Vanishing New York Backup

My heart is breaking as, after the gutting , the exterior demolition of the Playpen begins. [Curbed] I have long fantasized about visiting the potter's field out on Hart Island . Watching this movie is probably the closest I'll ever get. [City Room] Sewell Chan moderated the latest discussion in the Jane Jacobs Future of NY series. With Gay Talese, Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report , and others, he explored the role blogs might play in crusading for the preservation of urban public space. [City Room] Here's a video of those fabulous, but sadly vanishing Ukrainian ladies of 7th Street. [NYT] Chelsea goes the Soho way as art galleries prepare to fall before the bulldozer of the affluence they invariably attract. “They are looking at much higher renewals of their leases...Fifteen years ago when I showed spaces, I’d be bothered by drug dealers and prostitutes, but now it’s little yapping dogs that a collector has brought along as they look at art.” [NY Mag] The Bowery Boys ...

VANISHED: 2005 When we tragically lost the Howard Johnson's in Times Square, we also lost the gay burlesque that lived on its second floor. The building was just demolished and last week's visit to the site revealed the zig-zag vestigial trace of the stairs you used to climb to reach the Gaiety . my flickr At the top of those stairs was a ticket booth where a woman sat behind the glass and took your $17 admission through a slot. That price was good for an all-day show. The theater was small and had a stage with a runway that reached out into the audience. The dancers, most of them muscled and tanned, would come out on stage and strip, then disappear behind the blue tinsel curtain. The audience would wait. And wait. Sometimes a movie screen came down to entertain with a film. Finally, minutes later, the dancer would emerge fully erect, the audience would applaud his hydraulic achievement, and the dance would go on. If you were next to the runway, for the price of a d...

VANISHING A few years ago, the decades-old Chelsea Flea Market was forced to move to Hell's Kitchen , pushed out by the bulldozer of luxury high-rise development. As flea market founder Alan Boss told the Voice , "We as Americans, having little or no culture, we figure that if you can build on two feet by four feet, you should have a building there, and screw anything that came before it." So far, business in the new location has been slow, as Chelsea Now recently reported. Like many small businesses that try to survive on new ground, it's been hard to get a grip. the site of the former flea market The market's move was part of a rezoning plan that was hatched back in 1995, a plan that continues to ravage Chelsea today. The soul of what remains of the market in Chelsea, the Antiques Garage at 112 W. 25th St., will likely be the plan's next victim. The building that houses it was sold to a developer for $42.7 million a few months ago. And we all know what th...

At least two readers took Time Out NY to task for loading its "Has Manhattan Lost Its Soul" issue with luxury condo and chain-store ads. Asks one reader, "Why couldn't this issue also be devoted to the advertising of small businesses? Just one measly issue offering reduced-rate full-page ads for some of our good ol' homegrown New York entrepreneurs. For shame, TONY." This is an excellent suggestion, especially now that we know, from her passionate words at the Lost Soul MAS talk , that TONY president Alison Tocci longs for a city filled with thriving small businesses. Alison, are you listening? A dream come true? New York considers a law against standing around like an idiot and gawking while blocking traffic on the sidewalks. I've got a few more suggestions for pedestrian behavior. [City Room] Hooray for one mom who had this to say about uptight Village parents protesting the S/M leather fair this weekend: "This is the West Village. It's been ...

For years, musicians have traveled to 48th Street off Times Square when they needed to buy a new instrument or have their old one spruced up like new. And if they were horn players, they often went to Baltimore’s. The Jon Baltimore Music Company is the latest incarnation of Baltimore’s, a local shop that’s been on Music Row for over 35 years. I found it during a recent visit to the block when I went looking for history and what remains of this vanishing marketplace. At Jon Baltimore’s I was greeted with warmth by salesman and musician Pete Miranda, a cat (in Pete’s lingo) who’s played with artists like Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and The Temptations. When I told him I was interested in the history of the place, Pete walked me through the store, telling me about its famous customers, like Gerry Mulligan, Ornette Coleman, and Doc Cheatham. He introduced me to Jon Baltimore who was busy at his workshop making repairs to a customer’s Buescher saxophone, a beautiful instrument covered with in...

Has NYC Lost Its Soul? Everybody, everywhere seems to be asking this question right now. What does that tell us? Here it's the cover story, featuring the lost and lovely McHale's . [AMNY] After reading the above-linked article, I can hardly express how creepy and disheartening it is to hear that New Yorkers continue to clamor for more and more Starbucks: "Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz implied that New Yorkers were wholeheartedly embracing the changing character of their city. Asked just how many Starbucks locations he thinks the city can support, Schultz discussed the many emails he gets requesting new stores." You know the soul of Greenwich Village is cold and dead when its citizens go on a suburban-style witch hunt, screaming hysterically about how the sight of S/M leather folks will damage their precious and infinitely sensitive children. I hope those parents all get their tight asses whipped black and blue by mobs of leather daddies. [Gothamist] Maybe i...

Today I got the sad news that the venerable old Astor Place newsstand has been replaced by a regulation glass box . I went by to investigate and chatted with a guy who works the newsstand. "It looks just like that building," I said to him, pointing to the glassy green monster condo looming behind us. He nodded and said, "It's supposed to." the box is yet another billboard He added that soon everything is going to look like this. Then he dropped the following bomb: Cooper Union, he said, plans to move its Engineering School to their new building going up on 7th St and 3rd Ave and then they're going to tear down the low-rise brick Engineering building on Astor Place and replace it with, you guessed it, another glassy high-rise. Maybe a hotel. I'd like to say this is just a rumor, but it sure sounds plausible. When is this going to end? astor place stand a couple weeks ago, asking the question on many minds