tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post3319220131640945469..comments2023-08-14T11:44:27.299-04:00Comments on Jeremiah's<br> Vanishing New York: On Donnell's Replacement & $375 CocktailsJeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-7013232606253319222016-07-20T10:56:40.121-04:002016-07-20T10:56:40.121-04:00I remember attending a performance by The American...I remember attending a performance by The American Mime Theatre in the auditorium. It was a wonderful space and the show was 'free'. Where is this kind of activity held now? So sad! 😅<br />jimmoorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06564589665421530268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-82973573674482348862016-07-20T00:30:47.755-04:002016-07-20T00:30:47.755-04:00We were encouraged to go to Donnell to do our rese...We were encouraged to go to Donnell to do our research papers in high school. It was a step up from the local library we cut our teeth in yet it was not as intimidating as the 42th Street & 5th Avenue library we went to in college which was truly daunting for me when I first saw it. Donnell was right in the middle, helpful, cozy, and I loved visiting that neighborhood. Perhaps by now most high school kids research their papers on-line, or worse, buy them from some nerd in India or China. Reflecting back on lost libraries, I remember the newspaper collection in the West 40's which was combined with the patents collection. I seem to remember institutional green walls and giant sinks in the restrooms with those marble walls between the stalls. Unless I have it mixed up with something else, it was in any case just completely drab and utilitarian, and that made it lovable. And you could hear a pin drop. All kinds of people came to work there, struggling students like me, genuine researchers, and the usual crazy seekers of the grail on some private quest who habituate libraries and other places that are free to the public. We were all in it together. Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02939737035870546945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-55583706008283303602016-07-19T21:59:11.226-04:002016-07-19T21:59:11.226-04:00I don't trust NYPL. Remember the ridiculous pl...I don't trust NYPL. Remember the ridiculous plans they had for the main branch in Fifth & 42?step45https://www.blogger.com/profile/08226036122358092881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-85922524611167006532016-07-16T10:43:17.435-04:002016-07-16T10:43:17.435-04:00You nailed it. And the great comments as well did...You nailed it. And the great comments as well did too. Sometimes I think it must just be me and then read this post and the comments and say right this is off. Went in last week and had much the same impression and felt uneasy even before entering, there is a steel grate in front that felt like unstable and the rest of the experience was much the same. I did use the water fountain which was quite tasty and then walked out. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10853488434569768367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-31153865272559082782016-07-15T18:29:15.273-04:002016-07-15T18:29:15.273-04:00So many great posts! And I love Jeremiah's ori...So many great posts! And I love Jeremiah's original post too (and this blog)! In addition to the High Line viewing stairs, what the blond-wood stadium seating reminds me of is Rem Koolhaas's Prada Store in SoHo, which, when it opened, occasioned a lot of oohing and aahing at the design. (It was innovative for a New York retailer.) But who could afford those excessively priced, tiny-framed clothes? They were geared towards the city's--and the globe's--financial elites. It seems that the mindset behind that company and store have now taken over the political consciousness of Washington's, New York's and so many cities' and nation's leaders. <br /><br />I remember going on a field trip to Donnell Library with the children I worked with at East Side Community School in the East Village, back in 1996. They were amazed by the library's collections, and I believe as part of their tour they got to see its extensive video holdings. It was a library for them and all New Yorkers. What has been dropped down in its place, begrudgingly, is an entertainment space for no one. The people behind this glittering monstrosity don't want there to be a public Commons. They don't want knowledge to circulate easily. They have contempt for the idea of society as we've known it. This is a monument to their thinking, a vacuous, neoliberal cave, and it's sickening. Keep in mind that Donnell was going to be the prelude to the utter destruction of the New York Public Library's Research branch and the Midtown branch across the street. Thankfully, that was stopped in its tracks. <i><b>For now.</b></i><br /><br />The "public-private" partnerships are a hallmark of neoliberalism. Why have the government provide the public good when you can farm out the responsibilities to a private corporation, which will then reap public funds for whatever it does or doesn't do? And unlike government officials, you can't "fire" or "recall" or "vote out" the private companies that are running amok with our tax dollars. But then so much is animated by neoliberal thinking these days. I used to think that Bloomberg was the arch neoliberal, but deBlasio has turned out to be emblematic of that ideology's total emptiness. He talks multiculturalism, progressive politics, etc., but instead we get everything Bloombergian, but on steroids. And to think, the billionaire class claimed this man was a "Sandinista." What a farce!John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-14312060082705517732016-07-14T18:30:12.570-04:002016-07-14T18:30:12.570-04:00This is so sad and makes me ashamed to be a native...This is so sad and makes me ashamed to be a native NYer.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18026568422208565428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-83700900351297371882016-07-14T13:54:09.995-04:002016-07-14T13:54:09.995-04:00The library looks like an Apple Store with a high ...The library looks like an Apple Store with a high end restaurant. They will probably have industry parties and events there for celebrities and the rich. NYC is not for the lower and middle class. This is a clear sign. Madness!!!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233857345964930614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-59950742464475241102016-07-14T13:08:14.338-04:002016-07-14T13:08:14.338-04:00This is insane and mind-blowing. I agree with Mitc...This is insane and mind-blowing. I agree with Mitch Golden. This whole city needs to read about this mess. SMH...I miss the Donnell Library and used to go there all the time when I worked for Time Inc. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10233857345964930614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-44948719149140777522016-07-14T11:31:52.779-04:002016-07-14T11:31:52.779-04:00Keep in mind that after selling the library buildi...Keep in mind that after selling the library building for $67 million, NYPL had to SPEND about one third of that to construct the replacement mini-library in the basement (plus whatever it cost to establish and operate the replacement library several blocks away in the intervening 8 years). The library's gain from this sale was minimal. The loss to the public: enormous. <br /><br />If you want to help keep other public libraries from going the way of the Donnell, follow the group SaveNYPL on Facebook or at www.SaveNYPL.org. A second group active in this fight is Citizens Defending Libraries in Brooklyn.Susan Bernofskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16172424646308256978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-42537601580410470682016-07-14T02:43:01.153-04:002016-07-14T02:43:01.153-04:00That's back when Moondog used to preside over ...That's back when Moondog used to preside over the Avenue of the Americas at 54th Street! Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03957832879440866133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-77059615273008516752016-07-13T21:51:19.953-04:002016-07-13T21:51:19.953-04:00Very good report, very depressing. We need to figh...Very good report, very depressing. We need to fight back NOW to save the Brooklyn Heights & Sunset Park libraries, among others.<br /><br />I've been doing a series of reports on the Bloomberg-deBlasio "public-private partnerships" that took down the Donnell public library and that are threatening to do the same to other libraries around the city. The City sold the old Donnell for $67 million, and they tore it down and built a huge skyscraper condo worth at least $1 billion, a playground for the rich and for foreign sheikdoms. Then, finally they built a much much much smaller library in the basement. I was at the opening -- and the protest outside! -- and filed the report for WBAI. You can check out this one and the others at my website: http://www.MitchelCohen.com<br /><br />Mitchel Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01947261757549065469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-61810588057448386902016-07-13T16:37:55.700-04:002016-07-13T16:37:55.700-04:00I can't add much, save that I worked nearby du...I can't add much, save that I worked nearby during the last years of the library. My memories of the place go back to the mid-80's when it was one of the refuge buildings where you could read and nobody would bother you. It had a wonderful film department downstairs and that 50's enlightened municipal atmosphere that pervaded everything new at one time. The purpose then was to serve people. The purpose now is - well what? To fulfil the fundraising purposefulness of the NYPL, I suppose.<br /><br />'Sad' is a mild form of what I have felt all along, from the time Mayor Mike declared that the building was "too expensive" to upgrade, tiny impovrished burg that New York is. It seemed incomprehensible, but then this is a city that decided to replace Penn Station with... well, you know.<br /><br />Here's a memento - one of several I fortunately took, before it was too late. I'll be posting another one soon. http://www.redbubble.com/people/steeber/works/22466776-53rd-street-and-the-donnell-library?p=poster&rel=carousel<br /><br />Memory (accurate memory) is probably the enemy of the developer.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15565030682360603009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-66859692042996035242016-07-13T15:57:21.326-04:002016-07-13T15:57:21.326-04:00Someday, hard to say how soon, the blank expanses ...Someday, hard to say how soon, the blank expanses of glass and stone and metal that increasingly line our sidewalks will be covered in graffiti and posters promoting resistance rather than the Live Nation schedule at Irving Plaza. Weeds and vines will encroach, animals will push in. I keep thinking about Louis Bunuel's film, The Exterminating Angel, specifically the appearance of several goats on the previously glorious winding staircase. This is me being hopeful!Janine Nicholshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12516798028560032323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-434568379964770722016-07-13T13:44:54.789-04:002016-07-13T13:44:54.789-04:00this is the most depressing essay i have read. i w...this is the most depressing essay i have read. i wouldnt be caught dead in any of these places. expensive death. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12860564178014297192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-49318719581950470482016-07-13T13:12:00.542-04:002016-07-13T13:12:00.542-04:00Back in the 1950s and 60s, as a teen (or younger!)...Back in the 1950s and 60s, as a teen (or younger!) I used to go here to borrow LP recordings of electronic music. The Donnell was one of the few libraries that offered that. Back then the entire block consisted mostly of brownstones, which the Museum of Modern Art slowly gobbled up as it inexorably expanded. Then I came one day and the entire rest of the south side of the block was gone, replaced by an enormous excavation hole. They were building the CBS Building, on the east side of 6th Avenue from 52nd to 53rd Street. Somewhere, I've got photos of the hole, which went down 40 or 50 feet...Andrew Porterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09303874382474271502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-77982788881829504292016-07-13T12:01:32.347-04:002016-07-13T12:01:32.347-04:00Le Yawn. God help us all.Le Yawn. God help us all.gluttonforlifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10820997691640642485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-63756763968331383402016-07-13T10:46:30.480-04:002016-07-13T10:46:30.480-04:00Hey, this is a a great place to catch a Pokémon a...Hey, this is a a great place to catch a Pokémon and for a pokéstop.<br /><br />Progress! Change! Embrace the change!esquared™https://www.blogger.com/profile/03535683572170541615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-56370757337100068912016-07-13T09:59:27.589-04:002016-07-13T09:59:27.589-04:00We are well along the road to complete cultural de...We are well along the road to complete cultural decadence in the city. The end game here is the elimination of the past, of memory, of perspective, critical thinking and connection to what used to be known as reality. Bloomberg set out to create a fantasy world that 99% of us cannot live in, but only gawk at, uncomprehendingly. He largely succeeded. His successor is doing nothing to change the momentum his predecessor put in motion, but actually seems like a nonentity with no agenda or individual goals; those that might be there simply pale in the shadow of Bloomberg's audacity and hubris in destroying a city he never understood to make one he could, according to his out-of-towner and elitist attitudes.<br /><br />The '80s were derided at the time for the conspicuous consumption of the nouveau riche, the Wall Street bros and real estate money grubbers. They were ultimately eclipsed by the go-go '90s leading into the tech bubble, where ostentation and its fellow traveler, mindlessness, overran what the '80s had not. Then we have the Bloomberg years, which still continue, even without his arrogant, entitled presence. They put the preceding periods to shame, setting new standards in superficiality, unoriginality, faux glamour and vapidity. It's not just here, of course; this has been happening to varying degrees in other cities throughout Europe and North America. But we live here. It's here that we suffer, and mourn, and try to keep a hold on what we've lost as its image begins to inevitably fade from our minds. And also appreciate those enclaves that have yet to die a glass and chrome death, and the neighbors who haven't been forced out by high rents (yet), and the dwindling number of mom and pops that somehow hang on and defy the odds.<br /><br />A few years ago, I realized that a of times I had stopped looking when I walked around, moving with tunnel vision or only seeing those remnants of the familiar, blocking out the new condos and chain stores and empty storefronts. For some reason, recently, I started to see again. I'm appalled, but also heartened by some of what's there. There is a lot of history in New York, and it's hard to demolish all of it. The developers and city government have tried mightily, but the amazing thing is how much of it is still there, even with whole neighborhoods and areas having been, in effect, wiped out in terms of their former character.<br /><br />We're fossils, at this point. Hypergentrification has made us that. But all of the history that's still there can keep us company. There's less of it than there used to be, and sometimes you have to reach back farther than your own lifespan to find it, but it's still there, quietly and knowingly providing a weary, yet stubborn, middle finger to what's come after it.<br /><br />JMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09876016557456927299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-22491821466996573142016-07-13T09:47:21.434-04:002016-07-13T09:47:21.434-04:00Jeremiah - brilliant! Where can you publish this s...Jeremiah - brilliant! Where can you publish this so the whole city will see it?Mitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03826027765991475367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-56048115210070884612016-07-13T09:01:03.162-04:002016-07-13T09:01:03.162-04:00The fourth photo down reminds me of the emptiness ...The fourth photo down reminds me of the emptiness at the heart of American culture today. "there is no there there." Possibly a quote from Gertrude Stein,but if I wanted to look it up in that library, I would be forced to google it, because there are no books there. Sad and Pitiful.citronyellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18195143718464850048noreply@blogger.com