10 Years Later: The Voice

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of this blog, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than with the news that I have found myself on the cover of the venerable Village Voice. A decade ago, I never imagined "Vanishing New York" would end up here. Many thanks to everyone for reading and supporting the blog over the years. I would not have this voice without you.

Pick up the issue on the streets today or read it online here.



Come celebrate at a launch party for Vanishing New York the book:

JULY 27
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby St., New York, NY
7:00 - 8:30PM
For more info, visit the Facebook invite

We're expecting a capacity crowd, so please get there early--and if you miss it, there's a second one in Brooklyn the following week:

AUGUST 3
powerHouse Arena
28 Adams St., Brooklyn (DUMBO)
7:00 - 9:00PM
For more info, visit the Facebook invite or RSVP at powerHouse

Cup & Saucer Goodbye

Today is the last day of the Cup & Saucer.



Last week, the Lo-Down announced the closure. Today the classic diner got its goodbye feature in the Times. They describe a neighborhood in the midst of being wiped out:

"The family jewelry and wholesale shops that once dominated the area are long gone, and more expensive restaurants and bars have moved in. This time, Mr. Vasilopoulos and Mr. Tragaras said, the rent increase was too steep for Cup & Saucer. Mr. Vasilopoulos and Mr. Tragaras have owned the restaurant since 1988, but Cup & Saucer has occupied the space since the early 1940s, Mr. Vasilopoulos said. In March, they learned their $8,200 a month lease would increase by $7,600 per month. Attempts to negotiate with the landlord, 99 Canal Realty, failed, they said."



If the City Council had passed the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, the Cup & Saucer might not be closing today.

It could have been saved.

If you're sick and tired of watching the city die, why don't you send an email to Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and tell her to pass the thing already? You can send one to the mayor, too. It's easy--we already wrote the email for you, just click and send. You really have no excuse.



I went for my last meal at the Cup & Saucer on Friday. I had a BLT, fries, and a Coke.

The place was packed. More than usual, but the diner was always busy. Once again, don't say it closed because business was slow. Don't say it closed because "tastes have changed." It closed because the landlord nearly doubled the rent. It closed because small businesses cannot afford to pay nearly double the rent. It closed because hyper-gentrification. It closed because greed.

The Cup & Saucer did not close because it wasn't loved.

It was loved.



By the register, there's a page from the New Yorker magazine, an artwork by Maira Kalman. She writes of "The Optimism of Breakfast":

In the Optimism of the Morning, it is Wise to Get Going.
To be Confident, Expansive, Exuberant. If you find
yourself at the Cup and Saucer Coffee Shop--or
any Coffee Shop--with a Jelly Doughnut and a
cup of coffee, staring out the window at
the parade of passersby, you could do worse.
A whole lot
worse.


from the New Yorker

Kalman is right. We can do a whole lot worse--and we will.

Whatever comes after the Cup & Saucer will be worse, because it won't be the Cup & Saucer. It won't be the faded Coca-Cola sign that says LUNCHEONETTE. It won't be the 3-D letters washed by years of weather. It won't be the shapely swivel stools padded in orange-sherbet vinyl. It won't be the doughnut case lit in fluorescent light, or the cup and saucer inlay in the floor.

It won't be co-owner and cook Nick Tragaras singing softly to the music of metal spatula hitting grill.

It will, I promise you, be worse.

Dafuture

Sometime in the early morning hours, an artist known as #stickntwisted installed a "pop-up gallery" on an old fence on West 28th Street just off 12th Avenue. On Instagram, they write, "Come see The City Of Dafuture. Not sure how long it will last. Depends on the kindness of strangers."



In the rising luxury shadows of Hudson Yards, under a coil of razor wire, the miniature foam city known as Dafuture shows pipe-cleaner stick figures living their urban zombie lives, leashed to smartphones.

Colorful signs narrate the goings on, where "Technology is turning humanity into self-absorbed machines."



The mom and pop shops have been shuttered and the city has become big-boxed and homogenized.



A mega-store called Messy's has taken over and left behind high-rent blight.

On this piece, the artist writes: "What was once the town's fashion epicenter, Ma & Pa's Fashion Hut was wiped away back in the 90's when Federated started buying out all the local retailers and then converted all of them into Messy's...home of the forever on going 1 day sale. Now that they have put all the other stores away, they are closing the Dafuture store and leaving them with nothing. Thanks Messy's for being great neighbors."



There's a queer theme here, too. "In all the excitement in gaining equal rights in marriage," one sign reads, "we lost our self-respect and caring for our community."

In a gay sex club, stick figures in black chaps take selfies of their asses in front of pictures of stick-figure Tom of Finland posters.



In a lonely apartment, bedecked in pink, a resident celebrates alone, "Happy Birthday to Me." Next door, above a bank, the neighbor has hanged himself because he didn't get any social media messages.



The public library is "permanently closed," because no one wants books anymore. They want donuts instead.

A UFO appears to be taking a cow into space.

A homeless man advertises his GoFundMe page and his "Faceless Book" profile, but adds: "Don't follow me. I get paranoid."

Meanwhile, several citizens of Dafuture have fallen down a manhole, too absorbed in their phones to see the danger.



Go see it.

Before it's gone.

Book Events

Check back for updates or follow on Facebook. Some details may be subject to change.




PAST EVENTS:

JULY 27
Book Launch Party
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby St., New York, NY
7:00 - 8:30PM
For more info, visit the Facebook invite

Brian Lehrer Show
11:00 AM, WNYC

AUGUST 3
Brooklyn Book Launch Party
powerHouse Arena
28 Adams St., Brooklyn (DUMBO)
7:00 - 9:00PM
For more info, RSVP at powerHouse

Leonard Lopate Show
12:00 PM, WNYC

AUGUST 17 
Book discussion with the Atlantic Magazine's CityLab "Happy Hour Lab"
The Bedford (110 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn)
7:30 PM
The event is free, but please register for tickets at Eventbrite.

AUGUST 18
Book Discussion in Kingston, NY
The Golden Notebook presents a conversation between Jeremiah Moss and Sari Botton, editor of Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving & Leaving NY
Kingston City Hall
420 Broadway, Kingston, NY
6:00 - 8:00PM



SEPTEMBER 6
Reading/discussion at East End Books 
389 Commercial St.
Provincetown, MA
6:00 PM

SEPTEMBER 11 
Running Late with Scott Rogowsky
Featuring: T.J. Miller, Richard Kind, Jeremiah Moss
The Slipper Room
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
Click here for tickets

SEPTEMBER 14
Brooklyn Book Festival Book End Event
“Building Down, Tearing Up: Construction and Destruction in NYC Today”: In conversation with Alessandro Busa, author of The Creative Destruction of New York City: Engineering the City for the Elite.
Free and open to the public
Christ Church, 326 Clinton Street (at Kane), Brooklyn
7:00 - 9:00pm

SEPTEMBER 17
Brooklyn Book Festival
12:30 - 1:30PM Book signing: The Strand booth #305
&
2:00 PM Panel: "The Problems and Promise of Cities." With Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (Nonstop Metropolis) and Kay Hymowitz (The New Brooklyn). Moderated by New School architecture professor and urban theorist Quilian Riano.
Brooklyn Historical Auditorium
128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn

SEPTEMBER 28
Book event at The Bureau of General Services - Queer Division
Just the Queer Parts
The Center, 208 West 13th St., NYC
7:00 PM

OCTOBER 5 
Reading and discussion at the Greater Astoria Historical Society
35-20 Broadway
Long Island City, NY 11103
7:00 PM

OCTOBER 19 
Book Discussion at The Strand
Join us in the Rare Book Room as Jeremiah Moss discusses the slow death of old New York City and his new book with Amy Rose Spiegel.
7:00 - 8:00 PM
Click for info and tickets

OCTOBER 27
Reading and performance with Penny Arcade
The Cutting Room
44 E. 32nd St.
Doors open at 6:30. Show starts at 7:00 PM.
$20 food/beverage minimum per person.

NOVEMBER 4
Reading at Words Bookstore
179 Maplewood Ave.
Maplewood, NJ
7:30 PM

NOVEMBER 9
Town Hall on the Small Business Crisis in NYC
Discussing how we got here and what we can do with Senator Brad Hoylman
6:00 - 7:30PM
Haft Auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology
227 W. 27th St.
Free and open to the public
To reserve a seat, contact hoylman@nysenate.gov

NOVEMBER 11
Reading and discussion to benefit the relocation of the Park Deli
2:00 - 4:00
Sunview Lunchnet
221 Nassau Ave., Brooklyn
View the Facebook invite for more info


NOVEMBER 30
Book talk with Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
6:30 PM
Location: The New School, Theresa Lang Student Center
55 W. 13th St.
Visit Facebook invite

DECEMBER 2
Book signing at the Brooklyn Holiday Book Fair
12:30 PM
Old Stone House of Brooklyn
336 3rd St, Brooklyn
Facebook invite

FEBRUARY 15
Reading/discussion with Claudia de la Cruz at Word Up bookstore
6:30 – 8:30pm
2113 Amsterdam Ave. at 165th St.
View Facebook invite

MARCH 29
Pen America Author Evening

JUNE 28
6:30 - 8:30pm
Museum of the City of New York
Searching for Soul: New York City in the Age of Hyper-Gentrification
A discussion with author Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and cartoonist Julia Wertz, moderated by New Yorker staff writer Vinson Cunningham
Get tickets here

JULY 14
LomoWalk
Strand Bookstore
3:00 - 5:00
Click here for all the info

JULY 27
*Paperback Release Party*
Books Are Magic
225 Smith Street, Brooklyn
In conversation with Jason Diamond
7:30 - 8:30 PM
FREE
View the Facebook invite here
Find it on the Events page at Books Are Magic

SEPTEMBER 13
Between Two Worlds: In conversation with Cheryl Pearl Sucher
McNally-Jackson bookstore
52 Prince Street
New York, NY 10012
7:00 PM
Click here for more info

SEPTEMBER 20
Relevant Tones Live: Vanishing City
Lincoln Center
7:30PM
Join Seth Boustead, composer and host of WFMT Chicago’s Relevant Tones, for a live broadcast exploring gentrification's impact on music with Moss, Open House New York executive Director Gregory Wessner, architect and author of A Country of Cities Vishaan Chakrabarti, and NewMusicBox co-editor Frank J. Oteri.
Click for more info

SEPTEMBER 29
Enclave Reading Series
Club Cumming
505 E. 6th St., NYC
5:00 - 7:00pm
For more info, see the Facebook invite

OCTOBER 3
#SaveNYC Happy Hour
Dream Baby Cocktail Bar
162 - 164 Avenue B
7:00 - 9:00PM
View Facebook invite here 

OCTOBER 11
Hyper-Gentrification in Our Vanishing City
Grace Church School (3rd Floor Auditorium)
46 Cooper Square
6:30pm
FREE
The Bowery Alliance presents a screening of the film "The Vanishing City" (2009) followed by a 10-years-later discussion with the filmmakers and Vanishing New York author Jeremiah Moss

NOVEMBER 29
Malls vs. Bodegas: Resisting the Suburbanization of the City
Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn
7:00 pm
$5 General Admission/Free for Members
Reserve tickets and find more info here

FEBRUARY 28, 2019
Capital City: Samuel Stein with Jeremiah Moss
A conversation about Samuel Stein's forthcoming book "Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State"
McNally-Jackson bookstore
52 Prince Street
New York, NY 10012
7:00 PM
View the Facebook invite here

MAY 2
Conversation about Vanishing New York
CityLore
56 East 1st St., NYC
7 PM – 9 PM
$5 tickets at EventBrite

MAY 31
Bluestockings' 20th Birthday Bash
7:00 p.m.
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St., NYC
View Facebook invite for more info on the line-up of readers and performers

DECEMBER 5
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Panel Discussion: "Recognize and Resist: Hope in a Time of Rapid Gentrification"
236 East 3rd St., Manhattan
7:00 - 9:00pm
Facebook invite
Ticket prices: $10 online; $13 at the door; $7 for students at the door with valid ID.

Cornelia Street Cafe

VANISHING?

Yesterday, New York State Assemblymember Deborah Glick tweeted:

"I try not to curse but the Damn Landlord of the Cornelia Street Cafe sent an eviction notice to treasured 40yr old gem @BilldeBlasio HELP!!"



We've been hearing rumblings about the possible demise of Cornelia for awhile now. Just this month, the beloved cafe celebrated its 40th anniversary, "with some concerns," as the Times put it. They wrote:

"Mr. Hirsch [the owner] and his team are sweating now... Their rent for the restaurant and basement space, at $33,000 a month, is 77 times what it was when the club opened (that’s not adjusting for inflation — but, in the name of consistency, they’re not charging $77 for a croissant)."

Back in March, DNAInfo reported that the cafe was struggling--especially with landlord Mark Scharfman, "a frequent fixture on various 'Worst Landlord' lists."

"If I'm 10 minutes late with my rent, he threatens me with eviction," Hirsch told the blog.

If Glick's tweet is accurate, the axe has come down.


photo: Wikipedia

I was unable to reach restaurant management for comment or confirmation, so we don't know the details of this case.

City-wide, in general, there are zero protections for good small businesses when it comes time for lease renewals. The landlord can refuse a new lease or jack up the rent so high, it's basically an eviction.

This is why the City Council must pass the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, a solid first step. The majority of councilmembers support the bill--they just have to bring it to a vote. If we'd had it years ago, when it was first proposed, there would be a lot more left of New York's vanishing soul.

• You can take action. #SaveNYC makes it easy for you. Just click here and follow the steps.
• And consider supporting Sal Albanese for mayor. Make a donation of $25 to get him into a public debate with de Blasio, where the plight of our small businesses will be center stage.

Books to Bean

After four years of leaving the former St. Mark's Bookshop space vacant, Cooper Union has finally filled the spot. The Bean coffee shop is coming soon, according to new signage in the windows.



A local mini-chain, it's certainly better than a Starbucks. (And with much better coffee.) But it's not that great bookshop, which should still be here, enriching the lives of East Villagers as it did for decades.

I still miss it. Every day.

Cup & Saucer

VANISHING

For the past few years, now and then, I'd hear a rumor that the Lower East Side's Cup & Saucer luncheonette was closing. I'd run down there to discover that it wasn't. And yet it always was. It's been a place to often worry about -- an entry in my What to Worry About list, rapidly dwindling.

Now, The Lo-Down gets word that the Cup & Saucer's days have come to an end.



They write: "The reason for the closure is a steep rent increase, to $15,000 per month including real estate taxes. The last day in business will be next Monday, July 17."

Once again, it wasn't lack of business. It wasn't "people don't go to diners anymore." It wasn't "trends are changing." It was the rent.

Once again, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act could've saved this one. Once again, here comes more high-rent blight. Once again, another waste. Another little piece of New York's heart ripped out.



I thought the place would go back in 2007 when a condo started rising across the street. But it hung on.

One of the last of the greasy spoons. One of the very last of the long lunch counters, the swivel stools, the antique signage, the fluorescent-lit doughnut case, the short-order cook slinging hash and singing quietly to himself in his native language.

Greek, I think.



We have only a few days left. And this one hurts.