handful of donuts in the window (including crullers cinnamon and frosted) and a couple of regulars at the counter, the owners waved her away as they stood counting their last dollars from the register. She stood across the street and snapped a few pictures of the place, the sign already taken down, as people walked past, many of them waving in through the diner's window, saying goodbye as they headed into the Associated to do their grocery shopping. The Associated will soon be expanding into the Donuts Coffee Shop space. More pics on my flickr Great shots at Gowanus Lounge Lost City got in for a last donut

VANISHING? Not yet. my flickr "I been a barber since seven," Ercole Riccardelli tells me in his thick Neapolitan accent as he holds a buzzing set of clippers over my head, "I was short. My grandfather gave me a step. I stood on it and put on the soap with the brush. When I was fourteen, I shaved the customers." He's 84 now and plans to live as long as his grandfather, a man who made it to 99 (and 7 months) by never once seeing a doctor and by drinking a glass of Brioschi with lemon every morning then smoking a pipe while he watched the Naples fishermen fish before he opened his barber shop for the day. photo by axlotl If you go to the Clover Barbershop in Park Slope, be prepared to spend some time. Mr. Riccardelli moves very, very slowly . But his lines are straight and his hand is steady on the razor blade. When he finishes the hot-foam shave, he slaps your face with Osage oil and fans you coolingly with his towel. There aren't many places left ...

VANISHING: August 31, 2007 This Park Slope indie may not have been around for eons, but the demise of any good used bookshop is cause for sorrow. This time it wasn't rent issues, but personal reasons. As Brooklyn Paper reports, the owner was hoping for a buyer. A recent visit to the store confirmed that no buyer has materialized and the store will be closed August 31. Brooklyn bloggers like OTBKB , BIB , and Bklyn Stories , mourn the loss. This after I just finished reading Paul Auster's Brooklyn Follies , which takes place in and around a Park Slope used bookshop. If anyone worries, like I do, about what might take the store's place, I think you'll be relieved. It won't be a Starbucks or a Pinkberry or a bank. This weekend the cashier told me it will be a vegan restaurant. That's not so terrible.