Ever tried to get a seat in Starbucks on Eighth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets around noon during the work week? It’s almost impossible trying to compete with PS 11’s tween crowd out on their lunch break. The girls stroll in with pizza, Chinese food or other food items that are not on Starbucks’ menu. A few might get a coffee beverage but most just get water. Every now and then one girl might buy a pastry and take it back to her table where her friends haggle over who gets a bite. “It is quite a cafeteria scene,” said a female customer ordering a non-fat latte.
The baristas rush to serve their guests unfazed by the cloister of young girls. One staff member on his break even went over and sat for a chat with the girls before having to give up his seat to new arrivals, late in joining their friends.
But as soon as they were done with their meals they dispersed, just a suddenly as they had appeared as if they had never been.
The posting of posters in Chelsea is prolific and unattractive. Posters can be found on the temporary walls around every construction site in the neighborhood, even though there are signs that read, “Post No Bills.” The content on some of the posters contains subjects that should be censored from young children. However there seems to be no stopping these overnight vandals. Since according to Section 145.30 of the New York penal code the law prohibits affixing advertisements to someone else’s property.
Strolling down 22nd Street pushing a stroller with my charge, I strike up a conversation with an accompanying mom of two. The subject is the number of stores closing in the community. “Are you aware that the hardware store on the corner of Ninth Avenue and 23rd Street will be closing in 3 months?” she asks. It was my turn to be shocked. The news that Dan’s Chelsea Guitar, an icon of Chelsea might be closing up shop and moving by the end of summer had barely been digested, and then this. Where is the neighborhood going?
“Whoever came up with this idea?” asked Danny, the owner of Dan’s Chelsea Guitar. “Do they think Europeans fly here all the way from Europe to see shopping malls! What are they going to do? Buy a Jamba!” He continued in his scorn against the commercializing of the community. Chelsea is fast losing all its originality and with the asking prices for rent, only high-end merchandise stores might be moving in.
Chain and Mom and Pop stores, alike, are unable to withstand the exorbitant rent increases in Chelsea. Recently two more stores have joined the ranks of the departed. Ben and Jerry’s, the ice cream chain on 23rd Street between Seventh and Eight Avenues, seemed under renovations over the past few weeks, but on investigating the site, it proved to be closed. Neighbor, Royal Choice French Dry Cleaners at 320 W23rd Street, between Eight and Ninth Avenues is also closing its doors on Friday of this week.
“I have used them for 5 years,” said Mary S., 43, a mother of two, who has a busy schedule and depends on the dry cleaners reliability and close proximity to her home. With the store closing down due to a rent increase of five to seven thousand dollars, the owner, who got a lease extension last year, has no other choice but to close up shop.
“There is a place across the street from him,” said Mary S., “but they look so crowded.” She, like others in the community, is struggling to find substitutions for the stores they have loved and trusted.
Living and working in Chelsea over the past 6 years has made clear that nothing is permanent. With so many luxury apartments being constructed and the neighborhood property values increasing, it is no wonder so many businesses are closing out and families moving to the other side of the river to Brooklyn.
The most recent business to go is the Clearview West Theater, which has been in operation for 11 years. The theater which sports twin auditoriums and is known in the neighborhood mainly for its big movie premiers, showcasing celebrities such as Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg, has had poor attendance in recent years.
So it’s not that great a surprise that it is closing and that so few people are aware that it is no longer in operation. “It’s closed!” exclaimed a front desk staff member at New York City Sports Club, located on Eight Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets, on Friday when asked if he knew of the closing. An usher at Clearview Theater to the East of Eight Avenue on 23rd Street, confirmed the closing, however he was unclear as to what would be replacing the theater, “Possibly a parking lot,” he suggested, which is greatly needed around here.
However, through further investigation it has been uncovered that the School of Visual Arts will be using the venue as a showcase and laboratory for the arts produced by the school in film and moving image. It won’t be a commercially operated theater anymore, but will boast a full calender of special events.
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