Ray's Pizzeria and St. Mark's Bookstore, Two New York Icons, to Vanish

Ray's Pizzeria on Prince Street, New York

For native New Yorkers, and those who have lived in the City for double-digit years, witnessing the end of iconic enterprises is tough stuff. A pair of businesses about to wave good-bye, mostly due to insanely high commercial rents, bring this feeling home.

According to The New York Times, the Saint Mark's Bookstore can't swing the $20,000 monthly rent its landlord, Cooper Union, is requiring. The university's rather cool response to the notion that an important independent bookstore might bring more to the community than whatever might replace it is a telling one. Essentially, the school needs money; that consideration trumps intellectual nourishment.

Further downtown, the first of the various Ray's Pizzerias is calling it quits. Its story is a bit more complicated, including celebrity sightings, alleged organized crime links, and the demise of Little Italy. The New York Times covered the story, noting how the transformation of Manhattan South of 96th Street into a sort of Disneyland for zillionaires and tourists has "modified" the City's social and commercial fabric.

Photo by Amy Becker -- All Rights Reserved

In a recent post, I noted this phenomenon's extension into a uniquely New York neighborhood -- Coney Island. The so-called "improvement" of Coney Island is effectively diminishing the area's spicy personality, a process already witnessed during last decade's neutering of Times Square.

The photo shows a view of the Cyclone ride in Coney Island; the fearsome creature is no longer there. While the Cyclone has been kept on life support by New York's Parks Department, the squalid, vivid Casbah atmosphere that was its spiritual home has been homogenized into a much duller amusement park.

Enough said: read the linked stories.