A Piece of Tekserve

As first reported here, after 29 years in business, Tekserve is closing for good. Their last day will be August 15 and they'll be holding an auction in the store on August 23.



Jan Albert, wife of Tekserve co-founder Dick Demenus, writes in:

"We'll be auctioning off Dick’s antique technology collection which decorated the walls of the store, along with such iconic items as the 5-cent Coke machine that served 3 generations of customers and school kids, the vintage phone booth where we let customers make free local calls, the wall of radios that greeted customers, a larger-than-life blue robot that accompanied Tekserve to trade shows, the “Mac Museum” Tekserve assembled which displays and describes Apple Macintosh computers from 1984-2004 (with the first Mac signed by Steve Wozniak!), and even the TEKSERVE neon sign from the front of the store.

Entry is free and it should be a fun day and a great final performance--simultaneously an audiophile’s and dumpster diver’s dream, with lotsa bargains."



Dick Demenus writes:

"Tekserve was NYC’s APPLE computer store before there were APPLE computer stores. It started by serving the few but devoted early adopters of the Mac and morphed into a support system for a world in which every other person on the street has an iPhone.

For the past 29 years, this one-of-a-kind emporium on West 23rd Street has provided and repaired the tools that New York’s designers, writers, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, actors, and architects use to explore the creative process. They’ve saved many a student's term paper, supported businesses of all sizes, provided showbiz neighbors, like Sex and the City and Law & Order, with a unique background for their computer-based stories, and supplied 10-cent Cokes to customers and 3 generations of neighborhood kids."



On the end of Tekserve and its upcoming auction, Dick says:

"Rising rents, big box stores, and a little thing called the internet have changed the landscape. The two techies who fell in love with their Apple computers and started a small business, which, much to their surprise and delight grew and grew, are calling it a day. It is bittersweet to close the doors on the store, but we hope you’ll take home a little piece of TEKSERVE to remember it by."

The City Quilter

VANISHING

The City Quilter, on West 25th Street since 1997, will be closing in October.


photo via Diary of a Quilter

Reader Peter Lappin, of Male Pattern Boldness, passed along the news with the email the shop sent to their customer mailing list. Co-owner Cathy Izzo writes:

"After almost 20 years and more than 20,000 students passing through our classrooms, we’re sad to announce the closing of The City Quilter in October. We have enjoyed getting to know many wonderful people and have had an exhilarating time building up our business from scratch. But Dale and I feel it is time for a change."

In addition to selling fabric and other sewing necessities, as well as offering many classes, The City Quilter maintained the ArtQuilt Gallery next door. That has already closed: "the expense of running the gallery could not be justified."

City Quilter will continue to sell their fabrics online, expanding their City Collection. And before they close, they will be selling off their classroom quilting machines.

Astor Citi

The Astor Place Cube has returned! Fully renovated for the new East Village, it features a pinwheel of high-heeled shoes, a cheeky nod to the stylish gals of Sex & the City, all supported by a Citibank-branded base. Give it a spin!



Just kidding. That's not the Cube. The Cube is rumored to return with lights and a mechanical base that makes it spin on its own.

This is just a massive advertisement for Citibank, taking up the entire new semi-privatized Astor Place, rumored to be managed by a secret committee inside the "Sculpture for Living" luxury condo tower that looks down upon it.

People used to fight for Astor Place to remain itself. But most of our fighters have been kicked out of the neighborhood. Who has come to replace them?

This is neoliberalized New York, where everything's for the corporations, but you can have an "interactive fun zone" good time, too. Spin those heels! And forget about the devastation of hyper-gentrification and income inequality. And climate change. And endless war. And...

The Robo-Cube

Intel continues to come in that the Astor Place Cube will be lit up and spinning when it returns to the East Village.


New Astor Place: Now with patio umbrellas

Last month I reported on the semi-privatized neoliberal farce that Astor Place has become and is yet becoming.

Through a regular reader, I shared the shocking and disturbing news that the Alamo sculpture, otherwise known as the Cube, would be returning under electric power--lit up and mechanically spinning.

Soon after, William Kelley, executive director of the BID Village Alliance, wrote to EV Grieve to deny the rumor about the Cube. He said, "The Alamo sculpture should return in August, and it is exactly the same as it was before. There are no lights and the spinning mechanism is human powered, just like before."

Since then, I've continued to hear the exact opposite. Another reader spoke to a worker on the scene, who told him the Cube would indeed be lit up and mechanized.

I spoke to a worker who told me the Cube "is going be lit up. We're going to power it up. It's going to spin. It's going to have lights. The whole thing."

So, come on, Mr. Kelley, we can't wait. Are we getting our old Cube back--or a lobotomized Stepford wife robo-Cube? Oh, and what about that little detail my original reader shared, about how "The Village Alliance and some type of committee at the Sculpture for Living building decide" what happens in our public square and who can make money on it?


Previously:
Astor Place Farce
Astor Place Redesign
Battle for Astor Place

Blank Sign Covered

Back in May we took a look at an uncovered old neon sign: A. Blank at the corner of Broad and Stone downtown. It had been there a long time.



Now, reader Goggla sends in a photo of the sign's replacement. No neon. Just plastic.

An urban artifact uncovered and then re-covered, to be discovered again one day.

10th Street

Back in 2007 and then again in 2008, the southeast corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue was falling to make room for a new boutique hotel. And then it wasn't.

Now it looks like it's falling again. It's recently been wrapped in demolition scaffolding and a worker confirmed, "It's coming down."



Over the years, the little low-rise building became a kind of public message board. What will the 10th Street Scribbler do when his canvas is gone?

Cafe Edison Whitewashed

When Times Square's Cafe Edison closed in December 2014, after a long and mighty fight to save its life, we lost something unique that can never be recreated. A beloved mom-and-pop, a warm and comfortable place decorated like a wedding cake, the filigreed walls and ceiling painted powder pink and baby blue.

The new restaurant moving in, we learned last year, will be Friedman's Lunch. What will Friedman's do to the space? Reader Shade took a recent peek through the window and sent in this shot.



As you can see, the place has been white-washed. No more pink and blue. And, from a distance, those columns look suspiciously smooth--has all the antique filigree been scraped away?

Here's what the columns used to look like--they date back a long time:



As for Friedman's Lunch, I've said it here before, but it's worth repeating. In case you think some Friedman family runs the place, think again. There are no Friedmans here.

According to the restaurant’s website, the name is a tribute to Milton Friedman. He was the modern-day father of neoliberalism (which is neither new nor liberal). The man who advised the murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet to “shock” the people of Chile with radical economics. The free-market fundamentalist whose theories became policy under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, leading to vast inequality, the destruction of the environment, and pretty much every other nightmare of modern life.



Previously:
News breaks about Cafe Edison's forced closure
Over 600 supporters come to our first of many Lunch Mobs
Local politicians and Mayor Bill de Blasio join the fight to Save Cafe Edison
Big rally and press conference at Cafe Edison
The last day announcement
Cafe Edison Closes