Colleen Kane

Why Not Take All of B?

If you haven’t ventured over to Alphabet City lately (I hadn’t in a while myself), some longstanding neighborhood staples have been disappearing from Avenue B.

Gone are: the terrifying sculpture of faded wet stuffed animals and scrap wood that was the East Village’s own version of the Close Encounters mound, the 30-plus year old eatery Life Cafe (inspiration to and a setting for the play Rent), and as of the end of this month, the Lakeside Lounge (great explanation of why that place mattered here ). The only one of my old haunts left on that strip is 7B, and now that can’t be certain either.  

However, the biggest news to me was the imminent closing of the 16-year-old veggie dive Kate’s Joint, which owed $30 grand in back rent. Although I hadn’t frequented the place in years, it was a major setting of my life in New York.  

Busy as a Brooklyn Bound B

Someone has been working by night in my neighborhood putting up words on what was until recently just an unsightly parking deck.

Today is an anniversary of an infamous day, but I've reached saturation point on that subject (and yet still keep watching the documentaries, and then having to turn the channel away to something cleansing and dopey like It's a Mad, Mad Mad Mad World).

I was reminded today that (almost) everyone alive is fortunate to be here. And when I walk to the subway in the morning, I pass at the building seen in the above right foreground, the NYC Job Center, a line of grim faces and momentarily feel lucky to be going to a job, however much I may not have wanted to deal until then. But a different reason to stop and assess appeared in my morning walk to the subway recently.

Scenes From a Mall

The Fulton Mall has been my neighbor for 10 years (minus My Time Away). I wrote about it in my latest Brooklyn Based column here, please give it a read.

As I mention in the column, this pedestrian mall can be not so aesthetically pleasing, but I felt challenged to hunt for some beauty. Now that its current state is endangered, I finally motivated to take some photos in the morning light, before shops opened.

This historic building (formerly Conway) will be converted to lofts. To the left is where H&M is being built.