Vanishing New York Backup

Last month, the Times reported on the transformation of Broken Angel, a wildly creative Brooklyn treasure, into high-priced condos . Wrote Ronda Kaysen: "as Clinton Hill, like so many Brooklyn neighborhoods, reinvents itself as yet another gentrifying enclave, Broken Angel recalls a moment in city history when such a creation could seemingly rise out of thin air." New York Times Filmmaker Michael Galinsky of " Battle for Brooklyn " is putting together a documentary about Broken Angel and its creator, Arthur Wood. He's got a 5-minute short on his site, and hopefully more is to come:

New Yorkers are really getting tired of watching their local small businesses shutter, forced out by rising rents and demolitions for the construction of condos, hotels, and dorms. They want to do something . Some of us take to the blogosphere. Others get out the Scotch tape. Here are a few notes from neighbors that recently appeared. 1. When Bleecker Street's Mambo Sushi closed some months ago, people were upset, especially by the removal of the blue-green tiled "roof." photo: NY Magazine One person put a sign on the window--not to complain about the roof removal, but to make a desperate plea: "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't make this space into some useless tourist trap. PLEASE put something good here that people of the neighborhood can enjoy. We need more neighborhood spots. I know tourists bring in revenue but if the place is truly good, everybody will come. Thanks, your neighbor." photo: Tommy Raiko Reader Tommy Raiko sent in this photo of the...

On Second Avenue in the East Village, the B&H Dairy has been going strong since the 1930s when it was opened by Mr. Bergson and Mr. Heller (hence the B&H). It is now run by Fawzy Abdelwahed and Ola Smigielska. And it is absolutely adored by New Yorkers all over town. Myself included. Since the Second Avenue gas explosion and collapse, the B&H has been shuttered. Fawzy and Ola have consistently paid the rent and bills while they struggle to reopen, but it has not been easy. Fawzy and Ola, today's mom and pop of the B&H, photo from GVSHP I spoke to Fawzy who explained the barriers they're facing. Due to the explosion, safety requirements from the city have intensified. Before the explosion, the B&H passed inspection. But now they must upgrade the fire system at a cost of $28,000. To do so, they also require permission from Landmarks and the Department of Buildings. The papers have been submitted, but nothing is moving. Andy Reynolds, local East Villag...

Romy Ashby writes the blog Walkers in the City , which you should know about if you don't already. She has just published a novel called Stink . The book tells the story of a young person who flees to a mysterious New York-like city for a series of occult adventures. I asked Romy some questions--about dreams, books, farts, and gentrification. JM: Your book starts with a dream. Do you remember your dreams? Do you write them down? RA: Usually I don't dream and/or don't remember. I never write them down. I had a wonderful series of dreams once over several years about a beautiful cast-iron train. I'd see it in the distance and marvel, and whenever I would have a new dream about the train, I'd think, oh, it's this dream! Then I finally had a dream of a funeral procession with old men in uniforms carrying a large framed portrait through the streets. I asked what the procession was, and one of the old men said: “This was the conductor of the train you always dre...

This is what the Quad Cinema looks like totally gutted: It's been closed since May for renovations. You might recall the news last year that the cinema was sold to real-estate developer Charles Cohen, who plans to use it to film selections from the Cohen Film Collection , originally known as the Raymond Rohauer Film Collection, after the man who built it. Cohen acquired it in 2011. According to Wikipedia , Cohen's realty corporation "owns more than 12 million square feet of real estate" and "specializes in 're-positioning' commercial space to increase its rental income." Cohen is also a film lover. The Quad opened in 1972. It was New York's first four-screen cinema. It is expected to reopen in the fall.

Recently, a store called Taxi Parts, Inc., moved in to the East Village . It had been up on Tenth Avenue for the past 25 years, on the ground floor of an old tenement building near Hudson Yards. But it had to leave that spot. "The buildings are coming down," a man at Taxi Parts told me the other day. The buildings sit alone on the corner of 10th and 35th. Earlier this year, Sean at the 116-year-old Veterans Chair Caning shop, across the street, told me that those tenements were still standing thanks to a holdout, a man who lived upstairs. Who knows what happened to him? (Looks like someone tried but failed to prove last year that the building was rent-stabilized.) And so  the Hudson Yards Effect claims more victims -- and takes more space for its bloated glass construction. Sean told me that developers want "to knock down those buildings and put up the tallest tower in North America." That would be the gluttonous " Hudson Spire ." Last ye...

I chatted via email with DW Gibson , author of the recently published book The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century . Filled with the real voices of New Yorkers, from both sides of the gentrification fence, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in what’s happening to our city in this era of rapid displacement, runaway development, and socioeconomic injustice. Just before our virtual chat, Gibson had come from moderating a conversation on art and gentrification out on Governor’s Island. That got us started on our own conversation. JM: I was out in Bushwick this weekend for the Open Studios event. It gets bigger every year, and the demographic is shifting--more Greenwich housewife types and financiers in alligator shirts. Near the center of this event, on Grattan Street, a local family had set up a barbecue. Right nearby were all these kids doing performance art. I wondered: What is the relationship between these two groups? Do they...