Gregory & Paul's of Coney Island

VANISHING?



In yesterday's Daily News, Charles Denson, author of "Coney Island: Lost and Found" and director of the Coney Island History Project, writes about the fight Coney has fought to survive over the years:

"Power broker Robert Moses declared Coney an urban renewal site in 1949, opening the door for Mayor John Lindsay's infamous high-rise housing projects. In 1966, Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump, demolished historic Steeplechase Park for a housing project that was never built. And in a 2004 court case, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was finally forced to admit under oath that he had ordered the demolition of the derelict Thunderbolt Roller Coaster after publicly denying that he had been responsible."



Now Coney is threatened again and this may be the last season we have to enjoy it. Who knows what the future of Coney will be? It all hangs in the balance. One day, it's being leveled for a Vegas-style nightmare, the next, it may be saved. (See Kinetic Carnival for the whole scoop.) But like all good New York things, it's already vanishing, bit by bit.

If the developers have their way, one of the treasures we could lose is Paul Georgoulakos's fabulous Astroland food stand Gregory & Paul's.



Opened in 1970, the stand serves up classic Coney fare--clams, dogs, burgers, corn--and advertises on magnificent signage painted by local legend George Wallace, profiled here in Gowanus Lounge.



For The Brooklynites, a book of photos by Seth Kushner, Mr. Georgoulakos put it simply, "I like this place because it is something that you own and built from scratch and used my hands to make a living."

Someday (too soon!) few New Yorkers will be able to make such a statement.



#20 from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind:

The pennycandystore beyond the El
is where I first
fell in love
with unreality
Jellybeans glowed in the semi-gloom
of that september afternoon
A cat upon the counter moved among
the licorice sticks
and tootsie rolls
and Oh Boy Gum

Outside the leaves were falling as they died

A wind had blown away the sun

A girl ran in
Her hair was rainy
Her breasts were breathless in the little room

Outside the leaves were falling
and they cried
Too soon! too soon!

Brooklyn Army Terminal

VANISHING? (not any time soon)



According to the Historic Districts Council and the Daily News, "Brooklyn's northern waterfront has been placed on America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list.... Maritime properties that stretch from the burned-down Greenpoint Terminal Market to the Brooklyn Army Terminal, where Elvis was shipped off to the (Cold) war, are in danger of being overrun by development.... 'It sounds the alarm for Brooklyn's historic district, which is disappearing faster than you can say Domino Sugar.'"

The Domino Sugar refinery has been "saved," if you can call luxury condo-minimizing salvation. Lost City and Brownstoner report on the slim chance it could become an art museum.

So I thought I'd visit Brooklyn's waterfront by starting at the Army Terminal, which The Municipal Art Society of New York says is threatened.

Seems the best way to explore freely is to pose as an Elvis fan--a memorial poster to the King's Army days is just inside the door--and this is the perfect time to do it, as August 16 marks the 30th anniversary of his death.

From here, walk straight through the lobby and out the back door to view the huge glass-ceilinged atrium and cantilevered poured-concrete balconies that surround the train tracks and platforms from which soldiers and munitions used to pass through on their way to bringing democracy to foreign countries. It's an eerie, haunted place and well worth the trip.

• See more pics on my flickr
• For more great waterfront info, check out Tugster.

7th Ave Books

VANISHING: August 31, 2007



This Park Slope indie may not have been around for eons, but the demise of any good used bookshop is cause for sorrow. This time it wasn't rent issues, but personal reasons. As Brooklyn Paper reports, the owner was hoping for a buyer. A recent visit to the store confirmed that no buyer has materialized and the store will be closed August 31. Brooklyn bloggers like OTBKB, BIB, and Bklyn Stories, mourn the loss.

This after I just finished reading Paul Auster's Brooklyn Follies, which takes place in and around a Park Slope used bookshop.

If anyone worries, like I do, about what might take the store's place, I think you'll be relieved. It won't be a Starbucks or a Pinkberry or a bank. This weekend the cashier told me it will be a vegan restaurant. That's not so terrible.

The Atlantic Yards Footprint

VANISHING



Went out to Brooklyn today to visit the Atlantic Yards footprint, the area blighted by Bloomberg and handed to Ratner on a silver platter.



Had a beer at Freddy's Bar & Backroom, the one-time speakeasy and Dodger-fan hangout, now a beloved dive bar fighting to survive demolition.





Enjoyed watching Donald O'Finn's video montage of Busby Berkeley girls and burlesque dancers over a cold pint, then headed out to tour the footprint.

The area is quiet, desolate. In one tenement window, a doomed woman dozed in front of her television. The lovely terracotta Atlantic Art Building looks empty; most, if not all, of the condo owners have already sold out to Ratner.



The Ward Bakery building was covered with plywood, prepped for demolition, but its waves peeked out. Guess this petition didn't save it.



Everything there is to say about this evil development is already being thoroughly said by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Atlantic Yards Report, Fans for Fair Play, No Land Grab, and others.

Shopsin’s

VANISHED: Yes...and then No



The Greenwich Village Shopsin's that struck fear and joy in the hearts of many closed last year. Calvin Trillin pretty much said it all about Kenny Shopsin and his restaurant in a 2002 New Yorker essay. Here's my favorite excerpt from the Trillin piece:



Defying the odds, Shopsin's reopened (in a smaller size) last month in the Essex Street Market. Today's positive New York Times review warns away the weak of heart (and the stupid):

...some aspects of the place, like Mr. Shopsin’s brand of extemporaneous philosophizing, will sit better with some than others. Holding court from a chair in the hall outside his stall on a recent Thursday morning and addressing his comments to no one in particular, he asked, “Did you hear that Whole Foods sold out of those ‘I Am Not a Plastic Bag’ bags in 15 minutes?"

"I guess people really aren’t that smart,” he glumly summarized before rousing himself to return to the kitchen.

Young Urban Narcissists

(This post has been updated)


"Yunnie" stands for Young Urban Narcissist. An obvious play on the outmoded "yuppie," this neologism was my earlier attempt to grasp a mass cultural shift currently generating and feeding on tremendous change in New York City--and much of the country.

While "yuppie" was aimed at professionals, describing people of a certain socioeconomic bracket, "yunnie" described a characterological type.

I originally introduced the yunnie in August of 2007. Since then, my ideas about the narcissistic personality and its effect on New York City have evolved. It's no longer a term I use, but you'll still find it scattered among old posts.

I've since become interested in the connection between wealth, greed, and materialism and malignant narcissism or sociopathy--the absence of empathy--illustrated in the work of Paul Piff and many other researchers. What I called the yunnie seems to be a psychopathic personality type that has emerged in the age of neoliberalism--for more on this, see psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe's writing on the topic.



A few old links:

As of 3/09, the idea of An Age of Narcissism has caught fire in the media. This Slate article provides an excellent overview.

A 6/12 cover story in New York magazine outlines research into the ways that having money, pursuing money, even thinking about money reduces one's empathy and makes you more, basically, narcissistic.

In 1/13, Consumer Affairs asked, "Are today's young people deluded narcissists?"

May 2013 TIME cover: "Here's the cold, hard data: The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that's now 65 or older..."

A few NY Times articles:
Narcissism on the rise?
Everyone's a narcissist (and misunderstand the term)
Situational narcissism

Tenants of Carnegie Hall & Breslin Hotel

VANISHING


AP photo of 95-year-old photographer Editta Sherman

By now, we've all heard about how the artist tenants of Carnegie Hall are being pushed out. The New Yorker has a great Talk of the Town piece about the people who live in the Carnegie Hall Studio Towers, "one Manhattan commonplace: a band of artist-occupants whose tenancy is venerable, tenuous, and probably doomed."

This week, Chelsea Now reports on a lesser-known locale, The Hotel Breslin, where the same thing is happening. Says one of the tenants, "We’re under siege, here."

When did we declare war on our artists? What city is this? New York, I hardly know you.