Tourists Juice the Ball Drop

Citibank bikes have been parked in Times Square and hooked up to 12-volt "deep cycle batteries." Stationary riders (mostly tourists, one assumes) are pedaling like crazy to charge the batteries. The energy they produce will then be dumped into the city's power grid to "offset the demands" of the Waterford crystal ball's midnight drop.



“With the year’s biggest party being powered by Citi Bike pedals," said Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, "the world is in for an even more electrifying experience when the ball drops."

After filling the city's veins with Bloomberg Administration-approved tourist juice, riders can then go to the Times Square Applebee's for a $375 New Year's Eve "ton of food" dinner.

It seems a perfect send-off for Bloomberg's last moments in office. I'll be counting the seconds.



But I prefer this version of New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Master List: 2001 - 2013

At the end of each year, I usually do a round-up of that year's vanished places. But this year is special. This year means the end to the evil Bloomberg era, so I offer this "Master List" of Vanished New York from 2001 to 2013. It's been 12 merciless years of destruction and loss, from "significant" losses to countless "smaller" ones--neighborhood laundromats, shoe repair shops, drugstores--far more than I have compiled here.

If you look only at this list and add up all the years in business represented, we lost approximately 6,926 years of New York City history in only a dozen years. And we know the real number is much higher than that.

Clearly, we need strong protections for the city's small businesses. Many of the closures were due to the impact of gentrification, either through rising rents, demolition for luxury development, or a decrease in business due to their neighborhood's up-shifting of demographics and values. A few closed for unrelated reasons, like the owner's death or retirement, but I included them all. I'm sure I've missed many--in part because I didn't start the blog until 2007. Please add them in the comments, and include the date and reason for closure if you can. Also, if you see any mistakes, please offer corrections. Thank you.

This list is a living document. I plan to add to it over time. Here's a nice quote about it from Kristin Iverson at Brooklyn Magazine: "For those of us who have lived in New York for a long time, perusing the list was not unlike looking through a high school yearbook, only finding out that practically everyone had died."



2013 (836 years)
Stile's Market: 26 years
Pushed out by landlord, to be demolished for luxury development

5Pointz, formerly Phun Phactory: 20 years
White-washed by owner, to be demolished for luxury condo towers

Famous Roio’s/Ray’s Pizza: 40 years
Building sold

Ray Beauty Supply: 50 years
Property seized by landlord

Vercesi Hardware: 101 years
Building sold to be demolished for luxury condos

D’Auito’s Bakery: 89 years
Unknown

Odessa Restaurant: 48 years
Building sold, gastropub to move in, now for rent

Splash gay bar: 22 years
Lack of business

Paradise Café: 20 years
Rent hike

Big Nick’s Burger and Pizza Joint: 51 years
Rent increase from $42,000 to $60,000 a month

Max Fish: 24 years
Rent increase

Joe’s Dairy: 60 years
Cost of doing business

Bleecker Bob’s Records: 46 years
Rent hike

Blarney Cove: 50+ years
Evicted for new development

Sofia’s Italian restaurant: 35 years
Lost their lease

9th Street Bakery: 87 years
38% rent hike, replaced by juice-cleanse and smoothie shop

Capucine’s Italian restaurant: 33 years
Rent hike

Rawhide gay bar: 34 years
Rent hike, to be turned into a pizza chain from California



2012 (1302 years)
Rocco Ristorante: 90 years
Lost lease to trendy restaurateurs, gutted and upscaled

The Holiday Cocktail Lounge: 47 years
Sold and gutted for a gastropub

Kenny’s Castaway’s: 45 years
Rising cost of business

McCullough’s Kiddie Park, Coney Island: 50 years
Lost their lease

Manganaro's Grosseria: 119 years
Sold and gutted for a more upscale restaurant

A Clean Well-Lighted Place: 36 years
Now an upscale boutique

World of Video: 29 years
Lost its lease

Chelsea Gallery Diner: 30 years
Forced out of Chelsea

Bill's Gay 90s: 88 years
Lost its lease to a trendy restaurateur, gutted and upscaled

Atlas Barber School: 64 years
Lost lease due to hiked rent, now a UPS

Prime Burger: 47 years
Lost lease when building sold

Lascoff Pharmacy: 113 years
Closed and gutted

Colony Records: 60 years
Closed when the new landlord quintupled the rent to $5 million

Movie Star News: 73 years
Rent hiked, turned into a luxury bathroom fixture store

Lafayette French Bakery: 30+ years
Evicted

Partners & Crime Bookshop: 18 years
Closed due to lack of business

University Diner: 60 years
Evicted

El Faro: 85 years
Possibly evicted?

Village Chess Shop: 40 years
Closed due to lack of business

The Stage Deli: 75 years
Rent increase

Lenox Lounge: 63 years
Landlord doubled the rent, given to upscale restaurateur

H&H Bagels: 40 years
Last location evicted



2011 (575 years)
Gansevoort Pumping Station, Premier Veal plant: 105 years
Evicted and demolished for new Whitney Museum and High Line headquarters

Polonia: 22 years
Probable rent hike

Auggie’s Coffee shop: 45 years
Could not afford the rent

The Original Ray's Pizza: 52 years
Legal dispute with landlord

Mars Bar: 26 years
Demolished to build luxury condos, to become a bank

Brownfeld Auto: 120 years
Evicted when landlord decided to sell for luxury High Line development

Chelsea Hotel: 127 years
Sold and closed to guests

Life Café: 30 years
Dispute with landlord over repairs

Elaine’s: 48 years
Death of owner



2010 (886 years)
Skyline Books: 20 years
Probable rent hike, replaced with a body waxing salon

JJ’s Navy Yard bar: 103 years
Evicted, sold, and demolished, replaced by hipster coffee

Telephone Bar and Grill: 22 years
Sold and replaced with a frat bar

Gino: 65 years
Closed when landlord raised rent $8,000 per month, turned into a cupcake bakery chain

Empire Diner: 34 years
Lost their lease

Guss’ Pickles: 100 years
Left the Lower East Side due to rising neighborhood rents

Shore Hotel: 107 years
Coney Island hotel, demolished by Thor Equities to make room for new construction

Fedora: 58 years
Closed by owner in old age, taken over by a trendy restaurateur, gutted and upscaled

Carmine's at the Seaport: 107 years
Closed when landlord raised the rent to $13,000 a month

St. Vincent's Hospital: 161 years
Closed and demolished for a billion-dollar luxury condo project

New York Doll Hospital: 109 years
Death of owner, no successor



2009 (613 years)
Arnold Hatters: 50 years
Unable to make rent after original location taken by eminent domain to build New York Times tower, replaced by 7-Eleven

Joe Jr.'s diner: 35 years
Lost their lease, now upscale coffee

P&G Bar: 67 years
Lost lease, gutted and replaced by upscale cafe

Amato Opera House: 61 years
Closed by the owner in old age, building sold

Love Saves the Day: 43 years
Closed in part due to high rent

Tavern on the Green: 75 years
Bankruptcy

Café Des Artistes: 92 years
Bankruptcy

Manny’s Music: 74 years
Bought out by Sam Ash, also later shuttered

Provincetown Playhouse: 91 years
Demolished by NYU

Biography Bookshop: 25 years
Rent hike, owners relocated as BookBook



2008 (821 years)
Jefferson Market: 79 years
Money trouble, now sales office for billion-dollar luxury condo project at St. Vincent's

Fazil’s Times Square Studio: 73 years
Closed for building demolition

Astroland amusement park: 46 years
Sold to Thor Equities for redevelopment

Donnell Library: 53 years
Closed and demolished for a luxury hotel

The Minetta Tavern: 71 years
Landlord raised the rent, gave lease to upscale restaurateur

Bobby's Happy House: 61 years
Building sold for a big-box chain store

Chez Brigitte: 50 years
Rent doubled, replaced by frozen yogurt chain

Cafe Figaro: 39 years
Lost their lease, became fast-food burrito chain and bank

Yankee Stadium: 85 years
Demolished and replaced with an upscale ballpark

Shea Stadium: 44 years
Demolished and replaced with upscale, corporate-named Citi-Field

Florent: 24 years
Closed due to rent hike, from $6,000 to $50,000 per month

Vesuvio Bakery: 88 years
Sold

M&G Diner: 40 years
Sold and shuttered

Cheyenne Diner: 68 years
Lost its lease, moved away



2007 (783 years)
Limelight: 24 years
Shuttered by police, reopened, eventually closed and converted to luxury shopping mall

The Roxy: 29 years
Shut down for conversion to luxury condos

Dojo’s Restaurant, 33 years
Rent hike

Gertel's Bakery: 93 years old
Sold, demolished for condo development

The Playpen Theater: 100 years
Sold and demolished for luxury hotel tower and Shake Shack chain

Chumley's: 79 years old
Collapsed

Jade Mountain: 76 years old
Death of owner

Moondance Diner: 74 years
Closed for condo development, moved to Wyoming

Kurowycky Meats: 52 years old
Closed due to lack of business

Copeland's: 49 years old
Victim of gentrification

Donuts Coffee Shop: 32 years old
Evicted

Sucelt Coffee: 31 years old
Rent hike

Teresa's Polish restaurant: 22 years old
Rent hike

Rose’s Turn: 56 years
Family sold building for $3.5 million

Coliseum Books: 33 years
Rent too high



2006 (373 years)
Cedar Tavern: 140 years
Demolished for condos, replaced with a body waxing salon

Gotham Book Mart: 86 years
Evicted

McHale's Bar: 62 years
Demolished for luxury condo tower

The Second Avenue Deli: 52 years
Rent increase, replaced with a bank

CBGBs: 33 years
Rent dispute, replaced by John Varvatos upscale boutique


photo via Satan's Laundromat

2005 (278 years)
Variety Photoplays Theater: 108 years
Demolished by the Toll Brothers for a 21-story condo tower

Fulton Fish Market: 170 years
Moved to the Bronx due to “the creeping conversion of Manhattan into a monstrous mall” --NY Times



2004 (319 years)
A. Zito & Sons Bakery: 80 years
Rising cost of business

The Bottom Line: 30 years
NYU raised the rent

The original Kim’s Video: 17 years
?

Jon Vie Bakery: 42 years
“a victim of soaring rents in a neighborhood populated as much by bankers as by bohemians.” --NY Times

Domino Sugar Factory: 150 years
Declining business, to be converted to luxury condos


photo via: Intersection's Flickr

2002 (127 years)
Ratner’s: 97 years
Cost of doing business

Madison Avenue Bookshop: 30 years
Lack of business

2001 (13 years)
Wetlands: 13 years
Building sold for luxury condos

Happy Holidays

I'll be taking the week off. But you can find me on Facebook--join my Facebook page for more links and discussion, and see you back here Monday.

Happy Holidays!

A-1 Music

VANISHING

Reader Jim Duffy lets us know that A-1 Music, on First Avenue in the East Village, is closing.



As Jim says, "It's an old-school storefront music shop for students, children, beginners, and hobbyists. You won't find vintage gear or Fender or Gibson, but you'll find student trumpets, harmonicas, melodicas (I bought mine there a few years ago), mouth-harps, shakers, student violins, tuners, picks, and other small items. They also provide lessons and piano tuning. A little dog comes up and sniffs you and then returns to its doggy-bed in the back of the shop."



I've always liked walking by this place, with its cluttered window, and bought some books of music there over the years.

I went in to say goodbye and pick up a few last items. The owner told me they've been there for 26 years, but business isn't great and the rent is just too high. They looked for a more affordable space in the neighborhood, but found nothing.






They plan to be gone by January 26. Until then, everything is "buy one, get the second half price," books are two for the price of one, and she'll make you a good deal if you want to buy an instrument. "We have to get rid of everything," she said.

Meanwhile, in the back, an older gentleman watched television while his dog lay in the doggy-bed, huffing in my general direction.

Leiter at Lincoln Center

If you missed In No Great Hurry, the documentary on New York street photographer Saul Leiter, you'll now have another chance. The Film Society of Lincoln Center will be showing the film beginning Friday, January 3, for one week only.



Mr. Leiter passed away just weeks ago at the age of 89. I interviewed his friend, Tomas Leach, director of the documentary last month, and recently asked him some follow-up questions--about what Mr. Leiter was working on at the time of his death and if we can look forward to more of his beautiful photography.

Mr. Leach replied:
"It seemed to me that Saul was never really 'working on' something in the same way that people often do. He was a photographer, so he took photos. He was a painter, so he painted. That was as essential to him as walking and eating are to people.

There's been a little burst of attention since Saul's passing. Maybe it will be the kick to wake people up to this great artist hidden amongst us. But as for unseen work, I think we will see some unseen work, but maybe at more of a gentle trickle, which seems fitting."

Watch the trailer, see the movie:

Robert Herman's New Yorkers

Street photographer Robert Herman has been taking pictures of New York City since the 1970s. His excellent book The New Yorkers is a vivid collection of his work from 1978 - 2005. In it he has captured the faces and places of the vanished city. I talked to Robert recently and asked him some questions.


all photos by Robert Herman

How would you say the city of today compares visually to the city you captured in your book?

The city I photographed in the early 80’s is almost gone. Back then, it was a city of small businesses and storefronts. Where I lived in Little Italy, the shop owners would invariably recognize you when you walked in. Soho today is mostly a mall made up of corporate stores. I miss the graffiti that made for compelling commentary when juxtaposed in a photograph. The city is safer today, and I like that, but it feels less quirky and less alive.



I like the signage of the small, old shops, the clutter, which is lacking in the chains' facades. What do you think is the visual difference between small, independent stores and big, corporate stores? And what is the feeling those visuals give you?

The difference between the corporate stores and the independents is that the look of the signage and displays are determined at a corporate level and done for multiple stores at the same time. The local store owner is creating the look for their storefront locally, and in reaction to the environment and neighborhood. All of this is obvious, but it is the independents that create the feeling of specificity of place: "only in New York."



When I hear "only in New York," I also think of the people--people looking interesting, doing interesting things that can't be seen elsewhere. Are the people of New York as inspiring as they used to be to your photographer's eye?

The big difference today is that so many people are looking at their phones on the street, which doesn’t make for a compelling photo. Also, everyone is much more aware of the power of imagery because of social media. It’s harder to make a candid picture these days. The iPhone is a good camera for that, because it doesn’t attract attention like a big DSLR. It doesn’t scream "camera!" I’m very excited about a new body of work I’ve been making with the iPhone over the past three years in New York and around the world.



Can you tell us about that work?

The iPhone photos began when I learned about the Hipstamatic app. I liked shooting in a square format and this was an opportunity to do that without using a medium format camera, as I had in the past.

I started using the iPhone/Hipstamatic when I was in Johannesburg about three years ago. I wasn't comfortable using a big DSLR when shooting on the streets. So, to ease myself into it, I made pictures with the iPhone and was pleased with the images I was getting. After that trip, I began shooting this way because sometimes changing the equipment sparks a new way of shooting. Presently, I'm having a book of these photos designed. It will be the follow up to The New Yorkers. A street photography book for the 21st century.

Street photography presents the same challenges regardless of the technology used to make a picture. Be it a Leica M or an iPhone or a Kodak Instamatic. That is, being observant and making strong pictures.



There's a Starbucks in one of them! What are your thoughts about having contemporary chains in your photos? Are they interesting in themselves as symbols of today's city?

Life goes on, change is inevitable. I like Starbucks' blonde. What can I say.

Wartella's Strip Show

Award-winning Village Voice cartoonist M. Wartella has just published a book of his work, Wartella's Strip Show. I picked one up recently at the Comic Arts Brooklyn fest and was impressed, especially by his giddily incendiary "Runnin Scared" pieces, many of which chronicle moments of extreme gentrification in the city.

You'll be able to find the book in stores January 14. Until then, you can view an excerpt here and buy it online here--or get a signed edition on ebay.

I asked Wartella a few questions about his work.



What made you decide to publish a collection of your work and why now?

I needed to unload all this crap! I've been cartooning professionally since I was ten years old, so that's 25 years worth of printed matter that was filling my closets. It was time to set it all free and the amazing guys at Burger Records, an awesome little record label outta L.A., they believed in it and made it happen!

I'm most interested in your Runnin Scared cartoons, since they deal so much with gentrification in the city. They have a busy, jam-packed quality, such a departure from your previous work. How did you decide to go with that style for the themes of Runnin Scared?

I just wanted to do something different! I talk about this a little bit in the book, I was inspired mostly by super-old-school political cartoons like Charles Nast or the original Puck. Most cartoonists nowadays are doing either topical 4-panel strips (like Sutton, Sorensen, or Rall) or those obnoxious one-panel political cartoons like you read in USAtoday or something. But those are drawn so simply, I wanted to draw a complex cartoon with no beginning, middle, or end. Something that felt like a real New York street scene! I even based the drawings on how the locations actually looked at the time, right down to the street signs and characters I saw. Those are real New York Freaks in there!


"Bowery Booms: Whole Foods Grand Opening on the Bowery"


Detail: "There goes the neighborhood!"

Cartoons like Bowery Booms and others are amazing, fully loaded snapshots of moments in time when certain neighborhoods--the Bowery, the High Line--went over the edge into hypergentrification. What are your feelings about what happened to those neighborhoods at that time?

Well, gentrification is a double-edged sword. We all love the gritty city we first fell in love with. But change is inevitable. It's part of life. Some of the conveniences improve a neighborhood, but we definitely don't need more 7-11s. That's SO un-New York!!! Yeccch!

In many of the Runnin Scared cartoons, you've got an old New York character, usually down and out, a bum, wino, or bag lady, sort of caught surprised in the middle of it all. I wondered if that person represented some aspect of yourself?

Yeah, I think you're honing in on something. I do imagine myself as some of the characters. Or I did when I drew them, just watching the scene unfold, brown-bagging it from the sidelines!


"The Great Rock N Roll Swindle: The Gentrification of the High Line Area"


Detail: Lou dreams of luxury

In the Great Rock N Roll Swindle, you depicted Lou Reed as an aged sell-out dreaming of Starbucks and Chanel. Did this represent your feelings about him at the time, or a vision of the future?

A little of both, actually. I felt really bad about that cartoon after I drew it because it really painted Lou as a sell out. I decided after that not to draw mean cartoons ever again. Ha-ha... At the time, we didn't really know what the HighLine Park was going to be like yet, and I kind of feared it might be like an outdoor Chelsea Market. But the HighLine turned out really amazing... I love it! I actually ran into Lou Reed early on during Occupy Wall Street in Zucotti Park, and I chatted with him a bit. He said he saw the cartoon and thought it was funny. He was actually a really nice guy, very loving, beautiful energy.


"Bowery Booms II: Transformation of the Bowery"


Detail: Iggy gets a deal from John Varvatos

The Runnin Scared series is over, but do you ever think of doing more of them? What neighborhoods or scenes do you think deserve the Runnin Scared treatment today?

Well, the series isn't *totally* over, but we're not doing them regularly anymore either. I just haven't had time. But I'm still a VOICE contributor off and on, and I keep a list of potential cartoons in the back of my mind so a never know! There are tons of "Only In New York" scenes constantly unfolding. I already mentioned the Occupy movement, and I could do a whole book just on that. I was actually there on the very first day. What a trip, but no news outlets would cover it for over a month! Can you believe that?

Other scenes I'd love to draw: those kids who dance in the L train subway cars and swing on the poles and shit. They're insane, but great! The annual SantaCon is ripe for the picking, and I remember its origins over a decade ago as the original "Santarchy."

It's New York--there's ALWAYS something interesting going on. That's why I love it.

Stile's Market

VANISHING

This morning, reader Dave Mack sent in the following photo and bad news. Stile's Market in Hell's Kitchen is closing on December 31. They hope to open another location in the neighborhood.


photo: Dave Mack

We expected this to happen, but were reassured by Stiles that it would not happen, about a year ago when their neighbor, the Big Apple Meat Market, was forced out of the location to make room for a giant, glassy, luxury tower.

Back then, Stiles put up signs saying, "We are not closing!!! We are not going anywhere! Stile's Farmer Market is here to stay!!!"


this photo: Andrea Kleiman, January 2013

Today, DNA Info contacted the owner, Steve Stile, and reported: "the longtime grocer was forced out after the building was sold. 'My family's so sick you cannot imagine,' he said. 'We tried everything in our power to stay there... We're heartbroken, very heartbroken.'"

They've been here since 1987.


photos from January 2013





Across the avenue, the Elk Hotel is also a goner. And I guess this also means goodbye to the neighboring 99-Cent Fresh Pizza joint. And so another old New York block changes character--by force.

Update: Hell's Kitsch says, "The neighboring pizza place (my favorite $1 slice in the area at the moment) will also be moving, and they’ve already got a location: 360 W 42^nd – halfway between 8^th & 9^th."


Previously:
Big Apple Meat Market
99-Cent Pizza
Inside the Elk

Star Shoe

I always liked the Star Shoe repair shop on Bleecker at Crosby. In business since at least 1985, and probably much longer (some say 60 years, some say 70), it had good signage and a nice, jumbly interior that only comes with advanced age. It also looked good next to a corner grocer with an old Optimo cigars sign.



Lost City liked it too. Last year, he wrote, "The world inside is very old Village. Vagrants, drifters, grifters and neighborhood eccentrics seem to recognize that they will not be given the bum's rush."

When its landlord (it's in the Empire State Bank building) covered the side with plywood, I was concerned. But Star Shoe endured in its old spot.



No more. The building has renovated and upscaled the side, wiping out Star Shoe, the corner grocery, a locksmith, and something else--a Chinese take-out joint maybe. It had been an odd little corner of the old New York that had yet to be sanitized away. Whenever I walked by, I wondered how long it would be before this happened.

Now it's all gone.



Star Shoe does survive, however, moved into the building's basement under Two Boots Pizza. Just before it moved, EV Grieve featured the amazing, must-see interior photos of the place taken by Gudrun Georges.

The shop is much harder to find now, almost completely out of sight. It will be a challenge for them to get foot traffic. I hope their regular customers know where to go.

Rally to Save Jerry

There will be an impromptu rally today at 11:00 AM to save Jerry Delakas' Astor Place newsstand, reports EV Grieve.

This week, Jerry showed up to work to find his newsstand had been seized and padlocked by the City. Jerry has been working this newsstand for over 25 years. The ownership of it and its license were willed to him by the previous owner when she passed away, but the city doesn't see it that way. Watch The Paper House Report to get a full understanding of Jerry's story--and to see why the City is absolutely wrong in their decision to take away this man's livelihood.


The Paper House Report from Nicole Cimino on Vimeo.

The old newsstand, before Starbucks came, and before the City stole everyone's stand, granting ownership to Spanish company Cemusa and their dull, stainless steel boxes.

Death of a Block 5

The sad, stupid saga of the 9th Avenue block between 17th and 18th Streets continues, as the Stonehenge Group reveals their glassy new facade.

"120 Ninth" is clean, sterile, and as beige as it gets. The perfect color for our increasingly monotone town.



Here's how it looked a couple months ago, with the marketing banner spread across it, complete with images of the sort of soulless, cookie-cutter businesses that the developer hopes to attract.

It doesn't get more blah than this.





Here's how it looked when it was still alive, a colorful jumble of authenticity and originality, of humanity.



These lost businesses provided vital functions for the local community. A dry cleaners and tailor shop, a wonderful barber shop that gave shelter to the homeless, bodegas where kids could go when in trouble, the Sweet Banana Candy store with its empanada lady and everything--all of them run by local, independent business people with deep ties to the community. People fought to save them, but the people failed.




Here's the whole story of what happened here:
Death of a Block
Death of a Block 2 
Death of a Block 3 
Death of a Block 4

Saving 9th Avenue
Sweet Banana Candy Store
New Barber Shop
Chelsea Liquors
New China

Jerry Out in the Cold

As EV Grieve first noticed this morning, the city has shuttered Jerry Delakas' newsstand on Astor Place. When I passed by, Jerry was standing by the stand in the falling snow.



He showed me the broken padlock he found and said, "I just got here. I thought someone broke in." Someone did. It was the city that broke Jerry's lock and put on a lock of their own so he could not open for business today.



Jerry showed up for work this morning thinking he'd make a day's pay. He said that the city did not tell him they were seizing his stand. Technically, Jerry still has 11 days to appeal the recent ruling that he pay $37,000 or vacate. Now, for those 11 days, he won't be making income.



Jerry has been fighting the city for years--after the city took away everyone's stands and gave them to Cemusa.

As Grieve summarized earlier: "He has operated the stand here for 25-plus years. However, he's not the legal license holder. He has been subleasing the newsstand from the family who held the license. Per previous published reports, it was the dying wish of the woman who held the license to allow him to operate the stand and designated him as heir."



Jerry shows the key that no longer works


See Also:
More Newsstand Deaths
Newsstand Slaughter
Hojo's Lost Newsstand
Another Newsstand
Union Square Newsstand
Jerry's Newsstand

History of the New York Newsstand