Moishe's Bake Shop

Earlier this year, I shared a real estate listing on Moishe's Kosher Bake Shop in the East Village. At the time, a call to Moishe Perl got a laugh and the statement, "People always put up these things." He said he wasn't closing.

Now the reader who sent me that listing has sent in a report far more alarming.



The Real Deal states: "Investor Jay Schwimmer just inked a 21-year lease for the entire three-story East Village property that’s anchored by neighborhood institution Moishe’s Bake Shop... The lease begins in March and includes an option for Schwimmer to buy the building."

Moishe's owns the building and has been in the East Village since 1974. As the Times once reported, "he hasn’t changed his menu or his recipes one iota in 42 [now 44] years — everything kosher, no dairy except for the cheese Danish and strudel. His bread slicer, which was there when he bought the place, a former bakery that had been closed for a while, is 80 years old, Mr. Perl said. It rattles like a gas-powered lawn mower."

When I heard the real estate news I went by Moishe's and bought some hamentaschen. Mr. Perl was not in. When I asked the women who run the place about the listing--and the bakery's possible closure--they laughed.

"Where'd you hear that?" one asked. On the Internet. More laughter. "People put all kinds of stuff on the Internet," said the other. So everything's fine? "Yeah, yeah."

But you know how these things happen. If I were you, I'd go enjoy the great Moishe's while you can.

Uncle Sam's Army/Navy

VANISHING (for now)

Richard Geist has run Uncle Sam's Army/Navy store on West 8th Street since 1998. The shop feels even older, a place reminiscent of the lost Village, the lost city, when people thrift-shopped and so much more felt scrappy and surprising, before it all became so sanitized and predictable. And boring.

This week, Uncle Sam's is closing shop.



Geist told me the closure is by choice, mostly, and that 8th Street just isn't 8th Street anymore.

It hasn't been for a long time. High rents wiped out the shoe businesses here, leaving a blighted ghost town about 10 years ago. The storefronts sat empty for awhile, and then a few mediocre restaurants moved in, along with a bunch of nail salons. Geist says there's no foot traffic. The street is dead.

As he told the Times last year, "Gentrification is killing us. Eighth Street has lost the magic and we want to bring that magic back, and bring traffic back to help business.”



With his former neighbor, the artist and small business owner Storm Ritter, Geist tried to rename the block for Jimi Hendrix, who had his Electric Lady Studios there, but the BID wouldn't go for it.

"They told me, 'What did Jimi Hendrix ever do for 8th Street?'" Geist said, incredulous. That was the last straw. He realized that he and 8th Street had to part ways.



On the scaffolding that blocks his shop, Geist has hung a banner that reads:

"Small businesses are more important than we all realize. Employers (first timers), employment tax payers, social security contributors, sales tax collectors, property tax payers, service and product providers, community builders and merchandisers, and new & old customer appreciators."

He wishes the city and state would do something to help small businesses to thrive.



This week the shop is in its final days and everything is being sold at deep discount -- up to 90% off. 

As for the future, Geist plans to take some time off and then look for a new space for Uncle Sam's on the Lower East Side. He says there's plenty to choose from there and fully expects to return. Until then, you can find them online at Army/Navy Deals.

A Plea to Protect the Strand

The Strand Bookstore has just issued a plea against the landmarking of its building. I spoke to Leigh Altshuler, Communications Director for the Strand, who explained the unusual situation.



"They're building these big, new tech hubs," she said, describing the tech building boom south of Union Square that is threatening the historic neighborhood, driving up speculation and demolition. "And in a trade-off, the Strand and a few other buildings along Broadway are now being calendared for landmarking." But the bookstore and building owner Nancy Bass has not been part of that decision. She didn't receive the LPC's draft designation report until after Thanksgiving, giving the Strand little time to prepare for the public hearing on December 4.

Leigh explains that the building is already protected--by the Bass family. "The building is already overbuilt," she says, meaning it has no air rights to sell and it cannot be expanded upon. "There is no danger of it being torn down. Nancy has no intent to sell the building. She just wants to keep running the store without added cost or pressure."

Below is the full text of the Strand's press release, with information about the public hearing and a request for help.



Friends of the Strand,

I'm writing today to ask for your support.

The Strand's building is currently calendared for landmarking by the city. The Strand currently runs on thin margins as a bookseller and retailer in New York City, fighting to survive in the era of Amazon. We have over 230 employees -- most whom are unionized -- and unlike large online retailers (like Amazon), have never asked or received tax breaks or other economic assistance to insure business profitability.

All this designation will do is cost us with bureaucracy in time, frustration, money and uncertainty. We will be forced to wait for approvals and debate what is the right thing to do-- both inside and outside of the store for changes like putting in a coffee shop, repairs from a flood or fire, etc. We need to have the flexibility to change with the needs of our customers and community.

Nancy's family worked for six decades to be able to buy this building and is dedicated to continuing the Bass's 91 year legacy forward. The building is already overbuilt -- with no air rights -- and at no risk for becoming a high rise, glass office building, hotel or luxury apartment. Nancy just wants to insure the security of the Strand, giving her children the opportunity to become 4th generation owners.

There is a public hearing on:

Tuesday, December 4th at 9:30am

at LPC's office in the Municipal Building

located at 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor

This gives the Strand the opportunity to make a case against the landmark status. Nancy will be speaking, joined by authors Gary Shteyngart and Hank O’Neal, and long time Strand employees. Will you please join us on December 4th to show your support? Strand tote in hand, your attendance is what will make this a success. To share this information with your friends, please use this link: https://www.strandbooks.com/protect-strand.

While well-intended, landmarking the building will undermine the Strand, a place that is already considered a landmark by the community, and ultimately put in peril.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you there.

Bleecker Bob

Robert "Bleecker Bob" Plotnik has died.



99snapshots_berman posted the news on Instagram yesterday. Academy Records wrote this farewell:

"RIP to Bleecker Bob, a true legend on the NYC record store scene and probably the most singular character among that very idiosyncratic bunch. I first got to know Bob and his wise cracking sarcasm as a teenager in the late 70s as I soiled my fingers flipping through his grimy reused record sleeves. I also quickly learned that he loved an equal dose of sarcasm in return and our interactions were some of my first tastes of what it meant to be a real New Yorker. When I first opened my store in 2001 it was a real badge of honor when he came to check it out and told me it didn’t suck too bad. Catch ya on the B side."



Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies was a legendary record shop in Greenwich Village. In 2013, after 46 years in business, Bleecker Bob's closed, unable to pay the rent hike. While they discussed relocating, they never found a space and never reopened.

RIP Bleecker Bob.

Integral Yoga

VANISHING

People keep telling me that Integral Yoga Natural Foods on 13th Street is closing after 45 years in the Village.



@MarkMelnick10 shared a photo of the goodbye sign on Twitter. I believe they own the building, but as they say "the retail climate has changed" and "small local stores keep losing ground to big corporate chains." Owning the building doesn't always save you.

New Yorkers Say No to Amazon

Since Amazon announced its controversial plan to move into Long Island City, Queens, New Yorkers have organized in force against the corporate tech giant.



On Black Friday, a group called Amazons Against Amazon rallied on the steps of the NYPL Main Branch and marched to the Amazon bookstore on 34th Street, singing anti-Amazon carols while the NYPD guarded the store.



Songs including "DeBlasio the Neoliberal Mayor," sung to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Countdown to Amazon HQ2, a.k.a. The 12 Days of Christmas. "Amazon got a buyout and gave to NYC: Skyrocketing rents, No more local bookstores, Tech bro invasions," among other undesirable gifts.



More events and actions are being planned by multiple activist groups. Today, Amazons Against Amazon and the Queens Anti-Gentrification Project are calling for a Cyber Monday blackout of Amazon.

Also today:

Protect Queens: #NoAmazonNYC
Nov. 26, 5:00 - 8:00pm
Court Square, Long Island City, Queens
Rally
View Facebook invite

Cyber Monday Canvass Against Amazon
Nov. 26, 6:00 - 9:00PM
The Creek and The Cave, 10-93 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, Queens
Join Queens DSA as we talk to our neighbors about the disastrous effect Amazon will have on our communities and the importance of strengthening our rent laws
View Facebook invite



Amazon in Long Island City Teach-In
Nov. 28, 10:30AM - 2:00PM
LaGuardia Community College, 31-10 Thomson Ave., LIC, Queens
View Facebook invite

CUNY vs. Amazon
Nov. 30, 11:00AM
100 Wall St., NYC
Rally outside the offices of CUNY Board Chairman Bill Thompson to demand that he rescind his statement in support of Amazon
View Facebook invite



Keep CUNY Out of Amazon
Dec. 3, 4:30 - 6:30pm
205 E. 42nd St., NYC
Meeting of CUNY Board of Trustees, express concerns about CUNY's support for HQ2
View Facebook invite

Resist Amazon Community Forum
Dec. 10, 7:00 - 9:00PM
New York Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Ave., LIC, Queens
View Facebook invite

To keep up with future events and actions, join Primed Out

Gourmet Garage

VANISHING

The Gourmet Garage in Greenwich Village is closing next Tuesday, November 27.



Elizabeth sent in these photos and writes:

"The straw that broke the camel's back was when they were forced to close August-October last year due to the 2 or 3 floors of luxury housing being added to the top of the building. Forcing customers to shop elsewhere for 3 months doesn't help... So thanks NYC for approving more luxury housing on the backs of residents."

Westview News reported in 2017 that the closing would be temporary while the building owner installed "columns to reinforce the building in order to add additional floors for new residential apartments."

Temporary has turned out to be permanent.

Gourmet Garage was founded in 1981 and started out in SoHo. There are two other locations left mentioned on their website. Everything at the Village location is now 25% off.