New York Observer has a link to this, among other stories:

Vanishing New York.  All the businesses that closed under Michael Bloomberg.

If you look only at this list and add up all the years in business represented, we lost approximately 6,926 years of New York City history in only a dozen years. And we know the real number is much higher than that.

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Pretty sad, eh? A hardware store in business for 100 years!  A bakery in business for 89 years! A restaurant in business for 48 years! A records store in business for 60 years! A hotel in business for 127 years!  A book store 86 years!

…and Shea Stadium destroyed.

That is a lot of history.  Think of all the people that passed through the doors…in their youth, in their adulthood, with their children, grandchildren…seeing familiar faces and catching up with each other’s lives.

Our culture is being destroyed before our eyes–everything that makes us connect with one another.  One of the things I loved about Fort Wayne is that somehow it’s managed to hold onto some of that culture–it’s known as the city of restaurants and churches….for good reason.  They still have many independent restaurants…not McRestaurants.  The downtown is walkable–pleasant—with many independent stores.

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Other stories the Observer posted:  Starchitects and the luxury apartment boom in NY, related to the previous story–

Don’t get me wrong, I love architecture.  I love the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.  But if it comes a the expense of neighborhoods, then, no, I can’t go along with that.

People deserve to have decent housing at rents they can afford.  Small business should be afforded the same.  Something needs to be done so that if a luxury building is built, those around it are not made to suffer by enormous rent increases.