Gallagher's has closed on 12th St. The sign is missing and their message says, "We are no longer a walk-in store." Online only. This is a great loss--no more will anyone be able to walk through that underground warren of magazines. Must-click: Did NYU help?
Vanity Fair asks, "Is This the End of Greenwich Village?" And Christopher Hitchens says it all when he says, "on the day when everywhere looks like everywhere else we shall all be very much impoverished, and not only that but—more impoverishingly still—we will be unable to express or even understand or depict what we have lost." [VF] [via EVG]
Time to feel warm and fuzzy for the super-wealthy who have begun to feel guilty about being major consumers. [NYMag]
Too close for comfort: In the recent high winds, the giant crane over 7th Street did a little spinning. [NMNL]
Last night, Ikea "flatpacked" Union Square, making a big box while people looked on saying things like, "What the f--k is Ikea doing in the park?" The answer, of course: Encouraging the hordes to descend upon Red Hook:
For all of us "bitter renters," Fishs Eddy offers Floor Plan dinnerware. The studio's only $6.36, but the luxury platter will run you a cool $26.36. At those prices, these plates might be the only way some of us will ever own in this town. (Studio also makes a nice ashtray.):
Welcome the new blog in town, at the intersection of 14th and 8th (and thereabouts), where I'm sure we'll be crossing paths. [14&8]
The latest condo-monster to land in Williamsburg is actually titled NV, as in "green with." And, yes, it's green. Much about this makes me angry. 1. Its title. 2. Its tagline: "Everyone can dream it. And now you can live it" (emphasis theirs). Please don't assume "everyone" dreams of living in a fishtank. 3. The web copy dares to sell the local Polish bakeries (which NV will help run out of town) and the skateboard shops "with their faint emanations of punk rock." Like CBGB/Varvatos, for The Joneses, the only good punk is faint punk.
Take a walk down old East 7th with Jack Klugman in Naked City. Warning: There's a tragic end. [HunterG]
Check out the VNY Flickr Pool for some fresh beauties: luncheonettes, car washes, graffiti-covered subways...and this rather sickening shot of Chumley's ravaged interior:
photo by kikimonkey
Yesterday, some nice folks at Astor Place were holding up these signs. I thought the fight to save Met Foods from NYU was over, but they still don't have their new lease:
pic sent in by PatMinNYC
Amazing how the K MART store symbol managed to sneak its way into that one photograph.
ReplyDeleteI CANNOT POSSIBLY PUT INTO WORDS HOW MUCH I FUCKING HATE THAT DAMN STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a youth, the security would immediately follow me and my friends as soon as we set foot in there until the very moment we were about to exit.
FOR NO REASON AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They made no attempt at hiding it either.
Finally it got to the point where one of those security fuckers even followed me into the bathroom and I caught him peeking into my stall. As I flushed the toilet and opened the door he quickly turned around and went over to the sink and started pretending he was washing his hands.
This was back in 99. Have not been in there since.
I have always wondered if I could have sued them over that.
Oh well...
FUCK K MART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the welcome. You and your blog fight the good fight and i appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteScott Rosefield
14thand8th.blogspot.com
Did you check out the quality of the asphalt in that second Naked City video? It looked like a lake, not a single bump or pothole anywhere.
ReplyDeleteWith all the advances in technology these days, why can't one single NYC street look like that?
Really, nobody gives a shit anymore.
14th & 8th was some intersection. SW corner: Manufacturers Hanover Trust. NW corner: Goldome. NE corner: building reportedly once owned by Joseph Kennedy. Adjacent to MannyHanny: old office supply store that always had what you were looking for!
ReplyDeleteEh. Hitchens wants the place to freeze where it was after his wave of incomers did their round of spoiling things (I remember it well). There's a letter around from Eugene O'Neill to Dorothy Day back in the teens saying the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI was around deploring when his wave came in so I guess I'm not one to talk, but the fact that he's around so little that he thinks the yuppification of the Village is something happening !right!now! rather than something that's pretty much complete is kind of pitiful.
Your golden young manhood is gone, dear. The world preserving its scenes for your flying visits isn't going to bring it back.
"picture them lovingly tying up their Choos in clear plastic bags and putting them in the blue recycle bins along with the empty Dom bottles used to fuel last night's round of rich-people hate sex"
ReplyDeleteLove the NYMag article!