We knew it would happen, and now it's happening. Folsom Street East has been cancelled.
The organizers put out a message last night via Facebook and their website:
"It is with sadness that the Producers and Board of Directors of Folsom Street East have to announce that the 17th annual Folsom Street East Street Festival this June is going to be cancelled. Though we continue to receive support for this community-building and fundraising event from Community Board 4 and our neighbors on the block (including our producing partner The Eagle NYC), the ever-growing construction on the north side of 28th street has made it impossible for us to successfully and safely hold our annual street festival. Thank you for the years of support from our attendees, sponsors, partners, exhibitors, vendors, performers and volunteers; we are sad that we will not be able to celebrate Pride with you at our fetish-friendly event this year."
At the end of the message, they write: "Thanks for 16 great years celebrating sexual freedom with the Folsom Street East Street Festival, and we hope to see you back on the kinky streets of New York City in 2014!"
They don't say which streets and we can guess it won't be West 28th. Ever since the High Line opened in that part of town and Bloomberg rezoned it for luxury development, Folsom East has had a target on its back.
Here is a timeline of what has happened on this one block of West 28th Street since it became prime High Line real estate (click the dates for the full articles):
November 2010: A "High Line Boomlet" came to West Chelsea. The first residents of the +ART luxury condo moved onto this block of West 28th.
June 8, 2011: The second section of the High Line opened, bringing many tourists and other folks to a part of town they'd never before entered, including this once-industrial block, over which the High Line stretches.
June 19, 2011: High Line walkers got their first glimpse of Folsom Street East, right beneath their feet. Though the fair had been on this block for years, you had to be a part of it to go looking for it. At the time, I asked, "As the High Line spreads its luxurious seed across upper Chelsea, replacing every rough thing in its path with glass and glamor, how long, really, do you think Folsom will be allowed to party here?"
June 24, 2011: The Eagle gay leather bar was raided by the NYPD. They claimed the bar was the source of chronic noise complaints, but no such complaints were on record--only complaints about noise from all the condo construction. Around the same time, the massive Avalon West Chelsea condo tower broke ground right across the street, with advertisements proclaiming, "Don't miss your chance to be a part of the High Line!"
April 2012: We learned that another luxury condo tower would be coming to this block.
June 13, 2012: A resident of the +ART condo told us about the backlash against Folsom East, saying, "Residents from several surrounding buildings have passed fliers asking our residents to write to the Community Board to relocate or totally eliminate Folsom Street East because 'fetish' fairs shouldn't be allowed so close to so many residential buildings." Meanwhile, a slogan on the windows of the condo stated, "Chelsea is the birthplace of creative modern art and the home of bad behavior."
June 14, 2012: A representative from Folsom East responded to the backlash against them, saying they were doing everything they could to cooperate with the new neighbors.
June 17, 2012: Folsom East went on--surrounded by construction fencing and with a special path built for the condo people. Up on the High Line, tourists gawked like visitors to a freak show, while Christian right-wingers waved banners telling the fair-goers that only Jesus would save them from Hell.
January 2013: We heard that the scrapyard Central Iron and Metal, the last industrial business on the block, would be closing after 86 years in business. It sold for $65 million to a luxury developer.
March 2013: Not on West 28th, but still related, the Rawhide bar was driven out of Chelsea after 34 years of serving the LGBT and leather community.
Queer New York City has, once again, just gotten smaller. It's vanishing day by day. Don't blink, you might miss it.
Very soon, this entire block will be taken over by High Line culture, filled only with luxury condo towers and their occupants, with artisanal-foodie restaurants to feed them and high-end chain stores to fulfill their consumer needs. The Eagle remains, but for how long? In the end, Bloomberg's High Line always wins.
23 comments:
Im glad... what USED to be for our community had now become a tourist attraction -- a place where tourists would go and make fun of the leather community, take pictures without asking first etc..
I hope that they DO get another spot.. perhaps this would return it back the community for which it was intended.
I was thinking about Rawhide and it's closure and the imminent closure of The Eagle (it's only a matter of time), now I see that the superdevelopment of west Chelsea has already claimed a casualty. I think that with time what'll happen is that the leather community will just entirely go underground again, which is probably key to its survival.
Thank God this was cancelled; just think of the poor double-wide stroller pushing moms with their latte frappucino soy espressos that would be scarred for life if they had to pass that on the way to their 4 million dollar apartments. She moved to the city to raise a family away from filth like this. And the kids - OH THINK OF THE KIDS!!!
Where do these paraders think they are - don't these Folsom Street East people realize that this is Chelsea???
This is a very vague non-reason. Were they denied a street closure permit? Threatened? Construction dust?
What, no more ass-eating contests? I am truly appalled. BTW, on a serious note, I never visited the Folsom Street East but just knowing it was there (like the Grand Canyon I have never visited it as well) gave me a nice, warm Manhattan feeling.
The problem is that with all of the construction going on, there wasn't enough room left on the street for the vendors to set up and for people to walk down the street safely. It would have been even more packed elbow to elbow than it usually is. The breeders win again.
A little ray of hope...one of the FSE organizers did say that the main reason is the construction making the street too narrow and unsafe. He went on to say the FSE didn't move quick enough to try for another block.
No shit, NYC is a corpse, but maybe it'll back next year somewhere else.
I can't imagine it can ever be at Eagle again though...:(
jaz, the mothers are correct. its not a place to pass w/children. blame the developers who built the condos, not the buyers. put your anger in the right place. this is not a fight between straights & gays. new york is the gayest place on the planet, they will survive.
I am not the least bit sorry to see such places to go. To be honest, I had never heard of them, but I prefer places that bring in more tax $$$$ and families
@Laura. Blame the buyers as well. Do people not do any research when moving to a neighborhood?
@Anon 12:21. I hear Connecticut is a nice place for families.
This is what happens when a group avidly wants to melt into the mainstream.
The group disappears and there's no one around who cares enough to stop that from happening.
As a straight man who always felt comfortable in whatever surroundings: NOOO...we're screwed. Gay people throw the best parties. If I had another place to go to, I'd be out of here...alas...
Laura - I agree with anon 12:33;
1) I would never think to move somewhere, especially if I intend on starting a family, without learning what that neighborhood is all about - and respecting that enough to go somewhere else if it was gonna bug me.
2) If I had a little kid I personally would not feel uncomfortable walking him past any type of parade or gathering that did not present him with a threat of physical harm. I'd want my kid to see and interact with as many different types of people as possible - this is why I'd be raising him in this city (whatever is actually left of it at this point). If you want to raise a child that is going to be a sheltered little flower, that is certainly your choice, and there are plenty of places way better to do it than in the middle of the largest city in the country.
Didn't mean for this to be a dig at you Laura - it's just that I don't feel this city has to convert itself into a Disneyland that couldn't offend the average conservative bible belt family.
Unless someone hangs their kid over the highline railing a la Michael Jacksons kid I don't think theyd see much.When the nrw building opens I hope yhe event returns. It s one day out of a whole year. Are these affluent prudes writing cheque s for the charities Folsom supports? I think not.
it doesn't seem that a kid would probably happen upon this but if they did so what, it's part of life. I have small kids, if they saw something they didn't understand I would just tell them that it something for adults that they probably won't understand until later. In related news did you all see this? turns out those entrapment arrests of older gay men on fake prostitution charges were on direct order from the mayor's office http://gaycitynews.com/city-law-department-says-mayors-office-ordered-video-store-busts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=city-law-department-says-mayors-office-ordered-video-store-busts
I think it's more obscene that my kid will not be able to afford to live in the New New York when he grows up.
Gay New York is not disappearing, it's moving. There are 13 exclusively gay bars in Hell's Kitchen now. THIRTEEN. Plus venues that have weekly gay nights. The Eagle crowd may not be venturing into Brooklyn to hang with the 21-year-old hipsters, but there are plenty of gay and mixed (what a concept!) bars there. The straights have taken Chelsea, but are we surprised? That's always how it goes: the gays make a run-down area nice and then the straights move in and price us out.
jaz & anon 12:18, i have a feeling that its one of 2 things: the developers said the area would be "cleaned up". OR the buyers were really naive, & just didnt know about the folsom event. its a sexual thing, not right for children. personally i would not want to live near a leather area, it is my personal PERFERENCE, even though i dont have children. in the case of chelsea, the buyers win, they hold the purse strings. anon 1:44, see i was right, you agree. the gays will always move around like a wandering tribe. there are too many gay men in NYC for that culture to dissappear. they come, they rehab, they buy. then the cycle starts again. artists & gays pave the way for realestate.
This is the kind of fun we are losing, folks: http://www.youtube.com/edit?ns=1&video_id=CVQMDLZd4Zg
This is the fun we are losing: http://youtu.be/CVQMDLZd4Zg
this was a block party outside of the lure for years. how did you forget. moved 28th outside the eagle only recently. the meat packing district is now sanitized. reeks of christine quinn. everyone here forgot about mother, vault, hellfire, lure, j's place. all that was nyc. this blogs timeline is nearsighted.
or them walking down the street with no clothes on. its nasty. Also the fact if you google folsom sex fest 2009-2011(year sepreatly) made alot of pro family news from wnd to catholic online. Also take into consideration that it occurs in christine quinns district and they may of ceased cause shes running for mayor.
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