Farewell Charming Old New York

S'tan-- Sorry for resuscitating this thread, but (from today's Daily News) it appears there're only a few nails left for this coffin. What a long, sad, death. Why don't they just bring out the wrecking ball already?

quote:

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Is New York City putting its worst foot forward in its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Summer Games?

Lowdown hears that members of the finicky International Olympic Committee - who are also being wooed by Madrid, London, Paris and Moscow - are staying at the Plaza Hotel during an official scouting visit later this month.

Unfortunately, the storied hotel, where guests pay up to $1,100 a night for a luxury suite, is starting to resemble a Motel 6.

"They should replace the concierge desk with a complaints bureau," reports a Lowdown spy. "They're cannibalizing the place and not buying any equipment or resources."

The Plaza is scheduled to shut down next month - after the IOC visit - for two years of renovations.

But maybe that's not soon enough. Guests are suffering such indignities as filthy rooms, bathrooms and hallways; empty minibars; paper napkins and mismatched plates at the ritzy Palm Court, and even a shortage of basic utensils like teaspoons.

What's more, most of the items on the room service menu are no longer available, and the once-posh Oyster Bar is now serving strictly pub food.

But perhaps most unnerving, Lowdown hears, is that when guests check out, the unused portions of their complimentary bottles of lotion and shampoo are taken downstairs, emptied and blended into other bottles.

Informed of the litany of complaints, a Plaza rep would offer only: "The Plaza Hotel is at a historic transition period. The staff of the Plaza continues to do its best to deliver services befitting the hotel's legacy with all available resources."

Hotel workers' union spokesman John Turchiano told Lowdown, "It's obvious the new owners are milking the building for everything they can get."

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You can't buy class.

Sounds like the efficiency experts have moved in to make the Plaza the Starbucks of the luxury hotels.

Speaking of farewell, this charming property is available for sale right now in Tribeca for only $1,800,000. Here is the description:

"Handsome corner Tribeca Loft Building with a rich cultural history. Filled with light from fourteen windows per floor. North & West exposure, exposed brick, exposed beams. All new systems throughout. Former home of (guess...) Country kitchen, vintage tiled bath, two additional full plumbing risers, finished with architectural concrete and Beechwood 5" plank floors. Central A/C..."

Another hint: it's located two blocks south of Canal, just east of Broadway.

For The Answer, Click Here

I don't know the real deal at this building, but it seems more than a little disingenuous for this Rosenblatt character to use "the homeless" as a pawn in the thing. Ugh.

Famed Punk Bar CBGBs Facing Eviction

Mar 17, 4:43 PM (ET)

By LARRY McSHANE

NEW YORK (AP) - Hours earlier, Hilly Kristal joined rock's royalty inside a Waldorf-Astoria ballroom for the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions.

By the morning, though, Kristal sips a cup of coffee and pops an antacid as he considers the future of his own piece of rock history: CBGB's, the venerable birthplace of punk. After 32 years in business, the world-renowned club on the Bowery is in danger of losing its lease.

"Even at this Hall of Fame thing, people were coming up and asking, 'What can we do? What can we do?'" Kristal recalls, sitting at his cramped desk just inside the club's front door. "It's very discouraging after all these years."

Kristal says the club owes $91,000 in back rent - through a bookkeeping mix-up. (His landlord concurs, but still wants the money.) Come August, when its lease expires, he expects the current $19,000 monthly rent to at least double, although Kristal's landlord says there will be no new lease unless the old mess is gone.

"Show me you can meet your current obligations, and then we'll talk about new ones," says Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director of the Bowery Residents' Committee. "His destiny is in his own hands."

Rosenblatt's group holds a 45-year lease on the building, where the agency houses 250 homeless people above the club. CBGB's is their lone commercial tenant; their rent feud dates back five years, when the committee went to court to collect more than $300,000 in back rent from the club.

The agency currently is in court trying to evict CBGB's, citing the current unpaid rent and Kristal's alleged failure to repair code violations in the legendary club. Kristal is battling on both fronts.

"I'm energized," says the gray-bearded owner. "I'm going to fight."

For fans of the dank storefront bar, its demise would mean the demolition of the Empire Punk Building.

"I consider it a historic place," says Tommy Ramone, drummer in one of the club's most enduring bands. "It would be like losing a landmark of sorts, you know?"

CBGB's, with its familiar white awning, holds a special place in the city's music history. It was here that the Ramones, the Talking Heads and Blondie created the punk scene for small crowds that paid a $1 cover charge.

"CBGB's allowed bands - original bands, no less - the freedom to go and play and do whatever they pleased," recalls Tommy Ramone. "It was a good fit."

Rosenblatt is aware of the club's legacy. He and his future wife shared their first kiss inside the club, although he's quick to add that nostalgia won't keep its doors open.

"I will not subsidize CBGB's at the expense of the homeless," Rosenblatt said. "I can't allow my own sentimentality to impede our ability to serve homeless people."

For Rosenblatt, that's one of the major problems in his agency's dispute with Kristal. He estimates the committee has spent $50,000 in legal fees and expenses to collect back rent from the club and to force Kristal to bring his space up to code, taking money away from the homeless.

Kristal suggested that greed was at the root of his problems with the landlord. A new tenant could afford a much steeper rent, and the building housing the club is now worth many millions of dollars, he said.

Back in the early '90s, when the neighborhood was still dicey, Kristal considered buying the building - but he couldn't raise the needed $4 million. The majority of money generated by the club now comes from T-shirt sales, he said.

Kristal was considering several options, including turning the space into a museum during the day. The club is already a repository of rock 'n' roll memorabilia, with every spare inch of its walls covered in posters, fliers and stickers for hundreds of bands.

Several wealthy benefactors have also stepped up with offers to rescue the club, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. "It's an icon of the New York music scene," the dot-com billionaire said by e-mail, confirming his interest.

Kristal doesn't know if that will help.

"You raise $50,000, $100,000 - big deal," he said. "This is going to be $20,000 a month more, at least. It doesn't make sense."

The Gaiety all-male burlesque revue, the gem of timesquare, has closed it's doors after a 30 year run. The building was sold to make room for another starbucks, no doubt.

Gone because of financial problems

Hi Guys I am posting this event here too scusi if you have seen it in the WB category - This is an emergency tho - Bloomberg wants to turn Wburg into Battery Park City. I am too old and cranky too be forced from my home. I am also frightened of waking up to dicover I am living in a huge friggin Ikea surronded by blonde wood!
Thank you all!

March 30th: Rev Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir at St. Mark's Church in the Bowery --8pm-- Cast the devil out of the developers!

Bloomberg and his greedy land-grabber friends have proposed one of the most catastrophic rezonings in NYC's history for Williamsburg/Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's happening under our noses and, in fact, it's happening all over the city. Who will decide what development looks like?

It's an epic battle...meet the players in the Williamsburg Rezoning Brawl:

Team Bloomberg has a plan to add a wall of 40-story, luxury condos along the waterfront and privatize access to the river. As for silly extras like more park space, increased L service, or affordable housing...who needs them? Safeguarding over 4000 local jobs and businesses will take a back seat to high-rise hysteria.

Team Community has a plan to create a public esplanade on the water, set a height cap on sky-rises and mandate affordable housing. All that and green space too! Plus increased L service, and a healthy light industry sector.

The Final public hearing takes place at City Hall April 4th. We must pack the place, inside and out. Tell the city "No!" and remember:

Bloomberg has a scam -- the Community has a plan!

**For more information:**
http://www.communityplan.org
http://www.northbrooklynalliance.org
http://www.williamsburgwarriors.org

HELP
did you catch that?
The GAIETY has closed!

whats to be done?!

I wonder how many Motherboarders have worked there over the years? C'mon, I know you have.
(Remember that hideous Dyke Bitch "Helen" who would never give anyone a booking?) "The Gaiety" and "Billy's Topless" have done more to support art in New York than ANY grant from the N.E.A.!!!!!)

One more nail in the coffin.

From towelroad:

quote:

The Gaiety Theatre in Times Square, Manhattan's last male strip club, has closed its doors after nearly 30 years of notoriety. A message on the theatre's listed number says,

"The Gaiety Theatre is closed. Thank you for a wonderful 30 years. Also, watch the gay publications for a possible relocation address."

According to sources, the building housing it was sold and is being torn down to make way for a new development. This is certainly a passing moment in the city's gay history. With this last nail in the coffin the Disneyfication of Times Square can now be called complete.

From towelroad:

quote:

The Gaiety opened its doors on a winter night in 1976 and consistently attracted an interesting mix of young hustlers, businessmen, tourists, and celebrities on the DL to its pleasantly dingy, boxy room with its small stage and sparkling curtain. Andy Warhol, John Waters, and Divine were all patrons back in the day but the theatre attracted legions more of the years, whether they were sitting in the back hiding behind dark glasses or not.

In 1992 Madonna published her Sex book and shined a spotlight on the theatre, employing some of its dancers, along with porn star Joey Stefano and German cult movie actor Udo Kier in her erotic adventure.

When Giuliani came in to clean up the image of Times Square back in 1995, the theatre scrambled and changed policies to adapt to the new code and stay in business. Since then, the porn shops and sex venues that used to litter the area have slowly vanished, one by one, but the Gaiety's demise is certainly a milestone in the history of sex in New York.

Another bit of blog recently about the Gaiety:

The Party's Over

Now I wonder, does that mean The Harlequin Studios next door will be demolished too?

Such a pity (obviously)...My very 1st evening out in NYC was to Click and Drag, the 2nd was to the Gaiety.

Great link Hattie!
Though I do take issue with the statement that The Gaiety Boys didn't put on shows like they did at The Eros.

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Unlike the Gaiety dancer who's primary prop was an erection, Eros dancers would oftentimes put on something of a theme show incorporating props such as chains, ponchos, "Indian garb", chaps and whips. Some of them would even have little sets depicting some kind of scene.

That's just not true. In fact, my "New York 88" show featured a "Cowboy" and an "Indian" act. Straight from The Gaiety (and The Guilded Grape & G.G. Barnums).
There were shows!

And Jimmy Scouse, where you been whore?

I always meant to go there and now it's too late.

Guess that's a lesson not to put things off. Things are changing too fast. Who knows what could be gone tomorrow.

As long as they don't mess with Home Depot I'm fine.

When Home Depot installs a little stage and fronts an all male revue for one's shopping pleasure, then I won't worry.

Aww, Daddy, the Gilded Grape! You just slammed me with a bunch of memories of a gay New York that no longer exists... bars and floors and stages that harkened back to a mysterious
verboten subculture that truly was the twilight world of the homosexual (always one of my fave phrases, of course.)
I can remember waking up each day, hungry to experience a different aspect of it... would it be the outdoor cruising at The Soldiers & Sailor's monument, the miniscule dancefloor at The Barefoot Boy, the Stand-And-Stare at Boot Hill, The Barracks Baths on 42nd Street, The Gaiety or The Gilded Grape, The International Stud in the Village, The Trucks, The Piers, tonight?
New York had an amazing menu to choose from. All of which was very obviously leftover from the great influx of homosexuals to this town during the War. There was always the feeling that the sticky floor under your feet had not been cleaned since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. It was, dare I say, romantic, dangerous and very very secret. And there was a lot of it-- much more than there is now. If you were not in the know, however, it was very possible to be completely oblivious to its existence. You really did have to be a "member" of a secret club to know what was hidden behind this or that particular doorway. The map to these secrets was passed down from generation to generation-- a living, oral tradition, always acquired at an early age; it required a finely tuned radar to navigate the difficult terrain. So much so, that later I was able to go to anyplace on earth, discover the exact counterpart to this hidden world and even speak the local sexual lingua franca with ease.
Part of what erased this, of course, was acceptance. Which is what we really wanted in the first place. But along with that acceptance has come assimilation and even ghettoization. The signs are very clearly marked for the uninitiated-- it's now a "gay club" or a "straight club," squeaky clean, above board and... soulless.

Ah well, I remember driving with my friend Karl downtown in his father's car. He was so much older than me, 21, and had a license. We would go to the the Gilded Grape or The Gaiety and just marvel. "Girl," he would say in his rotten Bronx accent, "Didja get dat dancer? Da one in cowboy drag? She had trade fa days... fa' days!"

And there is also a gorge bit in one of the genius Miss Vera's books describing exactly what The Grape was like in those days.

Hattie if you don't write that book I'm gonna come downtown, turn you upside down and shake it out of you!!!!

quote:

I can remember waking up each day, hungry to experience a different aspect of it... would it be the outdoor cruising at The Soldiers & Sailor's monument, the miniscule dancefloor at The Barefoot Boy, the Stand-And-Stare at Boot Hill, The Barracks Baths on 42nd Street, The Gaiety or The Gilded Grape, The International Stud in the Village, The Trucks, The Piers, tonight?

"The Soldiers & Sailor's monument". You are killing me. I never even heard of half those places.
Oh what a life you've led Hathaway.