*Everyday Chatter

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 tell the sordid tale of McGurk's Suicide Hall -- later feminist Kate Millett's place, which she then got kicked out of so we could enjoy yet another glass box. [BB's]

A Curbed reader notes that condo life is boring as hell. Says the reader, "the atmosphere in the building is one of dullness and boredom. I might as well be living in the suburbs!" [Curbed]