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The Past

By Kim Velsey 5/22/12 1:45pm

The Past

Winner! Congregation Beth Elohim Will Get New Windows (congregationbethelohim.org)

Brooklyn and Bronx Historic Sites Win Citywide Popularity Contest

In a competition for preservation cash, four historic sites have proved themselves most beloved—at least among the social media savvy—netting the most popular votes in a battle that spanned five boroughs and 40 historic sites.

Two of the winners—the Brooklyn Public Library and Congregation Beth Elohim—are in Park Slope, which is quite a coup, especially coming on the heels of the much-expanded historic district, for the neighborhood that everyone loves to hate. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/25/12 4:25pm

The Past

The new 8-track cartridge? (Chris Campbell, flickr)

Another Video Store Vanishes, and Netflix Continues March Towards Global Dominance

At this point, visiting a video store is somewhat akin to smoking a pipe or traipsing around town on a penny farthing—well, unless you live in Williamsburg. But the city’s few survivors have trudged on, against all odds, for so long that it’s not only sad, but weirdly surprising, to see them go.

The latest casualty of the Netflix era is West Village staple Video World, The New York Times reports. After 30 years, the store will  close on Saturday. It was one of Manhattan’s few holdouts, after Midtown East’s New York Video shut down its store last fall, reinventing itself as a DVD delivery service. Read More