West 28th Lot

There was a little empty lot on West 28th, just past 10th Avenue, between the back of a bodega and a scrap metal yard. It was just a slender slip of a thing, filled with green weeds. Nothing special, but kind of mysterious in its jungly way. I've had my eye on it for some time, waiting for it to be filled with an inevitable wedge of sleek modern architecture.


last year

A couple of months ago, a realtor's banner appeared, fixed to the lot's chain-link fence. It featured a sketch of the realtor's dream--a Frank Lloyd Wrightish house, a mini-mansion pressed against the High Line's flank.


a couple months ago

Today, the lot has been completely cleaned out, the weeds plucked and chucked, and the ground covered with gravel. Big, metal flowers stand there now. A sign says the installation is called "Bel Fiore" by Loren Costantini of the Brenda Taylor gallery across the street.

I guess the lot is their sculpture garden--for now.


today

Maybe you prefer metal flowers to wild and weedy things, but I'm sad to see the lot go. Mostly because of what it means.



It's one more sign of change on this block where the massive Avalon West Chelsea is rising fast and another 14-story tower is moving in. We all know what's happening here:

Folsom Fights On
Folsom East and The Eagle
Folsom East Responds
Folsom Under High Line
Eagle Under Siege

Some Ghost Signs

It's always an exciting urban archaeological moment when a sign comes down from a facade to reveal an older sign underneath. It feels like a wrinkle in time, a stepping back into the old city.

Andrew Fine at a Fine Blog sent in this shot from 71st and Lexington, where Staub the Chemist has been revealed, complete with a bonus phone exchange. Who was RH-4?



Downtown, the former cafe The Adore has been stripped to reveal a sign for a children's barber shop. Greenwich Village Daily Photo also snapped shots of it, wondering if it dates to the 1940s.



Let's hope the newcomers save this one, along with good old Erskine Press (read all about that here). If any knows these old businesses, please let us know.

Sweet Banana

Originally published for Eater's "Bodega Week" in March (hence the bodega questions), my profile of the Sweet Banana Candy Store, which is slated to be shuttered by the Stonehenge Group by the end of this month, along with several other long-time small businesses on the block.

The Sweet Banana Candy Store has been run by "Candy Lady" Patricia on 9th Avenue and 17th Street in Chelsea for the past 15 years. Wearing its age proudly, without a hint of vanity, it sits on a ragtag block that has somehow managed to stay frozen in time, almost untouched by the hyper-gentrifying waves that push in from all sides.

The shop's battered awning slumps down over a front window spattered with graffiti and ads for USA Gold brand cigarettes and Slush Puppie frozen drinks. A neon sign advertising "Fresh Coffee" has lost its light.



Patricia doesn't consider her shop a bodega. "It's a candy store," she tells me with a shrug from behind her counter where a postcard of a handgun-toting Jesus Christ guards the cash register. But Sweet Banana does have many markings of the bodega breed: lottery, ribbons of scratch tickets, bags of plantain chips, a display of vintage pocket hair brushes that fit right in the palm of your hand ("Slip it over your middle finger and feel the relaxation spread as it glides through your hair and gently massages your scalp").

And there's the quintessential hardworking bodega cat who likes to lounge among the newspaper stacks.



A few years ago, when Sweet Banana got a new landlord, we thought we'd lose it, but it somehow survived, despite the rapid changes that surround it. Asked how her business has been since the the rising tides of "MePa" and the High Line began flooding the neighborhood, Patricia shrugs and says, "So-so. It's okay." She's a woman of few words.


Patricia the candy lady

Sweet Banana also serves as a social center for many people of the neighborhood. Men and women hang out here to talk and spend time together.

On most days you can find a friendly woman named Hassie seated behind the stuffed candy rack, selling hot homemade empanadas from an insulated bag for a dollar apiece. They are delicious and come straight from her kitchen on 22nd Street where she has lived for her entire 52 years.



"We keep each other company," Hassie says of her time spent in Patricia's store. She appreciates how Patricia keeps her prices low so the neighborhood people can afford to shop, and she likes to watch the kids come in from the junior high and high school nearby. They come in packs, laughing and gossiping, to grab handfuls of their favorite candies out of the big wooden bin--individually wrapped Circus Peanuts and Swedish fish, mini Butterfingers and Laffy Taffy, Charms Blow Pops and Dum Dums.

Hassie tells me how she and Patricia have watched many of their neighbors grow up. "From little kids, they go to college and come back, and they visit her. They always come back here."

Sweet Banana is more than a candy store or a bodega, it's a meeting place and a home base, a part of the family for many local people. They go away from the neighborhood knowing that Sweet Banana will be here when they return. Of course, with the massive changes happening all around it, how much longer can it last? [This was written before we knew the answer to that question would be June 30.]

Further reading about this block:
New Barber Shop
Death of a Block II
Death of a Block
Saving 9th Avenue
Sweet Banana Candy Store
Chelsea Liquors
New China

Mars Creamed

Back in April, the Hamptons boutique Blue & Cream mounted a "Tribute to Mars Bar" photo exhibit in their Bowery location. Locals were appalled. I wrote about it then, but dared not venture inside for fear of coming out with post-traumatic stress disorder. Well, the exhibit is still up, and I couldn't help myself.



Above racks hawking $600 dresses and $1,000 shoes, the ghosts of the old dive bar hang like trophies on a hunter's wall. The faces of barflies look back at shoppers from vanished stools, like the faces of the old Bowery, recalling Skid Row's down and outs--today washed away by the luxury Bowery Tsunami. Where did all those people go?

At their feet, the price tags on designer leather jackets flutter ($1,350). The color of the leather? Cognac.



At the cash register there's a pile of postcards for the taking. On the front, Blue & Cream has chosen to showcase one of Mars Bar's last murals. The words "The East Village Is Dead" are drenched in blood and flanked by images of its killers. In this space, it feels like a victory flag.

The fellow on the right looks like he shops at this very boutique. Isn't that him, across the room, fingering the fabric of a $285 Pique Polo (perfect with its collar popped)?


front of card

On the back of the card, the boutique informs us that the iconic bar was brought down by a condo developer's wrecking ball.

You cannot make up irony as cruel as this.


back of card

Folsom Fights On

After getting opposition from the newly arrived condo people, and agreeing to take measures to protect their delicate sensibilities, this weekend's Folsom Street East festival was a big success, with one of the largest crowds I've ever seen in attendance.


click here for more Folsom photos

Packed extra tight into a street narrowed by massive construction plywood, bodies pushed and jostled in the beer-soaked scrum, but the energy was joyful. It felt like everyone was keyed up in defiance of the recent anti-Folsom sentiment.



Some of that sentiment was expressed by anti-sex, anti-gay Christians waving a banner on the High Line that said "Jesus Saves from Hell."

Down below, a kinky couple held up their own sign in response, saying only "LOVE."





There never used to be Christian protesters here--but now the High Line is bringing the mainstream in to what was once a relatively protected, unknown piece of New York City. Folsom is suddenly very visible.

Up above, groups of High Line tourists crammed the stairwell (many more than last year), staring down and taking pictures of the scene below, some of them smiling, but most of them looking very serious. They were not amused, but couldn't look away.



When one of the event organizers took the stage, he psyched up the revelers, shouting into the microphone, "Some people are saying we are inappropriate...but New York City is not a sanitized place to go mall-shopping with your children!"

He waved to the gawking High Line tourists and thanked the Folsom crowd for "coming out on the streets of New York City, in the daylight, and saying: We are here, we are queer, we are straight, we are kinky--we're gonna be here as long as you are, so put down your 50 Shades of Gray and get your fuck on!"



And they did get their fuck on. While the +Art condo dwellers were given a barricaded corridor for entering and exiting their building, the spankings and whippings went on just as they do every year. The leathermen and women continued to pour in and out of the Eagle. Adults of all ages strutted their stuff without shame. It felt like "New York Fucking City" for once, after all.

Of course, next year will be another story. Current complaints are coming from the +Art condo building, the only condo on West 28th. It brought 91 residential units to a block that used to have practically zero. But soon those 91 won't be alone here anymore. The massive Avalon West Chelsea is rising fast, bringing another 700 units. And a third giant tower at the eastern end of the block will bring an additional 312 units.

That's going to be a lot of new whiners and complainers.



Previously:
Folsom East and The Eagle
Folsom East Responds
Folsom Under High Line
Eagle Under Siege

See all my Folsom East photos here

Folsom East Responds

Yesterday we heard from a resident of one of the luxury condos that have recently gone up along the High Line on formerly desolate West 28th Street. He told us about how the new residents are trying to shut down the Folsom Street East festival, now 16 years strong in Chelsea. I got in touch with Susan Wright, Media Liaison for Folsom Street East, and asked for her response.



Q: What was your initial reaction when you found out from my blog that the new condo residents of West Chelsea have been organizing against Folsom East?

A: We were surprised because we haven't been contacted by anyone. Folsom Street East is a community event, and is eager to work with the neighbors. We observed certain issues last year, so one of the ways we have adjusted the fair this year is to provide a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the buildings that goes from 11th Avenue down to the condos at 540 W. 28th Street. That way residents don't have to walk through the attendees in the street. They will be able to walk alongside the buildings and enter their own home as usual.

Q: Residents are petitioning the Community Board to eliminate or move the fair. Has anyone ever complained directly to the organizers of Folsom East?

A: Folsom Street East has not received any complaints from anyone about the fair.



Q: How do you respond to the people in the new condos who don't want to see nudity and "lewd" acts from their windows? Or who don't want their children to witness the fair?

A: The attendees at the fair must follow our Code of Conduct, and that includes no lewd acts or full nudity. Attendees are allowed to wear street-legal clothes, which in NY city is fairly liberal, as it should be. There are some entertainment pieces that take place on the stage, at the other end of the block, that enter the "burlesque" realm, but legally it doesn't fall into the "lewd conduct" category. Security volunteers are in place to be sure that all the rules are followed by the attendees.

Q: The residents have also suggested that Folsom move "to the next block where it's bordered (for now) by commercial on two sides, Con Ed to the north, and West Street." If anything, I think that could only be a temporary solution, because certainly more condo development is coming. What are your thoughts about this suggestion?

A: Folsom Street East is willing to work with the community to ensure our fair is low-impact. We would be willing to discuss any potential options with Community Board 4 and the neighboring community. However, the current location adjacent to the Eagle is ideal for this street fair, and moving would cause difficulties.

Q: How long has the fair had its home on West 28th?

A: Folsom Street East has been on West 28th for 8 years, ever since we moved from our location outside the Lure in the Meatpacking district.



Q: How did the fair get started and what is its mission?

A: Folsom Street East is a celebration of the SM-Leather-Fetish community in New York City. Like the great Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, we thought New York City should have its own leather street fair.

The BDSM-leather communities should not be pushed underground, and sponsoring our own street fair is a way of highlighting the existence of our community and the fact that we must fight against persecution and stereotypes every day. Folsom Street East is a nonprofit event run by volunteers--all of the funds that are raised are donated to charity. The three beneficiaries this year are the LGBT Center, the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.

Q: What do you think is the future for the queer and kinky of New York City? What will the city lose when this culture is pushed out?

A: Leathermen and women will never leave New York City! We are as much a part of New York as bagels and the Empire State Building. What would New York City be without its diversity? Folsom Street East intends to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we can continue to come out as a group and celebrate our culture.

Come on down to Folsom Street East [this weekend] and see for yourself the spirit of togetherness and celebration that inspires Folsom Street East.



Previously:
Folsom East and the Eagle
Folsom Under High Line
Eagle Under Siege

Folsom East & The Eagle

Last year, when the second part of the High Line opened, I wondered how long the sex-positive Folsom Street East festival would survive on West 28th, now that the once-desolate block has become a destination for tourists and condo-buyers. Soon after, I looked at the arrival of massive condo-box Avalon West Chelsea, coming to the same block, right across the street from the Eagle gay leather bar, and predicted that the Eagle would not last much longer, either.

As we come up on the 16th annual Folsom East fair this weekend, we hear from an anonymous resident of 540 West 28th (the +ART building) that those dire predictions may already be coming true. Folsom East and the Eagle, he tells us, are not long for this rapidly changing world.


2011: High Line tourists pointing at Folsom-goers

Construction began on the +ART building in 2008, when there was nothing on that block except for a gay bar, a strip club, a scrap yard, a truck yard, and some autobody shops. Our anonymous interviewee has lived there for the past year. He bought the condo because he, like many of his neighbors, was attracted to "the building, view of the river, wide open space, proximity to Chelsea Piers, High Line, and the Hudson River Park."

I asked him some questions and he provided us with an inside look into how the new condo dwellers of the High Line are forcing change on the once-wild, westernmost hinterlands of Chelsea.




Q: What is the prevailing opinion about the Folsom East fair among your neighbors--how do people talk about the fair?

A: It's a mixed bag. The primary issue is the zero access to the building without walking through the fair itself where lewd conduct and nudity isn't uncommon. Those with children find it particularly difficult.

Q: In what way have the neighbors organized, and what is your goal in terms of the fair--do you want it to stop running, move to another block? What are the neighbors doing to meet this goal?

A: Residents from several surrounding buildings have passed fliers asking our residents to write to the Community Board to relocate or totally eliminate Folsom Street East because "fetish" fairs shouldn't be allowed so close to so many residential buildings. There's word that a petition of some sort will be circulated but I'm not exactly sure what the details are.

A letter was written to the Community Board asking how they can assure residents access to the building without having to walk through the fair itself. Another suggestion was to move it to the next block where it's bordered (for now) by commercial on two sides, Con Ed to the north, and West Street.

The primary issue for us at 540 W 28th isn't the Eagle or even Folsom Street East. It's allowing residents access to the building without having to go through the fair itself. Other residents of the surrounding buildings and even my own building may have additional concerns with regard to the lewd conduct and nudity in full view from their units.

Q: Were you aware of the fair's presence before you bought property here? [The fair's been running for 16 years.]

A: Yes... It's only once a year.

Q: What about the Eagle and Scores? It's hard to imagine those lasting on 28th with the new Avalon West Chelsea going in. How long do you think they will last?

A: I can't speak for all residents but a group of us would like them to stay. We've gotten to know the bouncers and they always say hello or play with our dogs. The crowd that gathers outside of the Eagle is always very nice, and the clientele at Scores really just get out of their cars and zip right inside. No loitering in front for the most part. Having the bouncers out front also gives us an additional level of security. Sure, you'll always have those that will be obnoxious or use the side of our building as a urinal but doesn't that happen just about everywhere in NYC?

I did hear that this summer may be the Eagle's last which would be a shame. I hope they reconsider. [Note: To this, the Eagle says, "Don't listen to rumors."] With the addition of 700+ units in Avalon Chelsea, it may be a matter of whether or not Scores or Eagle even want to be there. I give it a year. Construction across the street is going at a rather fast pace.



Queer, kinky, weird New York is vanishing at an astonishing rate--as fast as the new condos are being constructed along the High Line's glamorous flanks. Folsom Street East and the Eagle are the last vestiges of a once-thriving queer leather scene in Chelsea, one that not so long ago stretched across the Meatpacking District, up and down the far west side.

In 2009, the New York Leather Weekend was canceled when the Standard Hotel and the Food & Wine Festival complained to the city, successfully ousting the queers from MePa's sacred cobblestone streets. I have no doubt that the people of West 28th Street's new condos will eventually win the fight against Folsom the same way--and, apparently, no one is even trying to stop them.


Previously:
Folsom Under High Line
Eagle Under Siege
Eagle's Nest
Pleasure Chest 1972
Men in Leather
Lenny & Leather