By Art Stamford
I’ll take a walk on Broadway, walk real slow,
no place particular I want to go.
Seeing lots of signs for retail space,
Broadway’s no longer the same old place.
Past the vacant Metro with its Art Deco facade –
is its promised rebirth a cruel charade?
West Side Camera once occupied this spot,
now a big bank, like it or not.
No problem banking on Broadway today,
but lots of small businesses have moved away.
Clothing stores, toy stores seem to have vanished –
even Laytner’s Linen has now been banished.
And scaffolding everywhere up and down the way:
Local Law 11 has more than won the day.
What’s that I hear? The optimistic view:
“Things always change, no matter what you do.
And it’s not all bad – some things improve –
things we didn’t like have also had to move.
No more working girls where Party Cake stood
and OTB’s long gone from our neighborhood.
And don’t complain too much about sidewalk sheds –
after all, they guard our fragile little heads.
And it’s not hard to shop, you must concede:
Amazon supplies all you’ll ever need.”
Not sure I buy that point of view:
is the Broadway I liked done with and through?
There outside Zabar’s I see a great debate,
good government types toying with our fate:
“We need a plan that’s robust and holistic –
let’s make the sheds tasteful and artistic.”
“But they’ll still just be dark creepy places –
we want well-lit, wide-open spaces.”
“Whatever we do, we’ve got to preserve it –
It’s our heritage – our children deserve it.”
“I’m an economist and this is what I say:
overcharging landlords have had their day.”
“Close down the smoke shops – before they spread.”
“Let’s boycott Amazon – buy local instead.”
Seems things are shaping up the same old way –
no real plan, just benign disarray.
Maybe Gray’s Papaya will give me a lift –
tired of seeing everything adrift.
Linger in Gray’s longer than I ought,
consoling myself with this single thought:
Broadway’s pulled through more than one travail
since its days as the Wickquasgeck Trail.
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And read Art Stamford’s poem about the perils of preservation here.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the positive side of things new-comers to the UWS & their children don’t remember the ‘good old days’ or things as they were and come to appreciate things as they are today (‘and I’ve been on the UWS since the 1970’s).
Yes. My father grew up in Washington Heights. When I was in my twenties, living on 110th in the 1970’s he visited me from Chicago. Said something like the city sure looks grungy these days. And “I don’t think they’ve done anything to fix up the subways since Grandpa rode them.” I looked around and shrugged. Didn’t know what he was talking about at all. It all looked fine to me.
I totally agree Lewis. Funny how the closing of Laytner’s Linen put a knot in my throat. The newbies will never feel what we’ve experienced. It’s impossible to describe if you were not apart of it. I’m filled with nostalgia whenever I’m passing through. We are fortunate to have so many of the pre-war buildings still standing, and miss all the great restaurants and bars that stood in the 80’s! Columbus was one of my haunts. Just grateful I was a part of it.
Ohmigod! I remember Mr. Laytner, the original proprietor.
Be sure to read the book by his son “What they didn’t Burn, Uncovering My Father’s Holocaust Secrets by Mel Laytner.
I’d accept the neighborhood as it was in the 1970s and 1980s if it meant that I could be able to work in this neighborhood, drive and park my car in this neighborhood without the newer arrivals telling me I’m a terrible human being for doing so without any care to my position.
HERE HERE!!!
Sadly the rats and electric bikes are winning the fight.
BRAVO!
ENCORE!!
This about sizes it up.
I blame poor leadership for this urban blight–for that’s what it is. And its spread all over the country and overseas since Reagan and Thatcher. Decades of under investment in public services, gouging landlords, obscene clots of wealth in few hands, corporate hijacking of jobs for cheap labor overseas, drugs (maybe that is why we see so many pot shops; need to numb us all.
New leadership. I repeat: new leadership.
We can only get that with public funding of campaigns and term limits.
Reagan?! Ha. You should be blaming urban rent control laws which empirically causes underinvestment and decay.
I don’t normally like these poems, but this one hit the mark. I’ve been on West 79th for 45 years. Who remembers going between Zabars on a Saturday night (then open until 10 or 12?), then next door to Shakespeare’s Books (open until midnight), and finally picking up fresh bagels at H&H (then open 24 hours)? Now everything is chain and the only people out after 9 are the bicycle delivery people. Broadway is utterly boring.
I, for one, applaud the Zabar family for trying to maintain both a local business and the tenor of the neighborhood. I’m sure they have more lucrative options, but they chose the neighborhood.
You are so right! Last night after seeing a film at Lincoln Center, I walked home at 10pm. It was impossible to grab a cheap meal. The new Two Boots closed at 10 (on a Saturday!?!). Took me until 83rd street when I fortunately found a falafel place open. As for Zabars, much as I love them, they’ve switched to putting 90% of their food in plastic clamshells. Only 5% of plastic put in recycling bins is actually recycled. It’s unconscionable to sell baked goods, produce, salads, etc in single-use plastic.
For me, so disappointing to see the lack of life late evening. West Side Market and Key foods open 24 / 7, that is about it.
right??! even Gray’s Papaya closes at 11PM now. It’s so sad.
Well done, Art.
Love this!!
Glad to see the poem mentioned banks. There are so many of them (usually in the expensive corner locations), and they make Broadway blander.
If Banks cutback their retail presence you will have more empty pace which cannot be rented even at much lower rental prices.
Cannot or will not?
Mega-thanks! Please offer your words to Mayor Adams, The NYT, NY Mag, The New Yorker, City Council, and where ever else tyour seeing eyes and thinking mind wants to. Mega-thanks.
Over Capacity in Service Industry Businesses is a big issue. Frozen Yogurt, Drug Stores, Nail Salons, Smoke Shops, Banks, Coffee Shops, Hair Salons, Meatball Places, etc. Meanwhile valuable local businesses that sustain neighborhoods are priced out by fake demand. The UWS is a collection of redundant and irrelevant entities, and empty store fronts. You just don’t need 3 bakeries on 1 block.
What in the world is fake demand?
Exactly where are there 3 bakeries on one block? For a while back in the 09s and 00s, it was difficult to find any bakery. All of the independent ones retired.
Great poem.
Great. I feel the same. Yes , close those damn smoke shops and bring back West Side Camera where I had wonderful photography lessons, and while whoever is at it get the Metro issues resolved already! Jeez!! And also while whoever is at it Go Puff can go puff!
The city will look back and lament the extremely poor decisions about the smoke shops. Talk about urban blight.
We have to console ourselves with the fact that these are the “good old days” for young people.
For sure, in 30 years people now in their 20’s will write the same kind of posts.
I abhor the garish smoke shops and the ubiquitous stench generated by their products.
Very funny and on point. I had the same taste as Art in some of my favorite places.
Of course not the same as NYC but in recent trips to the Netherlands and more locally in New England, was struck that small cities had seemingly full and small healthy retail.
And residents used them
Bookstores, gift shops, household-kitchen, toys.
Not many empty shops.
Key comment that most will ignore. There is healthy retail in small towns and big cities a like.
People will blame the situation in NYC on Amazon, but there are many other factors- OBSCENE rents that only banks and chains can afford, retail spaces in new buildings that are purposely large to maximize rents from banks and chains, an unmotivated local government who seem to not at all understand why small, interesting and useful businesses are part of what makes a neighborhood.
I am excited about an upcoming trip to Paris, where the situation is much more civilized.
Always feel I am leaving a “grown up” city when I leave Paris for New York, a city that can’t seem to get out of it’s own way.
The Party Cake Girls!
I’ve lived in the city my entire life, but I’m guessing I’m too young to know about the Party Cake Girls. I was 7 when Shakespeare Books closed. I would LOVE for someone on the UWS to write a column for the Rag telling us about different stores that used to line the streets. For example, what was at Staples before it was Staples? It’s very fuzzy in my memory.
After 35 plus years on the (UWS) I am thoroughly disillusioned by the empty storefronts, the crime, the electric bikes and scooters and the panhandlers. I miss Laytners, Pricewise discount, the Barney’s store, the Coach store, Godiva chocolates, Bed, Bath and Beyond, the New York Look. Teachers Too (the bar), Century 21 etc–I could actually do some shopping here, see the latest Woody Allen movie and go about without fearing that I’ll be run over or hassled or yelled at by a homeless and/or shelter person. There was even a Woolworth store where DSW used to be. The vibrancy of Broadway has disappeared and my heart aches.
The irony is that a lot of those spots you listed are chains…
There are a great many bars, restaurants, pizza joints and ice cream parlors, but they are on Amsterdam Avenue, one block from Broadway.
The City has done everything for restaurants, particularly allowing free space with street shack seating .
But the City has done nothing to help retail which face high rents, e-commerce competition and shoplifting.
The sidewalk sheds are the only good thing that came out of the pandemic. Finally, we have places to sit on the street!
With respect – there has always been sidewalk seating.
But the Covid street shacks have transformed Manhattan into a shantytown
Yes! Sitting in a filthy former parking spot, one plexiglass panel away from a revving-up, smoking 18-wheeler is everything I was hoping for coming out of pandemic.
Finally!
Peter, I must say I just emitted something between a cackle and a guffaw. Thank you!
Really enjoyed the poem about the Upper Westside by Art Stamford. I shared it with four other people.