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THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

By Kim Velsey 5/03 4:32pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

A rendering of one of the sketchy new vagrant magnets going up in Kips Bay.

Kips Bay Residents Terrified That Micro-Units Will Flood Neighborhood With Yuppie Vagrants

Kips Bay, the East Side enclave pocked with post-war towers, has been largely protected from many of the changes that have transformed other sections of Manhattan. Neither particularly posh nor particularly gritty, nor particularly beautiful, the neighborhood is known as a good place to raise a family or fade into senescence.

But now the cloistered area is getting an unwelcome shot of vigor in the form of new micro-unit apartments. The local community board is terrified that the diminutive middle-class housing units will draw undesirable elements, bad seeds, transients. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/15 1:32pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The end.

No No Fro-Yo! Bleecker Bob’s Closes, Vacating Long-time Home For Frozen Yogurt Chain

It’s news certain to bring despair to vinyl aficionados, Village old-timers and anyone with a soul: cluttered, beloved West 3rd staple Bleecker Bob’s Records has closed down after 46 years. A frozen yogurt chain is slated to open in its place.

The legendary music store sold its last record this Saturday, DNAinfo reports. Which would be bad news even if the Village weren’t already inundated with frozen yogurt shops and if the funky culture purveyors that make the Village the Village hadn’t been bloodying their fingernails trying to hang onto increasingly unaffordable leases for more than a decade. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/08 4:56pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Construction complaints!

Even Williamsburg’s Condo-Dwellers Hate All the New Condos

Poor Williamsburg. It’s now suffering a terrible fate known to but a handful of pert prom queens and high school football hunks—it is not only possible to be popular, but to be too popular.

While many of the newcomers who have recently washed up on Williamsburg’s luxury condo-strewn shores are no doubt aware that the neighborhood is “changing” and that that change is part of what makes it attractive to so many new, well-heeled residents—would they have been able to buy artisanal chutney there back in 2005?—they’re apparently more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that it continues to, well, change. At least, they hate the construction, according to DNAinfo. Read More

By Stephen Jacob Smith 2/26 6:40pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Central Park West Enemy No. 1: Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School.

Let the Grownups Talk: The Battle Over Columbia Prep

The meeting started out, as these meetings tend to, with loud admonitions from the audience to speak loudly into the microphone. “We can’t understand you!” one man shouted. “You do need the mic!” was a common refrain as speakers tried to get by on projection alone. (There was eventually a backlash, with one woman hissing, “Don’t start shouting!” at a particularly vocal and ornery man. Thereafter he resigned himself to disgusted head shakes.)

The crowd was assembled at an Upper West Side community center to discuss a zoning variance that the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School was seeking for a modest expansion of its campus, which is bounded by West 92nd and 94th Streets and Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. The school wants to make room for a separate middle school, adding a cafeteria (lunch currently starts at 10:20 because of a lack of space) and more classrooms. Read More

By Kim Velsey 2/20 12:12pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Long Island City is confused (photo via NYMag)

Long Island City Is Having an Identity Crisis

Is Long Island City the next Murray Hill? Or the next Williamburg? Or has it gone straight from being like the old, before-it-was-cool Williamsburg to the future no-longer-cool because it’s all I-bankers living in luxury towers Williamsburg?

Who knows? Definitely not Long Island City. What Long Island City does know is that it doesn’t want to be Long Island City anymore. It wants to be “LIC,” which will stop tourists from thinking it is on Long Island and therefore, both uncool and really far away.

“It puts us out on Long Island, and that’s inaccurate—we are urban and hip,” Rob MacKay, head of the Queens Local Development Corp told the New York Post about the desired name change. Read More

By Kim Velsey 2/18 10:41am

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Beset by developers.

Why Don’t We All Move To Van Cortlandt Village Right Now?

Besides a subway stop, Van Cortlandt Village has everything a residential neighborhood would want. The Bronx community is quaint, abuts two large parks—Van Cortlandt Park and the Jerome Park Reservoir—and is reasonably priced (well, for New York). And—bonus points—all this charming, reasonably priced real estate lines narrow, winding street originally laid out by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead.

Life in this delightful enclave would be great, The New York Times reports, if only the residents didn’t have to fend off so many unwelcome advances from developers. The story then goes on to lay out all the information the paper’s readers would need to know to consider a move there. Bring on the influx of new residents! Bring on the developers! Read More

By Kim Velsey 1/24 10:40am

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Iris Cafe. It smells like coffee. And muffins.

Yet Another Brooklyn Coffee Controversy

Here we go again. For the second time in the span of a year, the caffeinated beverage is at the center of a local brew-haha (sorry, we couldn’t resist). And it’s not a neighborhood campaign to eradicate drip coffee.

Once more, Brooklynites are percolating with anger over the smell of coffee. Last winter, Carroll Gardens residents were all up in arms over the odor of roasting coffee. This time it’s Brooklyn Heights residents who can’t bear the stench of brewing coffee.

That’s right. Read More

By Jennifer Arellano 1/09 4:37pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The sound of silence is popular on the UES.

Hear No Evil: UES Residents Rally Against Audible Crosswalks

Last week, angry Upper East Side residents sounded off at Community Board 8 meeting. The cause of the controversy? Noise pollution from audible crosswalk signals that help blind pedestrians cross safely.

Residents argued that the crosswalk signals would exacerbate the existing “noise pollution” of the Upper East Side and amount to a waste of money, according to DNAinfo. Read More

By Kim Velsey 1/07 5:54pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Big Nick's (NY Mag).

Will Big Nicks Become Another Casualty of UWS Hyper-Gentrification?

Big Nick’s might not  be to everyone’s liking, but it has certainly made an effort to suit everyone’s tastes. In a city of increasingly “curated” dining experiences and foraged vegetable tasting menus, Big Nick’s offers not only hamburgers, pizza and assorted Italian favorites, a vast assortment of sandwiches, chicken barbecued, fried and broiled oreganate, but also Greek standbys, salad platters, a full breakfast menu and a surf-and-turf shack selection of seafood.

So it will come as sad news to many an Upper West Sider that Big Nick’s, which has been open for 24 hours a day for the last 50 years at 2175 Broadway Avenue may soon be no more, reports The West Side Rag. The reason is not a lack of fans—although the Upper West Side’s DNA has changed considerably since the greasy spoon opened—but, you guessed it, a rent hike. Read More

By Kim Velsey 1/02 10:40am

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Watering holes say so much about a neighborhood.

Don’t Ever Change: A Few Manhattan Zoning Recommendations to Still the Hands of Time

In an effort to stave off its inevitable transformation into a wasteland of vast sports bars and  mega clubs, the East Village is considering zoning restrictions that would limit the number of clubs and large bars. Such restrictions aim to preserve the intimate, sticky-floored watering holes for which the East Village is known, essentially creating a protected nightlife district of dives. Certainly, it’s not the only Manhattan neighborhood that might make good use of a carefully-targeted zoning change to safeguard its unique identity? The Observer has a few recommendations. Read More