Remember the BMW Guggenheim Lab in the East Village that many people wrote angry blog comments about? In Berlin, left-wing activists shut the project down with threats of violence. "Their protest was that the project would accelerate the gentrification of Kreuzberg, leading to higher rents and new luxury residential developments." Another good reason to move to Berlin. [Atlantic]
Bloomberg bans food donations to the homeless. CBS asks, "Has The Mayor Totally Eaten Away At The Public's Desire To Do Good?" [CBS]
Graydon Carter on New York and money: "Somewhere along the way, New York became all about money. Or rather, it was always about money, but it wasn’t all about money, if you know what I mean. New York’s not Geneva or Zurich yet, but we’re certainly heading in that direction..." [VF]
Remembering New York School artist and writer Joe Brainard. [LOA]
New York City loses another cobbler due to doubling rents. [PMFA] via [Gothamist]
Torrisi, the people taking over Rocco's space, are raising their prices. [Eater]
EV's Zum Schneider gets all Hamptons. [Grub]
NYU: Helping the Village keep its character? [Villager]
Check out the Art & Psyche in the City conference--plus a "Dream-Over" at the Rubin Museum.
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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
Who would have thought Graydon Carter would offer some meditative thoughts on the destruction of our city, right in the pages of the destroyers' favorite magazine no less. Oh wait, yup, there it is - now he's gone on to describing the homes of the rich and wealthy. Nevermind that, then...
ReplyDeleteBut the Graydon Carter piece is pretty good, if not news to people here. And its good that someone is trying to explain, slowly and carefully, to the clueless that the city is not what it was, is not what they think it is.
ReplyDeleteAlso the one comment to the piece is even better.
I've thought for some time that New York was becoming one of those boring places, like cities in Switzerland or the Persian Gulf, where only rich people would want to go (incidentally, London is even farther down this route).
But the interesting thing is that Wall Street firms have been laying off lots of people, but rich people continue to flock to New York anyway, just to be here. One of the reasons I'm still in New York is that the recession stung less here than elsewhere in the country and this is or was still a relatively good place to look for work. But what happens if New York even loses its status as a place to come and make money, its just someplace for rich people to go and hang out?
he's got a lot of good quotes in there: "Where once we had foundries and factories on Manhattan island, men now make muffins."
ReplyDeleteBloomie--it's a shonda to not give food to the poor and homeless.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you, and Jeremiah I especially appreciated that comment about the muffins, as I blame the hipsters for pushing the middle class out of New York more than I do the financial sector. I would like to note though, that Graydon Carter and his ilk were the customers who made our city the muffins-and-derivatives economy it is today. People won't make $8 muffins if there are no buyers.
ReplyDeleteI still really don't see why NYU HAS to keep expanding. Why is it an automatic reaction from some people that, when a university wants to expand, they just take it as a necessity; you hear things like "ok, well if they can't use the land on this block, then where do you suggest they go?", as if it is a given that it is their birthright to grab up any space they can get their hands on, regardless of what a community wishes.
ReplyDeleteThey should be looked at exactly the same way as any other big business that cares very little about the community they are gobbling up. The only reason NYU needs to expand is to make more money.