Vanishing New York Backup

Today, a repeat of an old favorite: The once wild life of 52nd Street -- speakeasies, jazz, strippers with monkeys! It was known, simply, as The Street. Arnold Shaw, its main historian, wrote in 52nd St. , "If you flagged a taxi in NYC and asked to be taken to The Street, you would be driven, without giving a number or an avenue, to 52d between Fifth and Sixth avenues." William Gottlieb , 1948, looking east from 6th Click here to read the entire story .

VANISHED Back in June, thanks to a tipster, I first reported the intel that the original Palm restaurant was gone for good . Earlier this week, The Real Deal confirmed that the owners have sold the building for $5.9 million. But will it be preserved? Will the historic, priceless murals be cherished and maintained for the next generations? Don't hold your breath. Yesterday, Eater posted photos of the restaurant's interior , its wonderful murals painted over, destroyed. One of the buyers, Steven Kachanian (of the apparently not ironically named Klosed Properties ), told The Real Deal, “We’re working with some high-end tenants looking to do some major work to the property." This was the original Palm restaurant, 90 years old, gorgeous, storied, beloved, its walls covered in caricatures hand-drawn by some of America's most celebrated cartoonists . This was a one-of-a-kind treasure, never to be reproduced. You can't buy this kind of uniqueness, it has to grow ...

A black-and-white photo of the northwest corner of 11th and University in the Village recently came to my attention. Shot by Edmund V. Gillon in 1975 , it shows the Village Voice offices next to the Cedar Tavern . I thought it deserved the "before and after" treatment. After the Village Voice , there was Jack Bistro. Villagers wept when they were forced out by a rent hike in 2013. Long a home for artists and poets, the Cedar was shuttered in 2006, demolished, and turned into condos. Today, in their places, there's yet another TD Bank branch and yet another outpost of a chain salon that specializes in the removal of body hair via hot wax.

Just south of Union Square, on Broadway near 12th Street, Blatt Billiards sold their building in 2013 after 90 years in business. IDM Capital, a "syndicate of Israeli investors," paid $24 million for it. Now it's being destroyed. In 2013, Curbed reported that the new owners would be adding ten floors to the existing building, but that plan must have changed. More recent reports state that the "two-phase project entails the construction of 10 floors above a five-story office building...followed by the conversion of the existing structure." Conversion? The latest renderings show the historic structure is nowhere in sight, replaced with yet another chilly monstrosity.  In the architect's images, the cast-iron building has been swallowed up in a sleek glass tower with the words "new style" written across the front. No cast-iron facade, no spandrels, no colonettes. Today, at the 809 Broadway demolition site, passersby have written t...

The original Bicycle Habitat opened on Lafayette Street in 1978 . It is now being forced to close due to a massive rent increase. photo: Andrew Burton, NY Times Reader Wendy points us to a report from Bicycle Retailer : "Rent for the 244/242 Lafayette Street store, which encompassed two storefronts and about 2,300 square feet of space, was $21,000 a month. And [owner Charlie] McCorkell said his rent was going to increase by nearly 3 1/2 times to $72,000 per month , which wasn't sustainable with the revenue from bicycle sales." The shop and its owner have long advocated for a bike-friendly New York. It is also a favorite of celebrities. Wrote the Times in 2012, "On any given day, you might see Jake Gyllenhaal. Or Matthew Broderick or David Byrne. David Beckham has been said to swing by, just for some much-needed air." But in today's New York, doing good business and making money won't keep you afloat. Not when landlords can hike the rent t...

VANISHING Charlie Mom Chinese restaurant has been in the Village since 1983. This coming Wednesday, August 26, will be its last day. Why is it closing? I called to ask. "Rent going too high." photo via Mitch Broder's NY In 2011, Eater paid a visit to Charlie Mom . "It's the sort of Chinese restaurant that was once seen in abundance in New York," wrote Robert Simonson, "the kind that makes cocktails and offers choices from Column A and Column B, and a Peking Duck meal for $19.95." He continued, "Who comes here? I asked my waiter. 'Old man. Old woman,' he said with halting English and stunning frankness. I looked around. My eyes confirmed his blunt assessment. Nearly everyone was old. Very old. They talked of ailments and pensions." photo: Daniel Krieger, via Eater So another place that caters to older folks is getting the boot. Once again, it's not a lack of business. It's not because "people"...

It's depressing to walk home to the East Village and see the old St. Mark's Bookshop space still empty after they were forced to move by a rent hike. I try not to walk by there anymore. With the space vacant for over a year, landlord Cooper Union is contributing to the high-rent blight of the neighborhood, presumably while they wait for a Chipotle or Starbucks to take the spot. As I've said before, there ought to be a law . You may recall that many of us tried to keep the bookshop here--with tens of thousands of petition signatures , protests, letters to Cooper Union, visits from Michael Moore, and book-buying weekends . But without protections like the Small Business Jobs Survival Act , there really is no hope for any mom and pop. Now the bookshop is on E. 3rd, where the foot traffic is low and business is down. Shelves are bare. They're looking for investors to help keep them going . But this is what typically happens when a long-time small business is for...