Vanishing New York Backup

With an essay in NY Press , artist and photographer Anne Kristoff began chronicling the last of the Italians in Manhattan's South Village , that one-time Italian enclave that's being swallowed up by Soho, as long-time small businesses like Rocco's , Pino's , and Joe's Dairy are taken over, threatened, or simply shuttered. Anne has expanded the project to a wonderful website of photographs and audio that tells the oral history of the people and the place--click a photo and you'll hear a story. Her work will also be on view during the Feast of Saint Anthony , June 13 , at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art . I asked Anne a few questions about the project. photos by Anne Kristoff Q: What inspired you to chronicle the last of the Italians? A: I started dropping in at St. Anthony's and began noticing that the senior women all arrived separately but then sat together. They all seemed to know one another. I began asking questions and it turned out that ...

Crest Hardware, on Metropolitan Avenue near Lorimer in Williamsburg, has been in business since 1962. They sold hardware for 30 years. Then, in 1993, they turned into an art gallery. But this is not the same old story of the multi-generational mom and pop that gets run out of town by the slick gallerist. This story is much better. In 1993, artist Gene Pool (you may remember him as the Can Man ) asked Crest's owner, Manny Franquinha, if he could have some space in the front window to show his art. The neighborhood had just started changing, artists were moving in, and they bought their supplies from Crest. So Manny said yes. The next year, as Manny tells it, Pool had the whole store, giving its shelves over to art each summer. The Crest Art Show was born. The annual show went strong until 1999, when Pool left the city. It stopped for nearly a decade and was revived in 2008 by Manny's son, Joe, the new owner of Crest. With his friends, Joe has expanded the show to...

"Facebook Inc. is moving its New York office south and nearly doubling its space, marking the latest technology company to set up shop in the city's Midtown South neighborhood." And by "Midtown South" they mean the East Village . [ WSJ ] The New York City Marble Cemetery is open tomorrow. [ NYCMC ] Check out " The Birdman ," a film about the man behind Rainbow Music, a "hoarder's paradise" in the East Village. [ vimeo ] Go to the 9th Street Bakery , buy something, and say goodbye. Sunday is the last day. [ EVG ] Enjoy some rather vivid photos of Katz's pastrami-eating contest , by Tim Schreier. [ Flickr ] " New York City has drastically changed , I don’t mean a block or two here and there but entire communities have been erased, as if they never did exist in the first place." An interview with Mick Dementiuk. [ LM ] Visiting the ghost of Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field . [ NSTAW ] Folsom East Tea Dance : “W...

VANISHING A couple of readers have written in to let us know that, after 128 years in business, Bell Bates natural food store in Tribeca is closing. photo: Ron Greenberg Tribeca Citizen first reported the story, saying, "it’s hard not to pin this as an inevitable consequence of Whole Foods coming to Tribeca." They hear the building has been sold to a school. Located on Reade Street, Bell Bates has been family owned and operated in New York City since 1885. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” said one Tribeca resident to DNA when she heard the news. "Man, what a shame--this neighborhood is really changing. No more room for the mom and pop stores .”

The Avalon West Chelsea has landed, and Jesus H. Christ is it big. Avalon on W. 28th According to the website , it consists of two buildings-- one at a whopping 31 stories and the other at 13 . One building is called Avalon West Chelsea and the other, capitalizing on the luxury park that spawned it, is called "AVA High Line." We knew that 60,000 square feet, with 710 units and a parking garage for over 140 cars, was big, but until you see it live, you just cannot imagine. This one's a block buster--it takes up nearly the entire block between 28th and 29th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues. With no low setbacks, it's like a dark planet sucking light out of the sky. From the Eagle's roof deck We've been following developments on this block of West 28th for awhile . Someone must have pushed the light-speed button, because it's all happening. The little block has now been plunged into darkness. Walking on the block, which used to be open and br...

Clampart gallery in Chelsea is currently showing an exhibition of photographs entitled NYC, c. 1985 The group show includes work by Amy Arbus, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe, and many more, all featuring images of the city in the mid-1980s. I talked with artist Linda Simpson about her photographs and she shared them with us here. All photos by Les Simpson (a.k.a. Linda Simpson) "My slideshow is all in color. It's a collection of very random snapshots that I took throughout the decade--all for fun and shot with basic point-and-shoot cameras. The photos are of friends of mine, after-dark events, celebrities that I shot at various encounters (including Liz Taylor!), ACT UP protests, Wigstock in Tompkins Square Park, etc. My photo credit is 'Les Simpson,' since almost all the pictures were taken before Linda was born (in the late 1980s)." "I was in NYC for practically the entire 1980s, and for me the decade was about finding myself....

VANISHING Blogger C.O. Moed passes on the upsetting news that the Blarney Cove on East 14th will be closing this month . She writes: "They changed one of the TVs to the Mets game, we got Rolling Rocks in big ass glasses because the Pabst only came in tall boys, the guy at the end of the bar played every version of every baseball song on the jukebox for us, including a song about being a Mets fan which really should be listed as a mental disorder in the diagnostic book and we watched the Mets play the Marlins. I asked the bartender when they'd be closing. 'End of June,' she said. 'It's sad.'" Mars Bar , the Holiday Cocktail Lounge , and now Blarney Cove. A king among dive bars, it's been here for decades--maybe over 50 years--and still regularly tops "Best Dive Bar" lists for the city. Wendy Mitchell, author of New York City's Best Dive Bars , wrote: "In a city of homogenized bars, The Blarney Cove stands apart as a true ...