Monday, April 23, 2012

Bill's Carted Away

New York Neon blogger Thomas Rinaldi sends in these shots from the weekend and writes: "I happened upon this today, the emptying out of Bill's Gay 90s. File cabinets, wood furnishings, AV equipment, mostly just being tossed into these trucks and carted off."



Bill's has added this message to their website:

"Our last night at 57 East 54th St was March 24th. Our landlord refused to renew our lease and after an 88 year run, we were forced to close if we wanted to have the freedom to continue to run the Bill's Gay 90s we all know and cherish. we are working on our new home. Please go to our contact page and give us your email address and name so that we can keep you up to date on our progress and let you know how you can help.

Also visit us on FACEBOOK -- If you do not use the internet -- please call: 212-355-0243 and leave your phone number -- we will contact you via phone. We look forward to welcoming you to our new location!"



Of course, with the recent owners of the building fighting to keep Bill's memorabilia for the new, "top-secret" tenant, as other parts of Bill's have been trashed, who knows what the future holds for this tragically vanished treasure.

7 comments:

  1. "In court papers, Mr. Tynan claimed that the [antiques and memorabilia] and fixtures belonged to him."

    It's kind of funny (not really) that the owner of the building is quoted as saying in the Times article that he wanted to buy the antiques and memorabilia from Barbara. Now he claims he owns them, why would you offer to buy something you own? What a scumbag.

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  2. and more disappearance news--just heard at NPR--Lakeside lounge of the Lower East Side will be closing this week in response to a hike to $9000 month rent hike!

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  3. The Lakeside deserved to be closed. I mean - - who the fuck needs a performance space serving cheap drinks in Malibu East Village? What I'm really looking forward to are artisanal cucumber-rhubarb cocktails for $ 14.00.

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  4. Malibu East Village - has a lovely ring to it.

    I've actually given thought to whether it might be a good idea to rename some of the neighborhoods that are getting run over by hypergentrification, largely fueled by people who add nothing to the neighborhoods' character, and are only here to consume what sliver of it is left in an attempt to capture cool.

    If we gave a bunch of suburban sounding names to some areas, it might save what's left. Instead of East Village, it can be named East Westchester. Lower East Side could be Far West Islip. Greenwich Village renamed Badger Campus Circle. The Bowery? I like to think of it in it's new name: Bradshaw Estates. Once the tide has stemmed, we can go back to the real names.

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