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THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

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

By Kim Velsey 11/28/12 5:03pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The Sperone Westwater Gallery is not a fan of the proposed development.

NIMBY Battle Heats Up on the LES, but Whose Backyard Is It?

The Bowery now has a Freitag boutique and a Whole Foods. Galleries and trendy restaurants rub shoulders with wholesale kitchen equipment suppliers (at least it’s convenient for the restaurants). The question of gentrification is not if or when but how fast. This should not be news to anyone who lives or works below 14th Street, particularly not an art gallery that opened on the Bowery last year.

And yet, one of the more bitter battles currently being fought over neighborhood change and development has pitted the year-old Sperone Westwater gallery against a proposed 25-story hotel and tower next door, according to The Wall Street Journal. The twist is that although the art gallery has won some local residents to its cause, the tower has garnered the support (via rent guarantees) of an affordable housing development that borders the planned project. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4:51pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Signage will be something artsy, painted, but not graffiti style paint. Classy style paint.

Even Strip Clubs Are Gentrifying in the West Village

It can be hard to pinpoint the moment when a neighborhood passes from one phase of gentrification to the next—was it the wine bar that opened on the corner, the coffee shop that only served espresso, the French language pre-school? But the West Village, whose change has been a source of constant hand wringing for at least the last two decades, has undoubtedly crossed a new threshold: the gentrification of even the XXX establishments.

The Villager reports that the new owner of a seedy 24-hour adult video store at Clarkson and West Streets is looking to revamp the space into a high-end topless bar for an upscale audience. The new place will reportedly be “classy.” Or at least way classier than a XXX video store with a naked dancer on duty in the back. In fact, the owner is so serious about turning the space into a sophisticated establishment for gentlemen (and are not all men who visit such establishments gentlemen?) that he has ended the naked lady’s gyrations. Read More

By Kit Dillon 10/18/12 12:05pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Can new and old business thrive in Harlem? (MAS)

Shaking the Shuffle: Harlem Small Businesses Contemplate the Future

Gentrification has taken hold in every corner of the city over the past decade or two, but few places have felt it as acutely as Harlem. Demographics, tastes and prices are all shifting and skewing, for better and worse, often all at once. Last week at Harlem’s Studio Museum, a confab of the neighborhood’s business owners and power brokers came together to try and figure out what comes next for their community.

Hosted by the Harlem Park to Park Initiative, a self-styled community improvement association and business alliance, the conference brought together city officials, real estate developers and noted executives from the dining, hospitality and entertainment worlds. Among them were the CEO of the country’s largest African-American real estate development company, R. Donahue Peebles, and Tren’ness Woods Black, the third-generation owner of Sylvia’s Restaurant. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/12/12 10:44am

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

This plan is so fetch. (Wikimedia Commons)

Like a Good Hipster, Bushwick Wants an Unconventional Rezoning

The joke about hipsters (well, one of many, many jokes about hipsters) is that they are pioneers, non-conformists. But out in Bushwick, they are following in the footsteps of more than a hundred of the city’s neighborhoods: they want a rezoning.

A stones throw (not the hip hop record label) from the the McKibben Lofts and Roberta’s, just across Flushing Avenue, a developer wants to transform the old Rheingold Brewery into a 10-building housing complex, a plan that has been kicking around since at least 2008. But according to The Wall Street Journal, this is Bushwick, so the rezoning has to be different, it has to be cool, with it, or at least that’s what Councilwoman Diana Reyna wants. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/24/12 4:06pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Prime real estate. (Google Maps)

Meatpacking District Officially Dead as Last Independent Butcher Makes Way for More Luxury Retail

The Meatpacking District is now as dead as the cattle carcasses that once poured blood onto its cobblestone streets. The last independent meat supplier in a neighborhood that once has more than 200 has moved into a city-controlled co-op in the neighborhood, the last redoubt of steaks and chops in the area. Weischel Beef is being replaced with—yep—more high-end retail, according to The Real Deal. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/16/12 3:54pm

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Uptown becomes more downmarket.

Madison Avenue Is the New Meatpacking District Is the New SoHo

Once upon a time, different kinds of shops existed in different neighborhoods, catering to the different people who lived in those neighborhoods. Quaint, right? But that was then and this is now. And now every corner of Manhattan has been pretty thoroughly colonized, and homogenized, by upscale chain stores.

The transformation doesn’t only happen to formerly-gritty, formerly-edgy neighborhoods, either. The New York Times reports that Madison Avenue is the latest location to undergo such delightful changes—changes that have helped the street shake off its post-recession malaise at the same time that retailers like Juicy Couture and J.Crew are not exactly brands that the most insular and upscale of all Manhattan shopping districts would have originally welcomed with open arms. Read More