With PA's departure, there are now seven empty storefronts on this stretch between First Avenue and Avenue A...
(Xoom, the smoothie shop, is moving to a new location in the East Village.)
This block still has a neighborhood feel to it ... where community members come together at St. Stanislaus Church or the Peter Jarema Funeral Home ... and this stretch of Seventh Street has its quirky charms, such as Anthony Pisano's storefront home where he has lived the last 32 years... ... It's the kind of place where a cat named Pretty Boy was considered the Mayor of Seventh Street...
Meanwhile, though, for better or worse, this block has become the Food Capital of NYC with the celebrated likes of Butter Lane, Luke's Lobster and Porchetta, among others.
And there's the new apartment building at 92 Seventh St. — with a three-bedroom going for nearly $6,000. The ground floor will be home to another restaurant.
With all the heralded food, and more likely to come, I worry that this precious stretch of the neighborhood will simply become one big line of people waiting to eat.
