Is New York losing its edge? A recent real-estate industry notice shows the former home of the iconic Bleecker Street Records will become a Starbucks.
239 Bleecker Street was the West Village home to the record store for over two decades before a rent hike forced the shop out. Apparently, the store’s landlord raised the rent to $27,000 a month, however, the owner was able to secure another location on 188 West 4th Street. Not all record stores got so lucky. News of Bleecker Bob’s, a favorite of punk rock star Joey Ramone, closing in preparation for a frozen yogurt shop has people asking if there is anything original and sacred left in New York anymore.
Grub Street has reported broke the story about Starbucks signing a lease on the storefront, which would make the Bleecker Street location just another in a line of more than 280 Starbucks in the city.
Kim Velsey, real estate writer and editor of the Observer has something to say about the demise of the cities artistic outlets.
“Still, our dimmed outrage at what should clearly be an outrage leaves us almost woozy with regret and sadness. For the days when it was not a foregone conclusion that everything cool and interesting, singular or unusual would be replaced by something awful at worst and anodyne at best. For the days when opening yet another branch of coffee shop that already has 280 locations in the city, as Grub Street reported, in a neighborhood that is already blessed with a plentitude of good coffee shops, would not elicit a lazy grumble, a shrug of the shoulders or a sigh of resignation,” she says.
So, is that it? Has New York’s resignation for all things commercial made it okay for coffee shops and frozen yogurt to take over? Let me know what you think.
