There Goes The Pizza Box, 1957-2013 RIP

So I leave the Village for less than two months and the place falls apart!  

One of my all-time favorite local spots and my personal best-slice-of-pizza joint Pizza Box closed up shop unceremoniously last Thursday. I saw this picture posted on Jeremiah's Vanishing New York and felt a Proustian-pang for yet another vestige of my NYC youth. It had been there 55 years and wondrously felt like it and the guys behind the counter were always friendly, especially to the locals like myself.

Though the pizza there was great and draft beer only 2$, what was truly special was the outdoor seating area which gave a glimpse into the priveleged backyards of the stately town homes on Macdougal and Sullivan which shared an impossibly lush garden space with suburban-sized trees more than 60 feet tall. This secret garden was one of the treasures of living in the neighborhood as you could retreat to the relative quiet of this leafy space and have a slice and a beer and maybe even a cigarette (if someone else had a pack!). 

In the six weeks since I moved from the Village to Astoria, this has been the second notable retail death in the neighborhood--the first being Joe's Dairy on Sullivan. What's next...Once Upon A Tart? It makes me sad to see things changing like this but it also reinforces part of why I left in the first place--the Village is just not the homey local place I used to know anymore.

After 36 Years, Village Club "Kenny's Castaways" To Close

In yet another sign of the times (and rapidly rising rents), a landmark Village nightclub is closing this week.  Kenny's Castaways, just around the corner from me on Bleecker Street, will shut its legendary doors tomorrow night after a final show featuring some of the rock acts it helped make famous. Though I have not been there in a while, I saw many a friend's band play there over the years. But still the place gave Bleecker Street and the "entertainment district" section of the Village it's unique character.

Today's TIMES has the full story which feautres the sad detail that this rock 'n roll dive bar will be turned into a "gastro-pub". Well, I guess at least it's not going to be a bank or a Duane Reade! One interesting item in the article notes a previous incarnation in the building's 120 year history; in the 1890s it used to be a gay bar called The Slide. The name and concept of this bar was revived a few years back with a location on the Bowery and many rumors as to where the original Slide had actually been located. (I will take the TIMES (and Village preservationist/historian Andrew Berman) on their word.)  Anyway, fascinating to know that a little bit of infamous gay history happened in my 'hood as well.

Some Cool New Public Art For New Bleecker St Station

Recently, the MTA unofficially unveiled a new work of public art at the Bleecker Street station.  They took down the construction boards blocking the view of the new 6/BDF train transfer, which will eventually allow passengers to transfer to the uptown side of the 6.

The art on display is by an artist I know from my NYU days, Leo Villareal. He has created a honeycomb-like pattern of colorful flourescent tubes that shift and change color constantly.  It's really cool and watching the colors change is almost hypnotizing. Leo has specialized in computerized LED style displays, large and small.  This one is called "Hive" and it's a beautiful addition to the newly renovated station.

Two New Bleecker Street Subway Entrances Open

In NYC, where improvements to the city's 100 year old-plus subway move at a snails pace, there was some exciting news this week when two new entrances to the Bleecker Street subway station on the 6 line opened. This station is one of the oldest in the system and part of the original IRT trunk line that ran from City Hall up to Washington Heights and opened to the public back in 1904.

For the last three years, construction has been underway to shift the Bleecker Street platform 200 feet to the south to accomodate a new transfer point to the BDFM trains that run just beneath the old IRT line. The actual transfer, with shiny new escalators and elevators and some cool public art by an artist friend of mine, will open in June but this week the new entrances opened from the the street.  There is one right on Houston and, even though it's brand new, it's the style of the older entrances. The other one is a semi-odd spot, just off Houston and actually on Mulberry, hidden behind a Bank of America branch and under an advertising sign. This entrance has actually been there for years but was only for use by MTA employees to get into the tunnel.  Now its a fully tricked out double-wide entrance to a heavily trafficked station long in need of additional access points.

Anyway, it's not every day that a new subway entrance opens...especially in my neighborhood. So it's something to be excited about....at least for a transit geek like myself!

Big Changes For Bleecker Street Station

The Bleecker Street station on the 6 line has been one of my regular "home-stations" for nearly 20 years. Oddly enough, though many other subway stations in my neighborhood have been restored, rebuilt or renovated, Bleecker remains the same cramped, dank, crappy station since I moved here. In fact, the last major upgrade the station received was in the 1940's when the platforms were lengthened to accommodate longer trains.

This summer, the MTA has finally begun a renovation that has long been in the works. The plan is to connect the uptown 6 with the Broadway-Lafayette station with escalators and a new entrance. Some architectural renderings were recently released and posted about on Second Avenue Sagas, my favorite subway blog. It's going to be long time before the project's done, not til 2011. But it looks like the fancy new, multilevel station with cool neon artwork will be well worth the wait.