As we've been saying--here and here and here--the High Line is driving out long-time businesses. [NYP]
An update on the city's "gentrification project." [MONY]
Women who eat their own placenta "are mostly middle-class...college-educated, in their thirties, and live on a gentrifying street in Crown Heights." [NYM]
The last of the old block of Third Ave. between 11th and 12th is coming down. [EVG]
Mapping Brooklyn via Jonathan Lethem. [P&W]
Website filler text has gone artisanal with "Hipster Ipsum," e.g., "Brunch sartorial williamsburg, you probably haven't heard of them fanny pack marfa banksy." [DH]
Now you can get artisanal New York delivered right to your door. [Gothamist]
UWS diner demolished to make room for another CVS. [WSR]
More diner demolition. [Curbed]
Revolutionary War discovery in upper Manhattan. [AMNY]
Trolley tracks unearthed on Union Street. [HPS]
Three survivors of Times Square that somehow escaped the wrecking ball. [LC]
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a.k.a. The Book of Lamentations:
a bitterly nostalgic look at a city in the process of going extinct
- Jeremiah Moss
- THE BOOK:
"We should all buy Jeremiah Moss’s book, Vanishing New York." --Sarah Jessica Parker
“Essential reading for fans of Jane Jacobs, Joseph Mitchell, Patti Smith, Luc Sante, and cheap pierogi.” --Vanity Fair
"a vigorous, righteously indignant book that would do Jane Jacobs proud." --Kirkus Reviews
THE BLOG:
"the go-to hub for those who lament New York's loss of character." --Crain's
"No one takes stock of New York's changes with the same mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit as Jeremiah Moss." --Village Voice, Best of NY
“Jeremiah Moss…is the defender of all the undistinguished hunks of masonry that lend the streets their rhythm.” --Justin Davidson, New York Magazine
"One of the most thorough and pugnacious chroniclers of New York’s blandification." --The Atlantic, Citylab
"Hyperbolic and combative, tireless and passionate." --Salon
So routine has the closure of beloved establishments become, I'm always surprised how much each one still hurts.
ReplyDeleteThe demolition of this block is especially painful. The first time I visited the city from the UK (as a wide-eyed 20 year-old) I stayed at the hotel on the corner of 77th and Broadway. It was already called On The Ave, but it had a tiny lobby and few frills.
There was a Fishs Eddy on the ground floor and a laundromat across the street. I don't think the Manhattan Diner was there at the time or I'm sure I would have eaten breakfast there (I went to Xando around the corner or the Beacon Diner instead).
Years later, after moving to the city, I ate at the Manhattan Diner several times. Fantastic burgers but I never had the egg cream. I almost cried when I arrived one wet Sunday in May to see it shuttered. They'd already begun tearing the place up, so I made sure to take a photo of the mosaic entrance. That's probably gone too by now.
That memo seems oddly made up.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I like those Hollister guys after reading that interview.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend, Jeremiah!
Thanks for linking to the Lethem book club discussion over at PWHNY, Jeremiah. Would love to get reader feedback on those posts -- or do not enough people actually like the novel?
ReplyDeleteI'll miss the Manhattan Diner! As an ex-pat New Orleanian, I used to go to the diner and order bread pudding plus a shot of bourbon to pour over the pudding. (No substitute for N.O. bread pudding with whiskey sauce, but good enough to cure a bout of homesickness.)
ReplyDeleteThat story from AM New York about the Revolutionary War redoubt is great - I'd love to get up there to take a look at that. Pretty amazing that such an important piece of history just lays there without praise.
ReplyDeleteThe "gentrification project" letter is a must read. It pretty much summarizes what has been happening in the city for over a decade now.
ReplyDeleteJeremiah
ReplyDeleteWonderful blog!
I think there is another stretch of Revolutionary War earthworks still in Manhattan: at the Southeast corner of the eastern division of Trinity Cemetery, near the corner of West 153rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. There is a small hillock and a low berm extending eastwards towards Amsterdam; both were, I believe, part of the earthworks. There is a plaque marking the site of the Middle Redoubt. I posted a couple of photos on my tumblr blog.