*Everyday Chatter

Eve Salon on Bleecker has the following "keep smiling" goodbye poster in their window. They're moving to make room for Kate Spade, according to a rumor on Racked. The salon's been there for 25 years. And more upsetting (to me, anyway) is that its neighbor, Biography Bookshop, will most likely be gone within the year. With the bookshop and the news about Nusraty, we're seeing the last vestiges of Bleecker vanish into thin air. I guess SJP's concerns about the "Marc Jacobs effect" are true. She should probably say goodbye to her framer friend:


Protesters demonstrated against the rezoning of the EV/LES, which fails to protect Chinatown and the Bowery. [NYT] ...A commenter leaves a link to this must-see video.

Taxi Ray gets an obituary at last. [City Hall]

New blogs in town: Ken Mac, the blogger behind Greenwich Village Daily Photo, just launched MacDougal Street Noise to fight against "local noise, filth, and evil." This with his also newly launched blog about Walking the Highline. Check them out, he just had a birthday.

Party at the Elk Hotel, Times Square's last flophouse, with Grieve. [EVG]

The Market Diner might be (re)opening soon. [Urbanite]

Rolando finds some colorful bits of old Times Square in a TV show. [Urbanite]

And if you're fascinated by the Fascination parlor in the link above, check out this interior shot of the joint:

Nusraty Afghan Imports

$45,000 per month. That's how much Mr. Nusraty's landlord wants after 30 years of doing business on the corner of Bleecker and 10th. And that's why Mr. Abdul Nusraty is closing his doors as of the first week of August. A WestView newspaper clipping in his window states that the rent has gone from $3250 to $7500 a month, and then to an "unprecedented six-fold increase" of $550 per square foot for less than 900 square feet of space.



I spoke to Mr. Nusraty today and he told me, "I do it for the pleasure, not to make a million dollars. This doesn't make me rich." A customer was there when I went in and Mr. Nusraty was polishing a ring for him. "It's his grandfather's ring," Mr. Nusraty said after, "It was broken. I sent it to be fixed in Brooklyn. I charged the kid 10 dollars. Nothing. I make nothing from this. But he is happy."



I told Mr. Nusraty that Brooks Brothers will be moving in to his space. "Brooks Brother?" he scoffed, "Junk." The whole city, he said, is turning into junk.

Until August, he will be having a moving sale, at 25% - 50% off. Though he doesn't know where his shop will be moving to, he hopes to stay in the Village. I hope so too.

• See more photos of Nusraty's shop on my flickr

Bowery Stories

Something gigantic is coming to Bowery and Delancey. With the New Museum arrival and the protested EV/LES rezoning, the Bowery has become more valuable, and therefore more threatened, than ever before.

Now Rob Hollander of Save the LES sends notice of a Real Deal report that condo/hotel developer Brack Capital just bought a townhouse at 185 Bowery, adding to their clustered purchases of 187, 189, and 191. Like dominoes in a row, all four are expected to fall.


photo: dylan stone, nypl

Brack is responsible for 15 Union Square West, a boutique hotel on Grand St., and other developments in the city. It is rumored they will demolish the four low-rises for a luxury hotel. Here comes yet another giant tower, to go with the one right behind it and all the rest.



Today in #187, resident since 1980 Roberta Degnore still hangs on, the only one left and a possible roadblock to the wrecking ball. She recently told The Observer, "I’m alone in this freaking building on the Bowery, and if I scream, nobody will hear me.” (Take the money and run, Roberta--look what they're doing to Hettie Jones.)

Assuming these buildings are as old as they look, there are more stories here. #189 once had a saloon in the front and a German men's keno parlor in the back. In 1867, it was raided by the police in a "Descent upon a Bowery Keno Hell."

The Illustrated New York of 1888 tells us that #191 used to be R.H. Luthin's wholesale and retail drug house (formerly Cassebeer's drugstore) where they carried Vitalized Cordial, Wild Cherry Syrup, and Sarsaparilla. There was also "a small cigarstand and a place for the sale of hot-corn" on the site.

By the 1930s, these were all flop hotels--The Puritan at #183, The Savoy at #185--with beds and rooms from 20 cents to 50 cents apiece.


photo: nypl

It's the townhouse at #185 that is clearly the architectural gem of the bunch. It also has the most tragic story.

According to the 1884 edition of New York's Great Industries, this address was the home of Karl Hutter's Lightning Bottle-Stoppers, Lightning Fruit-Jars, and Bottlers' Supplies. Here you could see a "full assortment of his stoppers and attachments, also siphons made of French glass, with pure metal heads, bottle-filling machines, lightning bottle-washers, siphon-filling machines, corking machines," and more.

Mr. Hutter made a fortune on his lightning bottle-stopper, which "revolutionized beer bottling." You can see its descendant today on bottles of Grolsch.


photo: robert k. chin

Even with all his wealth, prized Oriental rugs, and society club memberships, Mr. Hutter could not overcome the "acute melancholia" that led to his suicide in 1913. The Times reported that Mr. Hutter filled his bathtub with water, removed his clothing, got inside, and shot himself in the head--all in his "sumptuously furnished apartment" on Central Park. He left a note, saying, "The pain and agony endured in this world cannot be more than that to be endured by the soul in the next."

There are eight million stories in the naked city. These four buildings about to vanish from the Bowery have been some of them.

Vanishing Anniversary

A year ago today, I started this blog.

I’d never had a blog before, nor considered it. I'd been writing fiction and essays about the city for years, but never managed to publish. Last summer, I was writing a novel—about an East Villager named Jeremiah who grapples with grief and rage for his vanishing city. Giving voice to my inner Jeremiah provided me with an outlet to express my own anger, powerlessness, and longing. As my first draft was coming to an end in July, I didn’t want to give up that outlet. So, without much of a plan and inspired by blogs like Neither More Nor Less and Lost City, I launched VNY.


i kinda need this shirt

As an unpublished novelist, writing mostly in the vacuum of solitude, it has been gratifying to have readers. The blog has connected me to new people, both in person and electronically. It also reacquainted me with New York. For awhile, I’d been turning away from the city, a place where I no longer feel at home. But writing the blog forced me to turn outward again. It sent me out walking and got me to travel around Manhattan and the outer boroughs to seek and find what remains.

Along the way, there have been moments of hopefulness, instances when it seems the soul of New York is still alive and well. I’ve tried to record those moments here, together with the vanishings. The compulsion to preserve, even if it’s only with a few words and snapshots, spurs me on.

Thanks, everyone, for reading. For a taste of my novel, check out the old post Jeremiah's Lamentations. And here are a few of my favorites from last summer:

• Mars Bar
• Gregory & Paul's
• Playpen & Funny Store
• Clover Barber Shop
• Mrs. Stahl's Knishes

12th and A Falls

A tipster writes in to say that the shrouded building at 12th and A is gone: "they have completely demolished the building on the northeast corner of 12th and A (where the Raven used to be). They did it quietly, piece by piece, behind the screened scaffolding. There's nothing left but a little bit of the first floor exterior walls. I think i smell another ginormous east village condo on the way."



He includes gory pics of the destruction, where posted permits state only "interior renovation" and "replacement of non-load bearing brick walls." That must mean all the walls, because behind the shroud, that building is gone. Yet the FOR RENT signs remain. Is it a rush job? This angry neighbor sure thinks so.

Here's a peek inside, through the old door of the Raven, now with "newly installed skylight."





And, as a bonus, a shot of the final corner to fill up and its new tenant, Pappy's (?) Gourmet Corner, which replaces the old Metropolitan Funeral Home. I covered the other corners in a post not long ago. So far, nothing fancy (except for the use of the word "gourmet").

But what's coming to that demolished spot?

*Everyday Chatter

Yuppies are beginning to flee the city, because "anything would be easier than New York." [EVG]

Wall Streeters are now considered New York's "real estate pariahs" as co-ops and lenders reject them left and right. [NYT]

Meanwhile, Yippies hold on to their holdout hang-out on Bleecker. [CR]

New amenity: Beaver House offers "Beaver Butler" so you can watch girls pillow-fight each other in their underpants when you're not at home. [NYO]

Another take on Friday's Slacktivist protest and mixed feelings about Mr. Two Boots pizza. [NYO]

If you missed the Giglio celebration in Williamsburg, you can still catch a night dance on Thursday and another on Sunday. [GL] and [Feast Site]

Villager editorial takes on Ekonomakis and "temporary mansion" trend. [Villager]

Slacktivists Eat Cake

On Friday, the Lower East Side Slacktivists lived up to their moniker with an irreverently slackadaisical demonstration that began in front of embattled 47 East 3rd St. and ended up scattered to the winds across the summer night, still hungry for pizza.

Unlike the last demonstration, this time the police were prepared. They were on the scene before anything got started, complete with a paddy wagon, plenty of backup, and a narrow pen into which they herded the protesters--cupcakes, donuts, guillotine, and all. John Penley handed out snacks and sodas. People munched on pastries, muffling their cries of "Die Yuppie Scum."


let 'em eat cake!

"Who's in charge here?" called out one protester. "Nobody! We're anarchists," came the response. When it was time to march down Bowery, the head cop shouted into his bullhorn, "Time to get marching folks," and led the people along the sidewalk, accompanied by a moped motorcade, and more cops bringing up the rear.

The marchers stopped in front of the NYU dorm at 2nd and Bowery, chanted "N-Y-Fuck-U!" for a few minutes, then shouted at the Varvatos store, before ending up in another narrow police pen at the Bowery Wine Company.



The wine bar's owner, Chris Sileo, came out to greet the protesters as they jokingly chanted, "We want our pizza! Where's our pizza!"


chris promises pizzas to john

As he promised in the Observer, Chris told John that five pizza pies would soon appear. The crowd cheered. Satisfied, John headed down to Mars Bar for a beer. Other members of the mob stood around grumbling, "I don't want no stinkin' pizza," and "Don't eat it--who knows what they'll do to it." Someone else muttered, "At least in the old days we threw beer bottles."


not bruce willis

It must have been all the carbohydrates consumed, because this demonstration sugar-crashed fast. While more stops were planned, the crowd dispersed here. Some people went to Mars Bar. Some went on to shout at the Christadora. Some stayed at the wine bar to wait for their pizza and chat with Chris. Others, like myself, went home to watch TV.

The pizza never did arrive. According to NMNL's report, the police suggested that it not be ordered, because some protesters would likely just throw it at the Avalon, the wine bar, and its customers.

• More photos on my flickr
• EV Grieve's video coverage
• Neither More Nor Less coverage