Mickey Mantle's restaurant is about to be SK

[W1GUH]

[KC2UGV]

^^^ Let's here it for Mick's, and lets salute the culture and the cool people of NYC. Those who have been driven away and those who are still fighting the good fight to preserve the culture and keep the vultures at bay. The englobulators may have won some battles but ultimately the cool folks will win the war and will take back their neighborhoods, 1 street at a time.

You know, you don't have to "Take back" a street. You've just got to patronize the establishments you like, keeping them profitable...

[W1GUH]

Would that was possible.....but when rent for a shop goes from, say, $1500 to, say, $3000 a month with no notice...well, you get the picture.

And, coincidentally, if you read my thread about snakes in drains, here goes....

I got the snake from a friendly, neighborhood hardware store, cost me $22.95. At this shop, they have always had everything I needed, and they were very generous with help and advice. It's truly an "old-time" full service hardware store with great people to deal with. This is exactly the type of shop that mayor mike is killing! I really, really hope that this shop is financially viable enough to be around a long time. But current trends say that just could be just another Tarbutt's or cell phone store, or bank in the near to mid future.

But according to you, Corey, I should rejoice about that and celebrate when another junky but very useful mom & pop shuts down? OK...I'll see what I can arrrange.

[n2ize]

You know, you don't have to "Take back" a street. You've just got to patronize the establishments you like, keeping them profitable...

Many of them were profitable but the excessive and largely "greed driven" over-gentrification has forced them to close doors anyway. It also forced the people who lived in theneighborhoods and patronized the establishments to have to move as they were priced out as soon as landlords found out that there were clientèle with deep pockets who would be willing to pay much much much higher rents.

In short, and I I eloquently stated above, you can have gentrification and at the same time retain culture and legacy. Nobody expects everything to stay the same way forever. Urban gentrification does not mean that entire neighborhoods and all the culture they have to offer has to be destroyed in the name of profits. Culture is just as important a part of a city as its ability to turn a profit. In New York many neighborhoods offered both, they were turning good profits and maintaining a stable cultural base. But greed and over-development took over and usurped the cultural element in the name of making more money for a select few. As a result we are seeing more and more of our once great cities transformed from cultural center to generic corporate wastelands and "playgrounds" for the wealthy. That is not a good thing and it must be fought, one street at a time if need be or, as in some neighborhoods where the residents have resisted and fought and won against excessive gentrification that is done entirely in the name of profits. We need not sacrafice one for the other.

[W1GUH]

Additional, encouraging thought....

The primary guilty parties are chains that just gotta be over-extended. Tarbutts, CVS, Duane Reade, Rite-Aid, Cell phone stores, bank branches. There are so maany of each of those in the city. They're everywhere. I've got a CVS, a Rite-Aid, and 3 Duane Reades within a block of me. I gotta believe that not all of those are profitable, and maybe, with a little patience, some will shut down. Hopefully.

AND...just today I saw a shop go full-circle. There was a Martin's Home Decorating Center around here that was great - got a great area rug there. Then Martin's went out of business and that turned into Pearle Vision. They're gone now, and the shop is reverting back to another home decorating chain. (OF brain cells can't remember the name.)