I Love These Storefronts.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/james-and-karla-murrays-photos-of-new-yorks-disappearing-storefronts-20144#comments

Sootta Newspapers and Tobacco
sallanscorner.wordpress.com

Hello Everyone:

Small businesses help define and give character to an urban neighborhood.  They are vital parts of an ever changing urban landscape; the management and staff often are extended members of everyone's family. About ten years ago, photographers James and Karla Murray set out to document the laid-joli New York City storefront that, for better or worse, have been the face of the city for the majority of the previous century.  The results of their survey are presented in Harrison Jacobs's article, "New York's Storefronts Have Completely Transformed In Just A Decade," for http://www.businessinsider.com.  The photographs are a valentine to the end of an era when these mom and pop stores were the life blood of a neighborhood.

ZigZag Records
designyutrust.com

 During New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's  tenure, Manhattan  and the surrounding boroughs  underwent a dramatic  change under the Mayor's policies  that favored new  development through tax incentives  and changes in  zoning  laws. https://www.newyork.com/articles/estate/how- bloomberg-changed-new-york-real-estate-99465/)  The    new codes permitted luxury high-rises in the trendy    neighborhood of Williamsburg and the East Village.  From the time Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2001,  over 40,000 buildings have gone up in all five boroughs.  The mom and pop stores that were the character defining  features of a neighborhood fell victim to new  development and soaring rents.  Two of the casualties of Mayor Bloomberg's tax incentive policies and changes in

CBGB & OMFUG
cbgb.com

zoning codes were famed clubs Mars Bar and CBGB.

Recently, James and Karla Murray set out to photograph the storefronts they first documented ten years ago to see what remained and what did not. What they discovered was nearly two-thirds of the businesses the first time, had disappeared.  the Murrays shared some of their photographs in the original article with Mr. Jacobs and you can see them at their blog and website http://jamesandkarlamurray.blogspot.com. The original photographs were assembled in a book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York (available on Amazon).  In their original survey, the Murrays also interviewed the store owners regarding their establishments.  Many of the store owners shared, "that they feared losing their businesses due to rent increases."  Too often, the landlords pushed out the enterprises with the intention of converting the property into a high-end residential development.  Sometimes, the deal would fall through, leaving a vacant storefront.

Jay Dee Bakery
James and Karla Murray
showroomandemporium.blogspot.com

Harrison Jacobs lists some examples of small businesses that pushed out by soaring rents and replaced by high-end mixed-use developments.  The Mars Bar in the East Village was shuttered in 2011, razed and replaced by a luxury condominium with a planned TD Bank on the ground floor.  The original 2nd Avenue Deli, also in the East Village, was closed in 2006 after the rent jumped from $24,000 per month to $33,000 per month.  While yours truly cannot claim to know anything about commercial property rents, just looking at the afore stated rents for the venerable deli is enough to make one's head spin.  Most of the businesses were pushed out via attrition-they simply could not afford the rent increases. The flip side of this situation is that the businesses owners who were able to maintain their storefront, did so because they already owned the property.

Lenox Lounge
James and Karla Murray
jamesandkarlamurray.blogspot.com

High apartment rents have been another source of eviction through attrition for small business owners. Unfortunately, it the same sad story, skyrocketing residential rents have pushed out the neighborhood's long-term residents, killing the business's loyal customers.  One example is the Lenox Lounge in Harlem which closed its doors on December 31, 2012 after a dispute over the lease.  The punk rock music landmark CBGB in the East Village shut down in 2006, after the building owner claimed the club owed $91,000 in back rent.  Since then, the place where Patti Smith and the Talking Heads used to play was taken over by a John Varvatos store.  Over in TriBeCa, Ralph's Discount City was forced out of business in 2007, when the property commenced luxury condominium conversion.  Citing the Murray, "The Murrays say that the closing of the businesses picked up speed with the recession in 2007,"

Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery
James and Karla Murray
prod12oz.com

The iconic art bar, Max Fish, closed in July 2013 due to a rent increase.  Mr. Jacobs reports, "At the time of the closing, the rent was at $16,000 and was due to increase again."  There is a silver lining here, there is a new location planned for, wait for it, Brooklyn.  Mr. Jacobs continues, "The Murrays say the biggest issue is that the new stores don't necessarily have any connection to the neighborhood [sic] or its inhabitants."  Yours truly agrees with that statement.  Karla Murray says, "There's a loss of character to the neighborhood [sic]."  Yours truly would like to add that the neighborhood risks becoming another collection of bland boring boxes.  Even the new stores: franchised clothing and electronic stores, banks and drugstores are not always successful.

Joe's Pizza
scottspizzatours.com

Joe's Pizza had to shutter its restaurant in the East Village when the rent soared from a very manageable $900 per month to a stratospheric $15,000 per month. Another silver lining, the pizzeria reopened in a new on location on 14th Street.  Times Square mainstay McHale's Bar remained at its location for sixty-two years before the landlord pushed it out to make way for the Platinum NYC condominium tower.

The storefronts featured in James and Karla Murray's book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, represent a microcosm of disappearing mom and pop businesses across the United States.  Whether they are in big cities, like the ones featured here or in a small town, they represent a vital part of their neighborhood that cannot be replaced by anonymous bland boring boxes.  These bland boring boxes have no connection to their host neighborhood.  They may make pretenses of establishing a connection but they cannot replace a Joe's Pizza or a Yonah Shimmel Knish Bakery.  These small businesses provides an irreplaceable essence to a neighborhood.  A very big thank you to James and Karla Murray for their valentine to the storefronts of New York City.