“Spare change?”
As dusk approaches on a dank, chilly Monday, I quickly slide past the beggar planted in front of the Wachovia Bank on the corner of Broadway and 85th. At least he didn’t physically accost me, as too often happened back in the 80s, when the city was overrun by aggressive panhandlers.
For decades, this was a bustling restaurant corner, with throngs of people meeting friends for brunch or dinner. A few years ago, Wachovia took over the space from Time Cafe. Now the corner is desolate and forbidding at night, the bank’s yellow neon sign casting an eerie glow on the street.
Dozens of local hangouts and icons have recently gone out of business, altering the character of the neighborhood. As I walk up Amsterdam Avenue, the number of shuttered restaurants, bars, dry cleaners and other merchants is frightening.
Time Out, the popular sports bar off 76th, and neighborhood diner Shining Star on 78th are gone. Vietnamese restaurant Monsoon on 81st has been a vacant eyesore for years.
I turn up to Broadway. Sovereign Bank owns the corner of 82nd, Bank of America the corner of 83rd. On 84th, Morris Brothers, a local institution that outfitted neighborhood kids for camp and back-to-school clothing for over 60 years, vanished three years ago. GameStop, a national chain headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, has since taken over the space.
A couple of years ago, a TD Bank started construction on the corner of 86th and Columbus Avenue, directly across the street from a Chase branch. In the dead of night, someone had posted a desperate plea on the wall: Please–this neighborhood does not need another bank! By the next morning the sign was torn down and construction resumed.
That memory runs through my mind as I go up Broadway, past the Wachovia on 85th, the Citibank on the corner of 86th and the Bank of America on 87th.
As I continue my walk, my mind flashes on the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Who has stolen my old friends and replaced them with these soulless pods?
We are all aware of how Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and other “too big to fail” banks took insane gambles with other people’s (our) money, ran their businesses irresponsibly, then were bailed out by the government (us).
Now small businesses that were run responsibly and had their rents jacked up (sometimes doubled) are going to their banks for a loan to try to stay afloat and being uniformly refused–often by the same irresponsible scoundrels we bailed out. Is it me, or is there something grotesquely wrong with this scenario?
On Thursday, I leave town for a few days and return on Sunday to bright, sunny skies. Columbus Avenue is filled with strollers, the Museum of Natural History and Planetarium swarm with visitors and lines of young people spill out the door of Shake Shack on 77th and Columbus.
The neighborhood seems more alive than ever and I think, it will take more than a few obscene rent hikes and avaricious bankers to bring down this vital, thriving neighborhood.
As the light fades, the street crowds thin. On my way home, I again pass the Wachovia on the corner of 85th. A different panhandler calls out “Spare change?” I continue on, but the wiry beggar blocks my path and seizes my arm, his words now more threat than request.
“I said, Spare change?”
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You won’t get any argument from me! What about the Korean deli and the Vietnamese restaurant on 87th and Broadway? That place is now “ready for retail” but it’s been without a tenant for three years!
Fowad, which was a really cheap clothing store on 96th Street and Broadway, has been replaced by Time Warner Cable. It’s still a beautiful, vital city and luckily, the banks have gotten wise and are not putting anymore of their overblown, big box showtunes on the Upper West Side (at least for now.)
I once spoke to Gale Brewer, our city council member, and she told me that they are trying to pass some bills through that will give small business owners some sort of relief so that they can pay their bills.
All I can say is “HA HA” to those greedy landords who threw out the little mom and pop stores by trying to triple their rents and are now begging for clients to fill their empty storefronts. A pox on both their houses!
That is so real. On a recent trip to Paris my landlord told me that every time a corner store goes out of business, a bank takes over. I noticed it on many occasions. Also, panhandling is more subtle in Paris. They stand outside a supermarket with their ball cap on the ground near the entrance. On the Metro, they sing and play music for cash. I must admit, some are quite good. Of course, the gypsies work surreptitiously.
You’ve painted a compelling picture of urban evolution. I share your sorrow over the loss of many neighborhood landmarks, but I don’t think it’s the banks’ or the landlords’ fault. They’re just trying to get the best return on their investment, just like anyone who sells their condo for 2, 3, or 10 times what they paid for it. Let’s face it, in the end, it’s those businesses that serve their customers best and most efficiently that will thrive.
So, yes, maybe it’s sad to see a Game Stop replace a clothing store, but maybe a lot of people would rather buy clothes at a discount place like Kohl’s or Walmart, and a lot of kids are happy to have a game store in the neighborhood. People vote with their dollars and that’s what they voted for.
All this matters little to your panhandler on the corner. The economic downturn has probably effected his income as well, so he’s trying a more aggressive business model.
You sound like a reasonable soul. I recently had the new experience of visiting New York. I agree, the people were friendly and tolerated our double-wide and slow moving butts.
We were everywhere, looking at colleges for my daughter. I have no idea what ‘the B&T crowd’ means. I can’t hazard a guess. (Brooklyn and Tribeca?)
The bank explosion on every corner is not limited to New York. It is happening everywhere. I also noticed your anger at Wall Street. What I don’t understand, and what I have seen little evidence regarding, is why nobody has connected 9/11 suicides to the arrogance of American banking. I have long described the event as ‘flying planes into banks.’ (The Pentagon protects the banks, and Congress/The White House authorizes their arrogance).
Why is there no discussion of why there was an attack, the meaning of the targets, and how New York could come to be hated from the other side of the planet?
These are tough discussions to get started outside of New York, and I realize that it is an open wound for some, but it would strike me that as victims of a traumatic event, people would be more open to asking, ‘What the hell just happened?’ Instead, I see hospitals and businesses closing, an angst of ‘these difficult economic times,’ but no real response.
New York has a long and glorious history. I was very impressed with a lot of what I saw, but there also seems to be an unwillingness to be real. It’s not just the small-minded bigots that certain political candidates attract, but a much deeper cultural detachment. Hate and fear are at least emotions, but they seem rather timid compared to the history of scapegoating. Disinterest is ubiquitous. It isn’t just one girl being murdered on the street while others ignore it, but on a scale of thousands the response is the same.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
“B&T’ refers to the “Bridge and tunnel” crowd–those who come in to “the city” (Manhattan) from the boroughs, Long Island, New Jersey, etc via bridge and tunnel. It is used by some (certainly not all) Manhattanites, grousing about these “loud, vulgar” invaders, and often used in warning, for example, “Make sure you avoid that restaurant on weekends. It’s swarming with B&Ts.”
That being said, most of us are pretty decent. “An unwillingness to be real?” Quite the contrary–we are quite real (see other comments). And yes, a woman was murdered decades ago while those around her ignored it, but that is the exception to the rule. Despite the stereotype and the hard shells, most of us are altruistic and eager to help those in need. I’m far from the only “reasonable soul” in town!