Back in January we heard that the laundromat on East 10th Street near Second Avenue that has served the neighborhood for so many years will be closing ... We heard that the landlord was asking for an "insane" rent hike.
A reader tells us that Friday is their last day in business. Mimi and her son are saying their goodbyes now to longtime customers.
"Such a nice family. It's really sad to see them go," said the reader.
As for this space, you can probably count on either more ramen... or an upscale eatery from a name chef. Right?
Previously on EV Grieve:
Rent hike KOs East 10th Street laundromat
5 comments:
WooHoo! We'll finally get a Frozen Yogurt place in this neighborhood. If not a FroYo, then we sorely need another Chase Branch. I'm sick and tired of walking 37 feet to find a cash-machine.
Understandable. The EV's too smokin' hot for a dry cleaner unless its owned by a dysfunctional family with a reality show on E!.
Yes, a local laundromat's a sad thing to loose, I guess. Some of us though, clearly remember that the creeping gentrification of our neighborhood actually began with the opening of this very laundromat. It was really painfully wrenching to see this laundromat replace Peter Nagy and Alan Belcher's Gallery Nature Morte --birthplace of the Neo-Geo Movement. When it closed in 1988, the great days of the East Village went with it.
You could make the argument that places Nature Morte were harbingers, or even causes, of gentrification. The art galleries of the time exhibited the work of people with a "downtown" mindset, but also attracted more affluent folk from other parts of the city who wanted their own little walks on the wild side. Those people would want places to eat that weren't coffee shops (Hawaii Five-O, anyone?) As those people felt more comfortable in the neighborhood, more businesses sprung up to cater to them. The frightening "hyper-gentrification" we see today may be an unfortunate natural extension.
Just a theory.
Hawaii Five-O. God. Where the hell was that place again? I think it predates Redbar, Wonderbar and the Aztec Lounge. I've forgotten almost everything about it for at least 20 years! I think the first place that attracted an uptown crowd was the restaurant called 103 at 103 Second Ave. (where Vandaag recently closed) at the corner of 6th St. --Remember that?
http://books.google.com/books?id=XOUCAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA36&dq=103%202nd%20Avenue&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q=103%202nd%20Avenue&f=false
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