Arm of New York

Let me be honest here. Just for a moment. I found this shot on my camera awhile ago. I don't remember taking the picture. I don't remember who the arm belongs to. I just know that I really like the tattoo. That is all.

Kiss me you fools

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Happy Valentine's Day! A day early. (And if anyone can explain this to me...)

The recession reaches Madison Avenue

Last Nov. 6, I did a post after walking on Madison Avenue in the 70s and 60s where all the really nice shops are.

Flashback!

And you know we didn't see one person shopping in any of these stores. Seriously. Post-election hangover perhaps? Or maybe the richies just don't shop in a light rain on weekday afternoons? Or maybe the economy is really fucked. Anyway, every store was the same: A handful of well-dressed employees standing around looking expectantly out the store windows.

So I wasn't surprised to read this in the Times today:

New York’s most elegant shopping corridor, the Gold Coast of Madison Avenue, from 57th Street to 72nd Street, is pockmarked with vacancies as retailers flee sky-high rents. More than two dozen retail spaces are on the market and are either empty now or about to be. Windows that once showcased hand-tooled leather suitcases are now plastered with for-rent signs.

“This is as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” said Alan Victor, a broker who has worked the street for more than four decades and who is an executive vice president of the Lansco Corporation.

Another Anne Frank tag

I did a post this past Friday on an Anne Frank tag that I saw on a building on West 35th Street between Ninth Avenue and Eighth Avenue. It was not a tag that I had ever seen before...ditto for The Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve (GFEVG)...

Well, GFEVG noticed an Anne Frank tag in Nathan Kensinger's "Abandoned Brooklyn" exhibit from last month. Here's Nathan's photo:



Nathan told me in an e-mail: "It's a piece I included ... because it was such a strange find -- down at the dead end of a street in Sunset Park, surrounded by razor wire, in front of an abandoned Marine Terminal."

Remembering the Jones Diner

I couldn't let my previous post on the corner of Lafayette and Great Jones pass without an appreciation of the former occupant of the southeast corner (the one with the new hotel) -- the Jones Diner. We lost this one in September 2002.

Here's a passage from a piece that Tom Robbins did for the Voice back in January 2002:

Jones Diner is in an area zoned for manufacturing because, when it was built, the big cast-iron and federal-style brick buildings along Lafayette, Great Jones, and neighboring Bond and East 4th streets were filled with woodworking and machine shops and small garment plants. At breakfast and lunch, workers swarmed through the diner's narrow door, plunking themselves on the green padded stools and into the brown booths. Most of those businesses are long since gone; however, their lofts are now occupied by well-heeled residents and swank high-tech offices.

But Jones Diner has endured. Its $3 breakfast specials (juice included) and the never changing plastic-lettered menus above the big gleaming coffee tureens, offering meat loaf sandwiches for $3.25 and pot roast for $4.50, still lure passing delivery workers as well as employees of the neighborhood's last industrial outposts, the lumber yard down the block and the muffler shop across the street. There is also a loyal cadre of local residents who, in a swath of urban landscape that boasts three Starbucks, an Au Bon Pain, a Wendy's, a McDonald's, and an ever expanding universe of mid- to high-end restaurants, still find the Jones the most comfortable dining place within walking distance for simple meals.

For further reading:
The Fate of a Fabled Greasy Spoon Raises Questions About Landmarking (New York Times)

Former site of the Great Jones Diner (Flaming Pablum)

Jones Diner - Lafayette St. (NYC.com)

[Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

Another corner still primed to fall in NoHo

The Meineke Car Care Center on the southwest corner of Lafayette and Great Jones is still for sale. Haven't been by this corner for some time...I recall talk of either a condo, and later, a hotel, for this space back in the summer of 2007...I thought it was a done deal.




According to the Massey Knakal Web site:

The property has Landmark’s Approval for a 6-story steel and glass building for residential, commercial or hotel-use. The development opportunity at 372 Lafayette Street has tremendous potential. The location alone sets the site apart as there is tremendous demand for this type of development project. This property represents a truly exceptional opportunity to capitalize on the strong demand for a premier residential, commercial, or mixed-use development site within the trendiest retail corridor in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.

The property is listed at $4.4 million. It could look something like this:



Meanwhile, here's what it looks like now...enjoy it while you can...




Meanwhile, across the street, work continues on the Great Jones Hotel. Which the sign says will be completed in February 2010.

Meanwhile, farther east on Great Jones...

Given the changes this area has seen of late, I wonder how much longer great little corner lots such as this one on Great Jones and the Bowery will be around...(I tend to worry about such things.)





And signs like this always give me pause...makes it seem as if Great Jones Cafe is up for grabs...

An unusual tag

After leaving the Holland yesterday, I walked on West 35th Street ... where on the door to this rather abandoned-looking building, I spotted some ususual graffiti...



Not a tag that you see everyday.



I consulted with The Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve. He had never seen such a tag either. More of an intellectual twist on the ubiquitous Baby Dino and Chef Pants. Just one of those interesting, mysterious things that you see around the city, The Graffiti Friend of EV Grieve said in a rather intersting, mysterious way.

A few signs from the recession

Three shots that I took Sunday...

DeRobertis Caffe on First Avenue in the East Village...



Uh, some men's shop on...uh, Sixth Avenue near 23rd Street. I think.



Supermac on Seventh Avenue.



Not sure what happened with this photo...this would be the laser hair removal recession special...shot on Clinton Street between Houston and Stanton.



Also from last fall...a sign that Eater has noted on 14th Street near Third Avenue...the sign is still there...



Meant to mention this earlier...$5 for mac and cheese? And that's a recession special? How much does a box of mac and cheese cost at Key?

A good storefront

On 14th Street near Third Avenue.

Two storefronts on West 36th Street

After checking out the Holland Bar the other day, I walked a bit on West 36th Street between Ninth Avenue and Eighth Avenue. Always glad to see some good, old-fashioned businesses, storefronts that haven't been turned into a Marc Jacobs or something. Here are two examples. Neither of these stores really need to have any kind of compelling window displays. (Not sure how much of their business comes from people who just happen to be walking by..."Say, I should stop and get my sewing machine repaired!") Yet I'm glad they give it a try.

FYI -- Most shit is on sale

Sixth Avenue in the 20s.

Three other signs that I've always liked

Yes, all obvious ones...But I wanted to start the new year with an appreciation of some classic-looking signs.

The Parkside, Houston and Attorney.



Veniero's, First Avenue at 11th Street.



Smith's, 44th Street and Eighth Avenue.

A few places around Manhattan where Jesus will possibly save your sorry ass

A good thing for starting a new year.

On Henry Street in the LES.





On 51st Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenue.





On 11th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Random photos from Dec. 24 here and in Midtown and a little bit of the UES

Meanwhile, a little closer to home...