#SaveNYC Concert

This Saturday, May 2, #SaveNYC is sponsoring a rally concert/performance at Arlene's Grocery.

Organized by Blazes, "Brooklyn's musical superhero," the show will include downtown legends like Penny Arcade and DeeDee Luxe, along with several others. Ann McDermott from #SaveNYC will be there to speak about our mission.

Admission is $5, with the money going to the performers and the space. The first 20 people through the door get a free #SaveNYC t-shirt.

For more info, and to purchase tickets, visit Arlene's Grocery.


Blazes at the Small Biz Crawl

Jane's Walk on the Bowery

This weekend, May 2 and 3, come downtown for a Jane's Walk about Hyper-Gentrification and Appropriation on the Bowery. I organized and wrote the walk, while Kyle Supley from #SaveNYC will be your knowledgeable and charismatic guide.



Jane's Walk is a global "movement of free, citizen-led walking tours inspired by Jane Jacobs." In New York City, the walks are sponsored by the Municipal Arts Society.

Visit the site for more on the Bowery walk and many others. Here's a description:

For over a century, the Bowery’s character had been of the countercultural sort. Since the late 1800s it had been the sleazy territory of outsiders—punks, artists, bums, queers, and drop-outs, drag queens, prostitutes, tattoo artists, and con men. It was a haven for homosexuals when it was illegal and unsafe to be gay. Groundbreaking artists, including Mark Rothko, moved to the Bowery in the 1950s. More artists arrived through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Robert Mapplethorpe. The music scene at CBGB’s gave birth to punk rock. Then, in the 1990s, everything began to change.

Today, the Bowery, once synonymous with Skid Row, has become a luxury brand that appropriates its gritty past, sanitizes it, and then sells it for a sky-high price. On this walk, organized by Jeremiah Moss of Vanishing New York and #SaveNYC, and guided by preservationist Kyle Supley, participants will tour the main sites of the Bowery’s massive transformation and engage in a discussion about hyper-gentrification and appropriation. If time allows, participants will also loop back to Houston Street via Rivington and Essex for a look at how hyper-gentrification has transformed what is now known as “Hell Square.”

Comic Book Heaven

Filmmaker E.J. McLeavey-Fisher has made a lovely short documentary about Joe Leisner, former owner of the shop Comic Book Heaven in Sunnyside, Queens.

I asked E.J. a few questions about the film--which you can watch in its entirety right here:


Comic Book Heaven from E.J. McLeavey-Fisher on Vimeo

Q: Something I like most about the film is its depiction of what might be called "a real New York character." Can such a breed still exist in the city? And can they still run a successful business?

A: That breed can definitely still exist, but I don't think they can necessarily run a shop like Comic Book Heaven without making some serious tweaks over time. To me, Joe's "New York character" comes from that defiant, stubborn outlook that often gets equated with the overall NYC attitude. That's the charm, of course, but when it applies to a business model, it's not so sustainable.

The conflict now is that people get a kick out of Joe and appreciate his efforts in a film like this, but when it comes down to it, they might still prefer a new coffee shop in that storefront.

Q: It seems like many of the newcomers to New York have trouble dealing with shopkeepers who have...let's call it an "edge." In Joe's shop, he had a sign that said if you don't put the comics back in alphabetical order, "we will break your fingers." I suspect that if a sign like this existed today, in the gentrified parts of Manhattan or Brooklyn, people would be screaming bloody murder about it on Yelp. What are your thoughts on this?

A: Joe definitely has that edge, but it's hard not to notice the intentional humor within it. I would hope that if a character like Joe and those signs existed in a store in another neighborhood, people would take the time to soak him in and find the humor in it. But some people aren't looking to necessarily engage in a conversation or get to know the person running the store they're shopping at, which is understandable too.

New York City is rather unrelenting in how much interaction it's throwing at you at all times and it takes a while to get used to that. So if you just want to get your comic book and get out, Comic Book Heaven may not have been the place for you. It's a personal preference thing, I guess. If I read negative reviews on Yelp about Comic Book Heaven that still included any of those anecdotes, I'd probably want to go even more.



Q: What was lost when Joe's shop closed?

A: I’m not into comic books myself and had never been to the store before I started this project, so I don’t have that personal connection that some do. But after observing the business over the months that I was filming, I saw how comforting a store like this was for some of the customers in the same way that others might go to a local bar.

And I don’t envision these people now making the trek into Manhattan to hang out at Forbidden Planet. So that specific community, however small, isn't there for these customers in the way that it once was.

Q: What inspired you to do this film, especially since you're not a comic book fan?

A: Sunnyside has a small-town vibe to it compared to some other neighborhoods in the city, so it's more noticeable when a business opens or closes. I'd been following a local neighborhood news site for a while that covered these stories pretty frequently and wanted to try and catch one of these businesses to document the process of closing--not after they had closed suddenly.

I saw the article about Comic Book Heaven closing and stopped by, figuring it might make for a quick 3-minute piece as the shop closed a month later (which was the original plan). But once I met Joe, I realized there was more to it. Plus, he ended up staying open for 5 months longer than he was supposed to, so I was able to shoot much more than I initially anticipated.

Q: What's Joe up to these days? Does he miss the shop?

A: Joe does not miss the shop but he misses the companionship and activity for sure. He does his best to stay in touch with former customers and people from the neighborhood, but without a specific schedule and living out in Canarsie I think he's a bit bored. His motivation and energy is incredible though; he wants to become an actor now that he's spent some time in front of the camera. But as any aspiring actor in NYC knows, it's not a quick or easy career to launch. He keeps telling me that I need to find him a gig because he's "running out of time."


You can follow the film on Facebook

Angel Feet

A number of readers have written in to let us know that Angel Feet Reflexology is closing. Diane writes, "This lovely business has soothed the soles and souls of New Yorkers since 1995 in its tiny space on Perry Street. Another victim of rising rents. The women who work here are all kind, caring, and gifted and they are all heartbroken to see this community broken up."

May 31 will be their last day.



I got in touch with Angel Feet manager and reflexologist Chantel C. Lucier. She explained:

"Regarding our closure, it was a number of things affecting our expenses, including a rent hike, and no matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t generate enough business to cover all of these expenses. The rent hike was the last straw.

New York City and State claim to be supportive of small business, but the taxes and regulations are disproportionate to what a small business can actually bring in.

Angel Feet was a small woman-owned business in its 20th year. We have supporters and clients all over the world and it has been heartbreaking to say goodbye to them. I hope that New York may at some point in the near future reclaim the spirit that inspired the immigrants of the last century to come here to see the birth of their dreams and allow small family run and women owned businesses to thrive. We were there and we can be there again if the government will allow the individual creative spirit to flourish!"

If you want to help protect small businesses in New York City, check out #SaveNYC.

ICON Artist

Someone is trying to let Icon Realty know how they feel about the eviction of the beloved Stage Restaurant. Reader Kate Puls sent in this photo from 441 E. 9th St.:



The ICON logo has been reworked to read: "I AM CON ARTIST." The sign was also tagged with the demand, "LET STAGE LIVE!" and the #SaveNYC hashtag.



This address happens to be the former home of New York School poet Frank O'Hara. Not his last place, which was demolished for a condo, but the place where he wrote enough poems, the GVSHP put a plaque on the wall. Maybe it was Frank's ghost, home from a long stroll, who marked up the Icon sign.

Further along, at 445 E. 9th, he wrote the same messages on another ICON sign. What looks like a second hand added: "The rent is too fucking high, you greedy fucks!" To which someone else replied, "yes!!"

A 300-square-foot retail space here goes for $5,000 per month.

Second Ave. Small Businesses

This past Saturday, #SaveNYC organized a Small Business Crawl on the block of Second Avenue most impacted by the recent gas explosion.


photo: Beatriz Rodriguez. Sandy Bachom and Jordy Trachtenberg.

While it's impossible to say exactly how many people showed up to support the businesses, there was a lively crowd and the event was an overall success. The East Village mom and pops got a lot of positive attention from the media, getting featured on local TV news channels, including NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX5, NY1, and WPIX:



To kick off the day, the crowd of supporters met outside Gem Spa, where the vintage newsstand kept the egg creams flowing. They lunched at places like Paul's Da Burger Joint, who reported to #SaveNYC's Kirsten Theodos, "It was a big help, as it pushed business up nearly 40%." The little gift shop Himalayan Visions also did well, reporting their sales were up 200% on Saturday.

Small Biz Crawl supporter Jordy Trachtenberg wrote in to say, "I spoke to the Gem Spa folks and they told me that Saturday was their record day for selling egg creams. Over 350 of them! Wow!"


photo: Kim Cummings. #SaveNYC Steering Committee at work

Business owners very much appreciated the support from New Yorkers far and wide. In a note, Himalayan Visions owner Tenzin wrote:

"Thank you so much for organizing Small Bis Crawl. As I told you that on Saturday their was a lots of people came to support us from our community and also from different apart of area. I was so amaze to see these kind of support. It give us a lots hope & encourage to work hard no matter happen. Lastly, I must say that 'if you contribute happiness to others people life, it is a true meaning of life' -HHDL. Once again thank you so much."


Small Biz Crawl Boosts Blast Zone Business from Bedford + Bowery

Unfortunately, beloved legacy businesses like B&H Dairy and the Stage Restaurant were closed on Saturday, and remain closed. A fundraising page to support B&H has collected over $22,000, money that the beloved dairy luncheonette will need to stay alive.

In disturbing news, while more than 1,000 people have signed a petition to reopen the equally beloved Stage, landlord Icon Realty just evicted them. While there are reports of problems with the gas line, we also recall when E.V. Grieve reported in 2013 that the building was sold "to a group of four relatively young guys" who were heard "talking about 'clearing out' the shop in the front" of the building.

The Stage family has released a statement on their Facebook page. In part, it reads: "We at the Stage Restaurant are deeply troubled by the landlord’s false allegations that we engaged in any illegal siphoning of gas. Stage is a long-standing restaurant with deep connections to the community – we have never siphoned gas, and have committed no wrong... the Landlord is seizing on the recent tragic events as an opportunity to wrongfully evict us for reasons unknown to us."

In addition, Mariann Marlowe's rockabilly shop Enz's (since 1972) has been destroyed. Visit her fundraising page to help her rebuild and get back to business.


photo: Janko Puls

#SaveNYC is planning more actions to support these and other nearby businesses. If you would like to participate in our ongoing efforts, visit the #SaveNYC website, send in videos and photos, and join the Facebook group. 

Ziegfeld Museum

Last week we heard the news that the great Ziegfeld movie theater might be closing. It's been here since 1969, and it's one of the last remaining single-screen palaces in the city.

*UPDATE January 2016: Confirmed. The theater is closing to become a high-end corporate event space.



I like it because it's big, truly big, with those red velvet chairs you don't find anymore in this day of stadium seating.

I also like it because it's unusual.



The entire entryway, from the downstairs lobby up to the theater lobby, contains Reade's Ziegfeld Museum, made up mostly of statuary and a series of vitrines displaying artifacts from the old days of the Ziegfeld Follies.



A costume once belonging to "Ziegfeld diva" Lillian Lorraine is on display, accompanied by a sign that reads, in 1920s font, "These too were part of the Ziegfeld mystique."

In Scandals and Follies, author Lee Davis wrote that Florenz Ziegfeld "was insanely in love with Lillian Lorraine and would remain so, to one degree or another, for the rest of his life, despite her erratic, irresponsible, often senseless behavior."



Another display is dedicated to Marilyn Miller, who began in vaudeville in childhood, debuting as "Mademoiselle Sugarlump." After a stellar career on the Follies stage, she died from complications from nasal surgery and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Fun fact from Wikipedia: "A sculpture of Miller, in the title role of Sunny, can still be seen atop the former I. Miller Shoe Company Building" at 46th and Broadway in Times Square.



The museum also includes a very 1960s-looking bust of "Funny Girl" Fanny Brice, and a statue of an elephant.

Even the wood paneling on the walls comes with a story. "STORY OF THIS WOOD," reads the faded plaque screwed to the wall:

"Carbon 14-isotope dating shows this wood has been buried in a peat bog near Cambridge, England, since 2120 B.C." Thanks to rising sea levels and the pressures of 4,100 years, the wood has a rich, charcoal hue. "None has proven to be as large or well preserved as this one."



The same could be said for the Ziegfeld. It's large and well preserved, and it's old. It's got a story to tell--and it should be allowed to keep telling it.