*Everyday Chatter

Before Whole Foods--James and Karla Murray posted this shot of Bowery's backside from Chrystie. Can you guess the year? [J&KM]



Support the Lenny Waller Project and help save the history and culture of BDSM in NYC.

As the city giddily welcomes the next leg of the High Line, let's not forget the neighborhood that will vanish all around it. [NYT]

Marty and Shawn make it out to Coney before it's all vanished. [MAD]

The new Veselka on the Bowery is looking fancy. [EVG]

In Williamsburg: "The crush of outsiders in the neighborhood 'absolutely is Topic A'...They walk into me when they walk down the street texting. 'Don’t get me started on their giant $800 strollers running over my ankles... A lot of people from the old days carry guns. One of these days one of these suburban kids is going to say the wrong thing to the wrong person.'" [NYT]

Scenes of 1970s Harlem in Gil Scott-Heron's "The Bottle." [NYer]

June 3: The Brooklyn Film Festival kicks off. [BFF]

June 5: The Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Governor's Island now open to the unwashed masses of New York City. [VCS]

Starting June 7: See Alan Wolfson's miniature Canal St. and more at the Museum of Arts and Design. [MAD]

Zig Zag Redux

After 35 years in business, Zig Zag Records closed this past December. As Sheepshead Bites reported, "We believe it was the last vinyl merchant in all of Southern Brooklyn."


photo: Arthur Borko

Last week, Zig Zag came back to life--sort of. On his Facebook page, Howard Fein snapped some shots of the Men in Black 3 set in Downtown Brooklyn. Zig Zag was included--with a nearly identical replica of the original sign.


photo: Howard Fein

Like the Birdbath Vesuvio or the fake storefront signage at the Chelsea Hotel or the ironic mom-and-pop facade at Urban Outfitters, as so much of the city becomes a "theme park of the past," what we will have left to remind us of what New York once was will be movie sets and miniature models.

And all that is solid melts into air.

Scribbler Love

After a long hiatus, during which time he moved tentatively to the plywood around the Sam Chang hotel on 13th St. and 4th Ave., The Scribbler is back to writing his anti-government, anti-psychotherapy, pro-cigarette notes on the wall at 10th and 4th, thanks in large part to some colorful "Pollinate" posters that provided an open surface on which to write in the mess of advertisements this wall has become.



As usual, the Scribbler's rants have inspired response rants from passersby. Most of them are angry, correcting, and/or snarky.



But one person sent the Scribbler a bit of love, saying, "I for one totaly missed you rock on crazy guy."

I had missed him, too, and was glad to find that I was not alone in missing him, and that someone else had seen fit to say so with a Magic Marker, letting us know that this wall and its notes have become important, however ephemeral, however small.



Since taking these photos, the Scribbler has been covered up again.

Previously:
10th Street Graffiti
10th Street Scribbler
Scribbler Strikes Again
And More Scribbler
&
10th Street Falling

*Everyday Chatter

A shot from tipster Little John: Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream reveals its first Manhattan brick-and-mortar shop on 7th St. in the East Village. This place is going to be mobbed all summer:


Take the Battle of the Boroughs (poster) poll. [Gothamist]

Last night's funeral for 35 Cooper Square. [BB] & [EVG]

The swizzle stick hunt continues. [MAD]

Skinheads recruiting in Greenpoint? [NYS]

Billy Leroy says, "No wonder the Bowery has become the flip-flop and Baby-stroller Mecca of the World." [EVG]

The replacement for La Focaccia at Bank and 4th is revealed--and Tremont is fulfilling all the style requirements for a trendy new restaurant: gold-leaf lettering, clubby wooden blinds, nautical-inspired copper lighting, etc.:

Jerry's on the Facebook

Jerry Delakas, the newsstand guy of Astor Place, has launched a Facebook fan page. A sign on his stand asks you to "Please 'Like' Jerry's Newsstand on the facebook" and help him keep his business, which the city is trying to take away from him.



He's 62 years old and has been running this stand for 24 years. "I've spent more time on this corner than any corner on Earth," he told the Daily News, "It's like a second home."

"It would be a big loss," one of Jerry's customers told the Post. "Let’s help save it. It’s important to Jerry’s life... We have to keep these pieces of New York together."

The city already took his old stand away from him during the first blows of the Cemusa blitz. They put this glass and steel box here in October 2007. At the time, I said to him of the new box, "It looks just like that building," pointing to the nearby glass condo tower. He said, "It's supposed to."

Until then, Jerry's newsstand was a ramshackle beauty, a real antique. Just before it was carted away, I took this photo of it with a prophetic Time Out cover taped to the front asking, "Has Manhattan lost its soul?"



A few years later, we know the answer to that question. So go ahead and like Jerry's Newsstand on the facebook already, call 311, write to whomever you have to write to, and keep Jerry where he belongs.


from Facebook

*Everyday Chatter

What's been missing from the Rodeo Drive of Bleecker St? Why, Jimmy Choo, of course. It would not be a Sex & the City girl's dream street without that. Coming soon:


"New York is kind of lame now." [Gothamist]

"I've always seen the MTA's Manhattan map as a limp dick." [RS]

Help Project Neon capture the city's greatest signage. [BB]

Look out Queens: there's a chef who "sports a beard and a tattoo, cooks with local ingredients and wears ironic 1970s T-shirts," and yet is not "found in the East Village or in the hip reaches of Brooklyn." [NYT] via [Eater]

Take the latest Flaming Pablum photo quiz. [FP]

More from the Chillmaster dance party--from Goggla. [TGL]

Bloomberg Admin's tearing down old mansions in Jackson Heights. [QC]

What remains of 35 Cooper Square and its long history? A pile of bricks. [EVG]

Mourn the loss today at 6pm:

Mugging in Little Wisco

Greenwich Village seems to be returning to the Bad Old Days--with a recent attack on Dunkin Donuts and a mugging spree, all on Christopher Street. Right around the corner comes this dispatch from reader EVGayBear, straight from the heart of Nice Little Wisco at Waverly and 10th Streets:



"I was walking around the Village with my mother when we heard a loud BOOM and turned around to see this hispanic guy tackling a black guy into a garbage can. Turns out, the black guy had snatched the purse off this white girl in Burberry wellies. (Those are $275 rubber rain boots, in case you and your readers don't know.)



The purse snatcher ran into the street with the bag and over the hood of a car that just happened to be driven by an off-duty cop. No joke! The other guy, a good samaritan, then slammed the purse snatcher into the garbage can. They were both lying in the street when the cop jumped out of his car and grabbed the thief.



The cop held the purse snatcher on the ground, cuffed him, and called for back up. Weird thing is, the purse snatcher was a rather stylish guy. Skinny jeans! Shoes with no socks! Anyway, he didn't look like the mugger type. Also weird, somehow two bottles of Veuve Clicquot got mixed up in it all.



The girl in the Burberry wellies kept moving the bottles of champagne around. Mom and I couldn't figure out if they belonged to her or if the thief stole them from someone else. Anyway, the girl got very irritated when the cop told her she'd have to file a report. She didn't want to be bothered.

The good samaritan got a round of applause for his heroics and went on his way. The cops put the champagne in the trunk of their car."

*Everyday Chatter

Brooklyn tells Manhattan, "now we're fighting" in response to the most recent note. [BB] via [RS]

Bed Bug Man in a blood-filled costume--coming to the city! [Gothamist]

"Greenpoint residents who moved into a glitzy building across the street from a long established, 83 year-old poultry slaughterhouse are whining to the press." [Eater]

"Brooklyn is harsh, unforgiving country. Why did we ever leave New York?" Gary Shteyngart stars with Paul Giamatti in a book trailer. [NYM]

Rally to mourn the loss of 35 Cooper Square. [EVG]

Found on 5th Ave--the disposable urine bag that "gels instantly." Is this a bicyclist thing?


Word on the street: Hotelier is buying the Max Fish building and possibly extending their lease. [BB]

Will Japanese lenticular sidewalks make people stay to the right, or just make them nauseated? [C77]

A mysterious party spot brings busloads of drunken idiots to Avenue B. [EVG]

More on the Chillmaster's dance party--from Bob. [NMNL]

The book jackets from the walls of Elaine's. [NYM]

Sam Lipsyte gets a deal with HBO. So did Gary Shteyngart. The success of "Bored to Death" is sending HBO to New York literary authors' doorsteps--do we see a smarter future than the one from Sex & the City? [HR]

Dear Brooklyn

In response to an Etsy print on which artisanal Brooklyn tells Manhattan "You're ugly, and I don't like you anymore," designer James Campbell Taylor responds with a note of his own:


James Taylor

On the Portlandification of the city, James told me he felt compelled to make the sign "after growing tired of such tiresome jabs towards Manhattan. What began as a form of reverse snobbery is in many cases revealing itself as sheer ignorance. Whatever you say about this island--and the well-documented changes it's going through--it remains undeniably one of the most wondrous places in the Western World."

The design is not available on Etsy, not signed and numbered, and not printed on "Fabriano Elle Erre Paper: a vibrant, mouldmade, 100% acid free, heavyweight paper." But if we all ask nicely, maybe he'll put it on a t-shirt.

*Everyday Chatter

The CVS Procare pharmacy on 2nd Ave, between 8th and 9th, is closing. This was once Estroff Pharmacy and, while it became a CVS, it maintained its small-business personality. Looks like a good spot for another Subway or Starbucks:


The Rapture will be artisanalized: "The hipster prophet...would lead all unto the Ninth Avenue Food Festival, where they were serving artisanal soda and $5 roast pig sandwiches." [NYO]

Enjoy Joe Queenan's anti-cupcake rant--with a little anti-SATC rant thrown in. [WSJ] via Eater

Another Judaica store closes on Essex after 60 years. [TLD]

Christopher Street Dunkin Donuts rampage on video. [RS]

"Several things to note about the Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side. Unlike its glamorous uptown peers, the factory-chic Chelsea Market and the glossy food palace that is Eataly, it is more Plain Jane than beauty." [NYT]

The Subway sandwich chain is coming to Avenue B. [EVG]

Rocco's Pasticceria lovers express their hate for the DOH. [FIR]

EV bloggers party with the Chillmaster. [MAD]

The Aztec Theater is hiding in Queens. [SNY]

Pumping Station Signage

Recently, we looked at the demise of the Gansevoort Pumping Station, later the home of Premier Veal, in the Meatpacking District. It's being demolished to make way for the new Whitney Museum. In the process, we noted that the signage for the pumping station had been removed. Some readers wondered if it had been scrapped or sold as salvage.

Graham Newhall from the Whitney's press office wrote in with the good news that the museum donated the signage to the FDNY.


Damon Campagna, photo by Graham Newhall

Said Mr. Newhall, "The Whitney was eager to find a home for the pumping station sign because of its antique charm and its significance as a souvenir of the neighborhood’s past. Luckily, after a long search, the museum was able to arrange for the sign to be taken by the FDNY with the plan that it be displayed eventually at the FDNY’s own museum."


photo by Graham Newhall

The signs turned out to be too big and heavy for the museum to display, and they were transported instead to the FDNY training facility on Randall’s Island, otherwise known as "The Rock."

According to Damon Campagna, curator and director of the New York City Fire Museum, "The sign consists of five concrete tablets, each weighing at least 300 lbs. apiece." At The Rock, the tablets "will be restored and most likely integrated with an existing sculpture garden/picnic area where other FDNY artifacts and artwork are displayed."

The training facility is a secure area, so visits would be restricted.


photo by Graham Newhall

I asked Mr. Campagna about the historic value of the signs. He told me, "The High Pressure System is a prominent symbol of the FDNY’s continuous effort to push the frontier of firefighting technology. The system protected the citizens of this city from destruction and loss of life for over half a century. This particular station took a critical role in extinguishing both the infamous 1911 Triangle Waist Company Fire and the 1912 Equitable Fire as well as countless others."

"The High Pressure System was shut down in 1953 due to maintenance concerns about age and that pumping technology on fire engines had matured to the point to make the system obsolete. There is one last pump building standing on Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights which has been converted to residences. The rest have been razed. There was a separate HP station built expand the system to Coney Island about 30 years later. This still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places due to its architecture style. Some of its ornamentation has been stripped and is (evidently) on display in the Brooklyn Museum."


photo by Graham Newhall

No other parts of the Gansevoort pumping station will be preserved--none of its original equipment remained after the FDNY moved out in the 1950s.

Said Mr. Newhall at the Whitney, "Renzo Piano was especially concerned with creating a building appropriate to its milieu and sensitive to its surroundings, but it was determined not to try to incorporate aspects of the old building in the design for the new one."

Previously:
Veal & Pumping

*Everyday Chatter

For the foodie men of NYC: "who neurotically look at the origin of every ingredient, who regularly order things like pork belly and make fun of how I say 'radicchio' (you know who you are asshole), it’s fine to eat healthy and homegrown food but you can be quieter and nicer about it." [XOJ]

May 25: You are invited to 35 Cooper Square's funeral. [EVG]

On the ongoing inspections of Ray's Candy: "This inquisition could go on forever and Ray's Candy Store will never open." [NMNL]

Florent the movie reviewed: "a touching, elegiac tale of the rise (and some would say fall) of a colorful New York neighborhood under the relentless march of gentrification." [NYT]



Moby tells the Canucks: "New York is a victim of its own success. It's become so fancy and so affluent that the interesting people who made me want to stay in New York have all had to leave. So my neighbourhood, the Lower East Side--I don't really know anybody in my neighbourhood anymore." [TS]

A visit to the EV's Archangel Antiques. [NYT]

See what The Highliner has done in the old Empire Diner. [Grub]

Orchard St. gallery upsetting parents with windows full of porno paintings. [RS]

Stalled Orchard St. project will become yet another hotel, supposedly to "benefit neighborhood residents while adding value to the area overall." [Crain's]

P&G Closing

Reader L'Emmerdeur brings word that the new P&G Bar has been sold to a new owner, a person from Baltimore. The P&G's Facebook page confirms:

"P&Gs will be closing May 31st,reopening asap,Hopefully June 1st as a new business.Thanks everyone for the love,support and great music.and youre welcome for the booze ;)"



We grieved the vanishing of the old P&G in 2009 when it moved from its original 66-year-long location at the corner of 73rd and Amsterdam. An 80% rent increase from the landlord sent it packing, despite protests and petitions. We watched while it was gutted, hoped it could survive in its new location, and prayed the old neon sign would someday be restored and re-installed. At the time, the owner said of the business, "We hope that this ship can sail again."

They expanded into live music and making burgers, going up against the nearby Shake Shack. Said the owner to NY Barfly, "I’m going on a moral crusade against Shake-Shack. Why do people wait an hour in line for a burger?"

But the new location just wasn't the same. The old sign never returned. And few can defeat the Goliath that is Shake Shack.



What's coming here now is anybody's guess. A wine bar/cafe opened at P&G's old location. According to Yelp, people buy overpriced lattes there and get kicked out for wearing sandals.

*Everyday Chatter

Mars Bar demolition now official--with the paperwork to prove it. [GVSHP]

Artisanal-mainstreaming--Vlasic puts out some Brooklynesque pickles. [Gothamist]

Brooklyn hates Manhattan. So says someone on Etsy. [RS]

Woody Allen on the loss of Elaine's: "The food was unremittingly terrible from start to finish. My theory was that that was one of the appeals of the place--that if the food was great, then everyone would be going up there for the food. But they weren’t." [ML]

Actor Chris Noth: "The loss of Elaine’s, he said, was like 'what’s happening to the rest of the city--it’s why the city is becoming block after block of Duane Reades and Bank of Americas.'" [NYT]

Ray's Candy still not getting approval from the DOH. [EVG]

Lafayette and Houston losing one-time Gaseteria for luxury loft development. [NYO]

On the death of the Plaza Hotel: "Because of hubris or ignorance—no one knows—the developers never seemed to understand New York's attachment to this frumpy grand dame." [NYO]

From the WNYC archives, a 1952 radio report on how the city convinced Brooklyn NIMBYs to accept the Owl's Head Pollution Control Plant. [WNYC]

Check out Stephanie Gray's poetic super8 city films at Millennium this Saturday--includes lots of secret side streets.

Ghost Sign Gone

Neon expert Thomas Rinaldi brings news that the Necchi Sewing Machine ghost sign has vanished from 25th Street and 7th Avenue.


photo: Walter Grutchfield's 14 to 42

It stood high above Chelsea since 1951, the words "world's finest" and the image of a sewing machine fading over the years. (See also Frank Jump's close-up shot.)

The excellent site 14 to 42 has a little bit of info about it and the Necchi company, with a link to this original layout of the sign by the Mack Sign Company:



What is on the wall now? Mr. Rinaldi snapped this shot of an ad for Amstel Light. Will it still be here, a faded and ghostly reminder of a lost city, 60 years from now?

*Everyday Chatter

Yunnie evidence mounting: "'There is reason to believe that New York City may have a higher level of people with narcissistic personality disorder than other cities,'" says Frank Yeomans, director of training at the Personality Disorders Institute of Weill Medical College." [RS]

Brand-new, Bloombergian fountain in Washington Square Park appears to be cracked and falling apart. [WSPB]

After Howl, James Franco to play another iconic gay New York poet--Hart Crane. Is Whitman next? [VF]

Can anything in the LES "ward off the evil spell of girls in stilettos crying on corners and the dudes with popped collars trying to coax them into cabs"? [NYP]

Skinhead on Christopher St:


A Honda commercial in a vanished city--with Lou Reed. [youtube]

Today, check out an exhibit of drawings of "All the Buildings in New York." [BB]

Friday, don't miss Lost Bohemia at IFC--see it with Bill Cunningham for a double dose of vanishing New York. [IFC]

Hip Brooklyn food vendors now taking over Rockaway. [Eater]

This weekend, stay indoors--the East Village will be crawling for a Cupcake Crawl. [CBS]

The Amato Opera House gets a fancy Corcoran "for sale" sign, now that it's back on the meat rack. [EVG]

"Bloomberg had folks questioning what planet he was on Monday when he declared 'there aren't very many panhandlers left' in city subways." [NYDN]

Disney on 103rd

The Disney corporation has sponsored the renovation of a community garden on East 103rd Street. Tomorrow, May 19, a team of Disney "VoluntEARS" will assemble the playground in 8 hours. (Here's a video of what that looks like and more photos of what to expect.)



According to Disney Corporate, the playground is "part of Disney Magic of Healthy Living, a multimedia initiative designed to partner with parents in their quest to raise healthy, happy kids by reinforcing their work and inspiring kids to make healthy lifestyles fun."

Anyway, I hope they don't replace this old mural with an homage to The Mouse.

*Everyday Chatter

Prime & Beyond, a cross between "Peter Luger and Chipotle" (Zagat) arrives in a long-empty spot on shaken-up E. 10th. It's some kind of mini-chain from Fort Lee, New Jersey:


EV Grieve takes no prisoners as he speaks out against the eateries that "continue to turn the East Village into some kind of foodie tourist trap. Hyper-seasonal! Farm to table! Artisanal! ...They're greedy carpetbaggers here to cash in on the East Village gold rush." [FIR]

Elaine's to close next week. [Eater]

In Carroll Gardens, Joe's Superette shutters after more than 50 years--taking their fried prosciutto balls with them. [PMFA]

Friday at Cinema Village, Florent the movie is coming.

Going off the grid on the Gowanus. [BTN]

Behind the DOH closure at Ray's Candy. [NMNL]

Lexus taxi drivers sound "spoiled and superficial." [RS]

Author and JVNY commenter Mick Dementiuk is delighted to find his book 100 Whores in the St. Mark's Bookshop--and Melanie got a shot. [EVC]

Greenmarket 1977

Last week we discussed the "artisanalization" of the city in two posts, Ideas for a New City and Ideas for the Ideas Fest. One of the main points of discussion had to do with the meaning of "green" yesterday and today.

Rustin Wright, here and on his blog From Streetcars to Spaceships, reminded us that "green ideas" and local growing have long been part of New York City, and he listed many examples, including the Greenmarket's birth in the 1970s. Other commenters agreed, while noting that today's "green" and "local" is not the same as it was in the 1970s and '80s--nor in decades before, when even the poorest New Yorkers bought their groceries fresh from street carts.

Today, much of the artisanal movement is for the elite, for connoisseurs in the know. It is prohibitively expensive in its prices, exclusive in its language. It is the opposite of democratic. And there's the rub.


MCNY Collection: Harlem pushcarts, 1940

Coincidentally, I later came upon excerpts from John McPhee's 1977 Greenmarket essay in the magazine Edible Manhattan. It's a gorgeous piece, a "been there" slice of old New York. The shoppers are not hipsters or yuppies. They are short, dark Europeans who love rye bread, speak with Germanic accents, and take great pleasure in molesting the vegetables. (No doubt there were also plenty of hippies shopping.) The ethos of the time was that healthy food was for all New Yorkers. It had the idealism of today, but without the exclusivity and snobbishness.

Read the whole thing, but here are some beauties, as the Greenmarket farmers tell McPhee about the people of New York in 1977:

“We have to leave them touch the tomatoes, but when they do my guts go up and down. They paw them until if you stuck a pin in them they’d explode.”

“They handle the fruit as if they were getting out all their aggressions. They press on the melons until their thumbs push through. I don’t know why they have to handle the fruit like that. They’re brutal on the fruit.”

“They inspect each egg, wiggle it, make sure it’s not stuck in the carton. You’d think they were buying diamonds.”

“They’re bag crazy. They need a bag for everything, sometimes two.”

“They’re nervous. So nervous.”


The Greenmarket, 1977; photo: GrowNYC

“Today I had my third request from someone who wanted to come stay on the farm, who was looking for peace and quiet for a couple of days. He said he had found Jesus. It was unreal.”

“I had two Jews in yarmulkes fighting over a head of lettuce. One called the other a kike.”

“I’ve had people buy peppers from me and take them to another truck to check on the weight.”

“Yeah, and meanwhile they put thirteen ears of corn in a bag, hand it to you, and say it’s a dozen. I let them go. I only go after them when they have sixteen.”

“They think we’re hicks. ‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘We’re hicks and you’re hookers. You’re muggers and you breathe dirty air.’”

“I hardly smoke in the city. Down home I can smoke a whole pack of cigarettes and still have energy all night. You couldn’t pay me to live here. I can’t breathe.”



Woman says, “What is this stuff on these peaches?”

“It’s called fuzz.”

“It was on your peaches last week, too.”

“We don’t take it off. When you buy peaches in the store, the fuzz has been rubbed off.”

“Well, I never.”

“You never saw peach fuzz before? You’re kidding.”

“I don’t like that fuzz. It makes me itchy. How much are the tomatoes?”

“Three pounds for a dollar.”

“Give me three pounds. Tomatoes don’t have fuzz.


Also:
Watch a fantastic movie of the local egg shop on E. 7th St.

*Everyday Chatter

Ray's Candy just shuttered by DOH. [EVG]

Looking at the vanished Second Ave. mansions of yesteryear--and what has replaced them in the EV today. [GVSHP]

Cruising lower Second Ave. with Forgotten NY. [FNY]

Hotel Chelsea buyer revealed--and it's not going condo. [Curbed]

Has Union Square become a lawless "methadone alley"? [RS]

Chilling with the Chillmaster of E. 3rd St. [MAD] & [OMFS]

"Murray Handwerker, who transformed his father’s Brooklyn hot dog business, Nathan’s Famous, into a celebrated national fast-food chain, died Saturday at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 89." [NYT]

Another meatpacker leaves the Meatpacking District--after more than half a century. [WSJ]

No spitting! [ENY]

Bed Bug Plague

Protect-A-Bed continues to skeeve out the citizenry with icky pictures of bed bugs in their subway ads. But now, something new--a free Bed Bug 101 app for smartphones.



It comes complete with tools for identifying, locating, and reporting on bed bugs. Everything you need to gear up for what promises to be the worst bed bug summer ever.

But wait, there's more!




The app also features: "Bed Bug Plague, an exciting new game starring the Protect-A-Bed® Buggersons! ... Place weapons along the path on your screen to help destroy the Bed Bugs before they get to your bed, and earn points and gold along the way." Unfortunately, this is "The only 100% guaranteed way to kill Bed Bugs!"




The game alone almost--but not quite--makes me want an iPhone. For now, I'll stick with the old-school, analog version.

Ideas for the Ideas Fest

*This post and all of its comments were lost by Google's Blogger. This is a recreation of it.*

With over 50 comments, we’ve had a lively exchange in the discussion thread on the post about the Ideas for a New City Festival. To recap:

A few people noted that aspects of the fair made them want to vomit, but many agreed it wasn’t “all bad” and expressed an appreciation of the basic values: sustainability, healthy food, and the anti-corporate stance. Still, overall, commenters think the hyper-gentrification of the city is getting out of hand.


Koolhaas preaches destruction at the Fest. Read here.

Lots of people critiqued the artisanalization, Portlandization, suburbanization, “WTFification” of the city. Bowery Boogie said the fest seemed like a “Brooklyn takeover.” And Erika pleaded, “Stop trying to turn NYC into Portland, please. I enjoy escaping into the countryside from NYC sometimes, but I like the clear boundaries.” One transplanted Portland (PDX) resident said they came to New York because “i wanted to be in an interesting city that i was not going to colonize. i don't understand how this pdx'ing of this city is happening. i moved away from there to get away from it.”

Joe from NYCArts disagreed with these sentiments, saying, "What could possibly be wrong with adding a little of the 'college life in the Pacific Northwest'?" He stated that the ideas at the fest are "the only type of thinking that will save us from nasty, scary things like Fox News, suicide bombers and international chaos."


What's the artisanalization really about? Read here.

Several commenters called attention to the economic inequity in many of the festival ideas. City of Strangers said, "This artisanal thing...what's remarkable is how most make almost no attempt to cater to the non-gentrifying class." Said esquared, "some of the ideas at the festival were great, but unless they are affordable to the most nyers…they'll remain just an idea.” Anonymous pointed out that the hipster artisan business is a “purposively design-intensive, customized-ingredient businesses...obviously. To be profitable, they have to charge premium prices. Their customer base necessarily consists, at least in great part, of the monied bobos who follow in their train."

At least one Anonymous pointed out the racial inequity, saying, "New York has been so over-developed that it’s turned from brown (and I mean all shades of that) to green.”

Bryan wanted to know which is the lesser of two evils, asking, “Artisanal foodies vs hedgefund managers--which would you rather have move into your building?” In response, Teri said she’s ready to plant seeds with the foodies and LSR quipped, "whether its some $40 pilates class, $80 ‘spa’ pedicures, $20 soaps, made in the rain forest by indigenous tribal oppressed- please...... if its ‘that’ OR a burger king, i will take ‘that.’ but those limited options kill NYC."


The local chicken you're about to enjoy--watch the parody here.

As for solutions and alternative ideas, commenters had a few suggestions. EV Grieve hopes “the city of the future includes a decent place for take-out Chinese on my block. And a laundromat." Ken Mac agreed, adding to the list “a locksmith, bookstore, and someone who sharpens knives.” JAZ would like to see newcomers to the city assimilate into the existing culture, instead of using “NYC as a coffee table conversation piece.” Bryan suggested, “Why not offer 50% discounts at Whole Foods and the Greenmarkets to people in section 8 housing? And bring back Guss's Pickles?” Anonymous said, “if everyone got on board with csas, community gardening, local production, the costs could be much lower and it could truly be a sustainable model.”

Bryan also offered a compromise: “I'd like to see the return-to-earthers who want to take up traditional trades as a means of personal or spiritual fulfillment do so by apprenticing with old-timers--the old-school barbers, butchers, cobblers, repair shops that still exist. Is it possible to convince the entrepreneurial hipsters that neighborhoods already have existing social structures worth protecting, rather than replicating in boutique form?”



Jill kind of summed it up, saying, “If this represents the present/future, then maybe what we saw at that festival, all in one place, is a new definition of ‘urban.’” She asks, "has NY truly entered a phase where all problems are solved, so we can now waste our time and money on very expensive micro-greens and fancy ass pickles and other things that define the new white urban culture crave?"

So, more questions than answers. Based on what we’re seeing today, what will the future city be like? What does urban mean today? Are all the problems really solved? What kind of future city do you want to live in? In the Morton's Fork dilemma of "hipster artisan or hedgefunder," can we imagine any other choices?

*Everyday Chatter

Make the Millionaires Pay--today on Wall Street: "at 4PM thousands of working people, students, seniors, people on public assistance, and community activists, will take Wall Street to school and create a giant classroom without walls." [AL]

City wants to install a special "limousine lane" to ferry the wealthy from home to work. Not kidding. [DNA]

Are we going to lose the lovely Cup & Saucer diner? [EVG]

The Times tries to glamorize 9th Ave between 14th and 23rd--completely omitting the endangered culture that has long been thriving (and recently struggling) there. [NYT]



Visiting the great Justin Vivian Bond, above Mars Bar: V "is going to have to leave this apartment next month. The ramshackle building is surrounded by the dormlike Avalon Bay apartment complex, and will soon be demolished to make way for more of the same. Bond still isn’t sure where he’s [sic] going." [NYM]

More ideas for the new city as BMW and the Guggenheim take over a rat-infested EV lot. One of their first ideas--chop down that tree! [EVG]

A history of the endangered Essex Street Market. [Forward]

In Bushwick, a mystery person leaves an artifact of the old on the doorstep of the new. [NYS]

Embassy 1

Another reason to visit the Times Square Visitor Center, other than to see the Peep-O-Rama sign and the sad display of neutered sex booths, is to enjoy the interior of the Embassy Theater in which it is housed.


NY State Museum

Opened in 1925 and closed in 1997, the Embassy is a landmark designed by Thomas Lamb, who also designed the nearby Mayfair. It began life as a newsreel theater in 1929, running a continuous 25-cent show, but was originally planned as a small "theaterette," a salon-like destination for the city's elite.


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Says the website for the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (the Embassy had an organ): "the ornate French-inspired interior featured elaborate plasterwork and murals by Arthur Crisp. Furthering its salon-like appeal, the Embassy was the first movie house on Broadway to employ a woman manager, the heiress Gloria Gould, and it had the distinction of being operated almost exclusively by women."



“I believe women are more reliable, and I shall employ only women in the Embassy Theater,” said Gloria Gould. According to this account, "The ushers were planned to be young ladies in ballet costumes." But then Gloria bailed on the project in 1925, hopping on a steamer bound for France. Said the heiress, “I could not afford to live in New York any more even if I wanted to.”

MGM was paying her $250 a week to manage the Embassy.



The main floor of the Visitor Center is actually the auditorium, with all the seats removed. It's surrounded by Arthur Crisp's painted murals. His work adorns theaters, hotels, and other sites across the city, the country, and Canada.

Where movie posters used to line the entryway, now are video clips from Times Square's history. (Tourists, sensing a romantic setting, make out under the chandeliers.)



There's a bunch of other stuff inside--a New Year's Eve ball, a confetti "wishing wall"--along with this little treasure, an old Mutoscope with a one-cent movie called Jungle Queen.

A few tidbits about Mutoscope: "The company was founded in 1895 to make peep shows of girls going to bed, the cook kissing the policeman and little Johnny getting a spanking. One of the firm's early artists was Mary Pickford, hired to pose at $5 per day when the weather was good."



Mary Pickford, to my knowledge, does not play the Jungle Queen. You can't view Jungle Queen, either, but if you could, you might see something like this.