Tuesday, September 11, 2012

*Everyday Chatter

The coming death of NYCHA: "New York is big, but not that big. The pressure increases each time a fresh-faced college grad steps off a plane to drink in the cool new bar on the (formerly) sketchy side of town. Ten years ago, the sight of the Bushwick projects was a signal to lock the car doors and drive faster. Now they are the backdrop for the romance of the struggling artist con condo. Robert Moses might have done his best to place the developments as far from the main stem as possible, but now the city is coming to the projects." [NYM]

That was fast. Recently shuttered Lafayette French pastry shop already re-branded by Bao:



Check out Chris Arnade's lovely photos of the city's pigeon keepers. [Flickr]

Narratively NYC is now live--learn about a piano mover and the city's female taxi drivers. [NNYC]

Pick up a copy of New York Originals, the book about NYC mom-and-pop shops. [youtube]

Enjoy Chekhov for Children--and 1970s NYC. [Fandor]

Maira Kalman responds to the closing of Colony Records with artwork in this week's New Yorker. She writes, "No more 12x12 inches of graphic glory. Big surprise. So where are we? No more vinyl. No more books. No more bookstores?" [NYer]

Adrian Tomine is selling some fantastic New York-centric prints. [AT]

Help protect the Merchant's House Museum. [EVG]

Designer Jil Sander is selling a crumpled paper bag man purse for $290. [NYDN]

City's ban on XXX is not legal. [Curbed]

The panel reflector signs of NYC. [NYN]

4 comments:

Brendan said...

-The NYCHA article is baffling. Nothing in the article supports the headline.

-The Bao guy, an immigrant entrepreneur who sells delicious $6 sandwiches, is a lot more deserving of New Yorkers' business than some angry conservative racist.

-The bag could have been funny if they literally just bought a bunch of brown lunch bags and wrote "Jil Sander" on them.

Anonymous said...

Of course he's baffled, there's no housing projects like NYCH projects in Wisconsin. And yet another condescending comment from a Midwestern gentrifier.

Brendan said...

Anonymous, all I was saying is that the headline of the article is sensationalistic and the text of the article does not support it. The only plan to dismantle NYCHA discussed in the article comes from some libertarian think tank idiot who fortunately has no power.

My bet is that the reporter wrote the article as a general look at NYCHA, and his editor slapped that headline on top to draw people in. That's pretty common.

JM said...

btw...Jil Sander has not been associated with the label that bears her name for years now. The bag is horrific, but it's not her doing.