*Everyday Chatter

After yesterday's post on East Harlem, and now today's New York Post story on how East Harlem is the place to buy, buy, buy, here's some dissuasion for investors--detailed signage found smack in the middle of all those bright and shiny condos:


Visiting the defunct Strand Annex, where "Marx was right" all along. Karl or Groucho? [EVG]

Remember the unschooling Mom who wrote a blog post about how she keeps her kid up in bars late at night so she has the mornings to work on her novel? Well, the Times jumped all over that. [Times]

Mmm...watch NYC get swallowed by climate change floods at the Museum of Natural History. [Gothamist]

City buys big chunk of Coney Island. Why do I not feel comforted? [GL]

Jefferson Market Closed

Yesterday's note in the window of imperiled Jefferson Market says "We are not going out of business."



And today the store is temporarily closed for restructuring:



This comes after news in the New York Times, The Villager, and oddly enough, Al Jazeera, that the store's demise was imminent.



A sometimes lunch destination, over the weeks, I've watched the shelves at Jefferson Market deplete and the stocks at the deli counter diminish, such that my usual, and my usual backup are no longer available. Consequently, it's been a ghost town. If people can't find what they want, they go elsewhere.



The store opened in 1929 and did well until 2003, when Citarella opened, then Whole Foods in 2005, and Trader Joe's in 2006. The triple whammy hit them hard. To the Times, Owner Louis Montuori said they'd made some bad management choices: “We were running it like a mom-and-pop when we shouldn’t have been."

It's deeply regrettable that, in this town today, running a business like a mom-and-pop, taking care of staff, giving personal treatment to customers, etc., is considered bad management.



Hopefully, the new sign in their window today is a good sign, and that the restructuring will save this old neighborhood place.

I remember when I first started going there, I was startled by how consistently the customers politely held the door for me, going in or out. I was shocked, really. I enjoyed getting into their holding-the-door culture, and would often good-naturedly fight with customers over who would hold the door for whom, laughing in a refreshing way that made me feel connected momentarily to another stranger in the world.

You don't get that much anymore.

*Everyday Chatter

Remember all those stores being renovated across from Jackson Square Park? Ones like Soapology and Steven Alan are reopening--however, the Sweetheart Coffee Bakery thus far does not appear to be making a comeback:


I just like this shot of the old-school artisan at work on his gold-leaf signage:


"There was a time when many of us flocked downtown because it was the place where bizarre club kids, oddly seductive poet-drunks and scary-cool experimental theater types went. Now downtown is a glossy lifestyle magazine come to life, a place where tourists go to track down that 'authentic' street used in a fashion shoot or in last week's episode of 'Gossip Girl.' [Times]

From Canada, an inside look at what one author calls "The Dumbest Generation." [G&M]

State Senator Kevin Parker calls Bloomberg "the worst kind of petty, grubby little politician that anybody has ever seen in this city." [Gothamist]

Akron's not so bad. [EVG]

The old Bowery in black and white. [BBoogie]

10/18: Walk to save Brooklyn in the bootprint of the Atlantic Yards project. [DDDB]

East Harlem on the Brink

There are people who move to a place because they love what is already there. And then there are those who move because they love some vision of a scrubbed future--they only tolerate what is already there, as they wait for it to vanish. That vision is bulldozing East Harlem.

The City Council just approved a rezoning plan for a $700 million development on East 125th, while a trail of luxury development already zigzags across and down the neighborhood. The residents are concerned.



I hesitate to publicize all this info, but the fact is: East Harlem is an enchanting place that feels like an older New York City.

The sidewalks of 116th, especially, are thriving and alive. People walk without cell phones and iPods. They talk to each other, calling from one side of the street to the other. They even talked to me--at least three people made pleasant, impromptu conversation on the street. Mothers with strollers steered out of the way. No one--not one person, in that sea of humanity--bumped into me.



Brazen enough to set up right outside Taco Bell, sidewalk taco stands do brisker business than the chain. Every other storefront is a restaurant, serving Mexican and Puerto-Rican food. Many have outdoor gardens in the back. Shops sell cowboy boots and hats, santeria spells, and musical instruments. There's a peaceful hum to it all.



On visits this summer I dared to fantasize about moving there, in the hopes of living again in the real New York, but I know its charms will not last. Not with dozens of developments taking over. Before we know it, East Harlem will become like everywhere else.



According to the developers, East Harlem lacks amenities and needs more, more, more. "This mall is going to totally change that," said a VP at Corcoran about the development at East River Plaza, "Everyone is super excited about the Target."



Not everyone is super excited. Graffiti in the streets says "Take back El Barrio," and across plywood walls, "Take back East Harlem," "Revolution Is Coming." With all the fighting and protesting over the super-gentrification of Harlem, who is fighting for El Barrio, other than a few graffitists?



Condos are popping up everywhere. Few people live in them yet. And if the Gawker post-recession NYC map is correct, East Harlem could be saved just by being "marginal," meaning, "a recession could send gentrifiers fleeing." Already, the economic downturn seems to be taking its toll on the new real estate.

From 124th and 3rd down to 117th and over to East River Plaza, you can walk a trail of lonely, yellowy-brick construction. Start at the Bridges, a pair of condos recently turned rental when buyers stopped buying.



119th and Third is still under construction and offering a 25-year tax abatement if you will just please buy something already. "Call us...if you want to get good prices," says their home-made video. 119th also has Karl Fischer's non-descript Sloane, to be followed by his newly announced high-end Conrad on 110th.


karl fischer's sloane

The Ivy is at 118th and 2nd. For the hell of it, I went to their opening, which apparently wasn’t their first, since they had a kick-off sales party back in 2006. Across from The Ivy is the purple Casa Brava. Next door, a massive Fedders box has risen.


119th and 3rd


the ivy's common courtyard


tenements squeezed between ivy and fedders box

118th has Blue Rhythm, which isn’t blue. And on 117th, there’s 416 East 117, followed by The Leah, The Nina, The Pinta, and The Santamaria. (Kidding about those last two.)

Finally, over a dozen developments later, you’ll find East River Plaza, where the massive parking garage for the savior of every “SpaHa” broker (the Holy Trinity of Target, Best Buy, Costco) has risen upon the FDR, awaiting its flock.



I went into a condo office where the salesman tried to convince me to buy, saying, "This neighborhood is finally becoming residential." Finally? It's already filled with residential buildings, packed with families and working people. He listed several of the condos going up and told me that the neighborhood will soon be completely changed. In short time, he said, "You won't even recognize it."

Why would I want that? Why would anyone?

• Photos of East Harlem
  
• Photos of East Harlem development
• Claudio's Barber Shop
• Dance of the Giglio

*Everyday Chatter

Last year, the "coming soon" of North Fork to the former BBQ at 8th and University got some anti-bank signage...


...Then North Fork, which never came, morphed into Capital One, which is still "coming soon." Today, it's nice to see this location remains a favorite target for folks fed up with banks:


"The enduring narrative of New York real estate has been for at least a decade, of course, about the transformation spawned by gentrification. But what happens to gentrification when the market slows down?" [NYO]

More info about the second coming of Chelsea's Antiques Garage, recently snatched from the jaws of death. [CN]

"If NYC residents could hope for anything good to come out of this economic crisis, it would be this: the rollback of gentrification." See the map. [Gawker]

Abel Ferrara is making a documentary about Little Italy and its threatened San Gennaro Feast, "an elegy for a neighborhood eroded by gentrification." [Times]

Senior citizen to be evicted by elite Park Slope school, draws ire from blog readers for being a "retard." [Curbed]

Tavern on the Green is being circled by sharks while the owner tries to stay alive and kicking. [Gothamist]

Mental health professionals doing okay in New York's new age of anxiety--Wall Streeters not so much. [NYO]

Gay Talese wonders why so many people, in supposedly broke New York, would wait in line for $50 jeans. [DB]

Stuyvesant Polyclinic's new tenants to ask the weirdly punctuated "?What If!" in the almost Mansion of Death. [EVG]

I don't hate everything new, really, but I am not happy to hear about these new F trains. I like the nice, citrusy insides of the existing ones. Besides, the lighting on the new cars is too bright and I have a grudge against them since they replaced the old Redbirds. To think of my F at the bottom of the sea is painful. [LC]

Mondo Kim's (Rentals Too!)

With Mondo Kim's on St. Marks Place closing just after the shuttering of Kim's Mediapolis, and hope for the newly arriving Kim's on 1st Ave., readers have been writing in to tell me about Mr. Kim's startling public offer.



In posters on display at Mondo Kim's, he writes to say that, due to "rapidly declined" financial resources, he is seeking a sponsor to take on his entire collection of 55,000 films. The flyer goes on to say that he plans to close the rental department of his business and hopes to ensure that the collection will still be readily accessible to students and lovers of film.



Let's hope a local sponsor can be found. This is upsetting news to all those film lovers who find at Kim's what cannot be found in other video shops, nor at Netflix, namely obscure, odd, weird and hard-to-find movies about such things as biker chicks, zombies, and porn kittens from Mars. Where else are movies arranged according to categories like JUVENILE DELINQUENT?





So there's more to grieve in the loss of Mondo, along with those grimy, bestickered, poster-cluttered stairways. And we are left with the question of what will be going into the new Kim's space on 1st Ave. A salesperson at Mondo tells me the 1st Ave location will sell DVDs, CDs, and vinyl--but they will have no rentals.

With unmolested posters of Indiana Jones #4 and The Love Guru in the window of the new space, what kind of selection can we expect?



Mondo Kim's is said to close sometime in January. Before that happens, if you've got 3,000 square feet of space available to provide a home for these films, please drop an email to Mr. Kim at the address in the flyer below (click to enlarge):

*Everyday Chatter

So, if the new "improved" StuyTown is not basically a dorm, then why do they have a study hall? [STLL]

Take another look at Claudio's Barber Shop and Italian East Harlem. [GGC]

Courtney Love might be stumbling up your walk-up stairs any day now. [EVG]

Recession pricing comes to Ray's on Avenue A. [NMNL]

Thankfully, someone is covering the demise of poor old Shea Stadium. [FNY]

Nice before-and-after shot of Village Cigars. [GVDP]

"The mass media would like to write off the widespread decrease in consumer spending as uncoordinated fear and irrational behavior, but the truth is that there is a growing movement behind this conscious consumption decrease, and we won’t stop saving our money until the whole system is rethought." [AdBusters]

10/16: A little late to be protesting the bailout with Ralph Nader--if you go, please tell him to stay out of Barack's way:


Are we at the end of hipsterism? "Hipsters are really nothing more than the latest manifestation of the disaffected, nihilistic youth population that mutates into a new form with each generation. They’re an obnoxious but essentially innocuous pocket of youth culture whose era is already waning." [Utne]

Fed-up Soho neighbors fight back against club with urine, buckets of water, and harsh words: "Fuck your hipstery little patrons!" [NYO]

Author Joel Kotkin: "I was just down in Soho; I could see all the empty restaurants. You can already see something is happening out there. I went to buy something for my youngest; and I was looking at a for-sale rack, and it was this sweater—kid’s sweater for a little girl—$1,395. And I turned around and said, ‘Who’ll buy this?’ They said, ‘Oh, yeah, people are buying this.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t think people are going to be buying very many of them anymore.’" [NYO]

Seeing these kids carrying placards on 5th Ave, I thought it might have to do with the upcoming election or the controversial bailout, but no--they were advertising a dog-friendly wine store: