*Everyday Chatter

A first sign of demolition--the rat bait has been placed inside 7 1/2, a.k.a. 9 Second Avenue, a.k.a. the Mars Bar buildings:


The developer who's bulldozing Mars Bar has done a lot of damage in the East Village. In 1999, the neighborhood rioted against him. Today? Meh. [LEV]

The end of an era at Mars Bar. [TGL]

Where to drink now that Mars is gone? [EVG]

Get to know the Blarney Stone. [GAF]

Somewhere in filmmaker Jon Alpert's archives are hours of footage from 1997 with transgender prostitutes in the Meatpacking District and scenes with crusties on St. Mark's Place. [JA]

Nom Wah extends its weekend hours into the night. [BB]

Mars Is Gone

Mars Bar has been shuttered for good. As Grieve first reported, a candlelight vigil was held last night in its honor.

Runnin' Scared heard from the Department of Health who said, "The Mars Bar was closed because inspectors observed approximately 850 fruit flies in various areas of the restaurant and in a bottle of alcohol."


by Goggla--see more pics on her Flickr

In 2009, Goggla posted this report from the bar that shows the integral role fruit flies played in the life of Mars Bar. Was it the watermelon vodka that finally sunk the ship?:

A gaggle of girls came in to Mars Bar. One ordered a watermelon-flavored vodka with soda. By some chance, the watermelon was in stock, but had probably been sitting there for years.

She was horrified to find fruit flies in her drink and sent it back. The bartender held the glass to the light and just said, "Huh."

Another patron recommended the girl get a beer since that comes in sealed bottles. She insisted on a fresh drink from the same vodka. There were flies in the bottle.

We cheered and said that was lucky, but she walked out, leaving her jaw on the floor behind her.


Also read:
The Loss of Mars
Before Mars Bar

*Everyday Chatter

Poor Rockaway. First we hear that the "boardwalk is the new Bedford Avenue," now condo sellers are putting out the call directly to hipsters in The Wave: "Be on the cusp of the new Williamsburgh [sic]!"


Ray is officially an American citizen. [Villager]

The epic tale of 7 1/2, 9, and 11 Second Avenue, where Mars Bar and a whole lot of history is about to fall. [NYT]

Older Chelsea residents don't like being gawked at by High Line walkers, "People take pictures and wave at you when you're alone in your home. It's voyeuristic, and there's zero privacy." But the young folks love it. [Curbed]

"A plan to save the working waterfront from the encroachment of pretty things in Bloomberg's New York." [CNY]

Who fits into "our vision" for Coney Island--and who doesn't? [NYT]

Check out History Pin--a map with old pictures attached to it.

Chinatown's street vendors are being kicked out from under the Manhattan Bridge by the NYPD. [Gothamist]

What's coming to 14th between 2nd and 3rd? [EVG]

Checking in with LES Jewels. [NMNL]

Get your genuine Coney Island kittens. [ATZ]

Firestone Bear Auto

Recently I asked, "How long will the tourist machine tolerate this industrial view from the High Line's new 'viewing spur' before the Firestone Bear Auto Center is suddenly put out of business?"

Well, the answer seems to be: Not long.



A JVNY reader followed up on the question and asked one of Bear Auto's employees if they were staying or going. The employee told our tipster they have "three months to vacate. The very expensive private school that is being built between 25th and 26th, a significant contributor to the High Line" is interested in the space and Bear is "in court" with their landlord.

That school, called Avenues, just got a major profile in the Times. CNNMoney described it as having "a rooftop playground with vistas of the Empire State Building and the financial towers of Midtown -- "Look, Mommy, that's where I'll be a hedgie someday!" -- and there's a café for parents downstairs. The school's third-floor dining area will have a porch right next to the High Line."

Tuition is estimated to be about $40,000 a year.



The High Line's 26th Street Viewing Spur, which looks out over the view of Firestone Bear, was paid for in part by the school. The spur is a showpiece of the Falcone Flyover, which happens to span the width of the school building, providing a garden view to the students on their porch.


entrance to come--across from Bear Auto

We can imagine that parents paying $40,000 a year don't want to see, hear, or smell an autobody shop across from the school's "early learning center" entrance. According to our tipster's conversation with Firestone Bear's employee, the school wants to build their own parking lot here.

Who knows for sure how this will shake out, but one way or another, Bear Auto has been marked for ouster.


Winick

Winick's got a listing on the property that says it's "fully leased" and "not available," yet there's a rendering of something shiny, containing the usuals--cafe, apparel, fresh market, and skinny people--no autobody shop.

According to our tipster's source, the garage has been doing business in this location for over 30 years. The certificate of occupancy states that a gas station was here as early as 1939 and an automotive service station (with "lubritorium") came here in 1966. NYPL photos show a Sunoco here in 1940.

For over 70 years, one kind of business was on this corner. But, as predicted, as soon as the High Line comes, "undesirable" pieces of the old neighborhood must go.



See Also:
Eagle Under Siege
Folsom Under High Line
Goodbye Poppy's
The Upper High Line

JVNY Bday

So I forgot my own blogoversary. That's what happens, the older you get. This blog was born on July 15, 2007. I really didn't think it would last this long. Four years. That's like all of high school.

For the occasion, and for no other good reason, here's a shot of a guy in an expensive suit and haircut, drinking Red Bull and smoking an illegal cigarette in the park, while wearing suede--what do you call those shoes with all the toes articulated?--these shoes. They are apparently made from kangaroos. He was also shouting into his iPhone. Enjoy.



Thanks everyone for reading and for sticking around, for all your comments, emails, and tips. You keep me engaged with this thing. And thanks, too, for whatever work you do to keep the city from becoming a total spiritual wasteland--for your writing, art, and music, for your activism, your involvement, and your steadfast love for what still is, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the best city going.

Happy 6th anniversary also to Alex at Flaming Pablum today and Bowery Boogie for his 3rd.

*Everyday Chatter

Trash & Vaudeville's Jimmy Webb on the East Village, Mars Bar, and everything: "I wish there were more stores on the block that offered more colored hair dye rather than colored frozen yogurt. I'm really, really, really, truly offended when the neighborhood is called Little Tokyo. It's not Little Tokyo, it's never been Little Tokyo, it's the Lower East Side." [VV]

EV locals chime in about the artisanalization of Banjo Jim's. [EVG]

July 24: Support Nuyorican pioneer Miguel Algarin as he loses his apartment. [NYDN]

July 16: Check out the Anthology Film Archives garage sale for a treasure trove of film-related ephemera: Books, journals, posters, projectors, treasures and everything in between! 10am - 4pm in the alley behind Anthology.

Coney Island circus portraits by Kevin C. Downs. [ATZ]

So that Tasti-D-Lite that took the place of the beloved, missed, 50-year-old Chez Brigitte is now kaput:

Pizza, Ice Cream, Maria

Lenny's Pizza in south Park Slope has taken an advertisement memorial on a nearby bus stop and it's so much better than any other ad you'll see on a piece of Cemusa "street furniture."



"Proudly serving Brooklyn for over 60 years," it says, "Thank you for helping keep our dads' legacies alive." The top part of the ad features the ghosts of Lenny and Chubby floating in heavenly clouds.



The bottom part features a Lenny's Pizza lady and Maria the Ice Cream Girl of Bensonhurst.

If you haven't heard of Maria, as I hadn't, she's a local legend, officially named a goodwill ambassador by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz for her many charitable and volunteer works. You can read about her in the Daily News in 1995 and 1996, where she was called "Queen of the Ice Cream Girls, an aristocrat in the true Brooklyn sense."



She still drives the truck and runs the ice-cream route her father Chubby started in 1944. She has a website and a Facebook fan page. She's also made almost 200 youtube videos.

Maria's got everything you need to be blog-famous in New York City today--a food truck, frozen treats, hyperlocal Brooklyn style--yet somehow she's stayed off the foodie radar. Maybe one day, when the neighborhood-changing wave of hyper-gentrification hits Bensonhurst. Of course, at that point, it'll be a story about an artisanal ice-cream truck trying to push Maria out.