Landmarking Historic Businesses

Subject: Landmarking Historic Businesses
Date: 12/13/2005 4:59:10 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
From: kitchen@hellskitchen.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)

Publication: The New York Sun;
Date: Dec 13, 2005; Section: Editorial & Opinion; Page: 7

Landmarking Historic Businesses
JOHN P. AVLON

What do the Sky Club, CBGB�s, and Billy�s 1870 have in common?
All three iconic New York destinations have faced extinction during our
city�s recent economic boom.

Some people believe that business closings are inevitable functions of
the always-wise market. But even in a city defined by commercial ventures
and constant change, some businesses carry unquantifiable value that adds
to the character of New York. Some classic restaurants become important
destinations for tourists and residents who want to commune with the best
of the past by visiting the places they have read about in novels or seen
on film.

The Sky Club offered food, drinks, and great views of New York City
from more than 50 floors above Park Avenue. It embodied a certain mid-20th
Century Manhattan man-in-grey-flannel suit club-iness, but it will close
its doors for good on December 22nd, after 43 years in business. In the
future, you'll have to visit an office in the Met Life building to enjoy
those views � drinks and dinner will presumably not be offered.

CBGB�s on the Lower East Side is known internationally as the
birthplace of punk rock. Bands that began here have sold millions. Its
tshirts can be seen around the world. My college band even played there �
proving they would let anyone take the stage. But in the process the club
also produced bands like The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith,
and influenced literally thousands of others, from the Clash to U2. But a
rent dispute with a new landlord � the Bowery Residents� Committee,
ironically a nonprofit group that serves homeless people � threatened to
make this worldrenowned concert venue homeless itself. A court recently
gave CBGB�s a stay of execution until Halloween of next year, but the
fundamental conflict remains unresolved.

It appears to be too late, however, for patrons of the much-loved
135-year 1st Avenue institution Billy�s. A bar begun by the Irish immigrant
great-grandfather of owner Joan Borkowski, it was one of the oldest
family-owned restaurants in New York City. Its original gaslights and
African Mohagony bar served a never-ending list of legendary New Yorkers
including Diamond Jim Brady, Helen Hayes, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe,
Gloria Vanderbilt, Walter Cronkite, Jackie Kennedy, William F. Buckley,
I.M. Pei, and a pre-mayoral Michael Bloomberg. On its 125th anniversary in
1995, Senator Moynihan had the history of Billy�s read into the
Congressional Record. Now it is boarded up and empty, with apologetic signs
to long-time customers and passers-by.

I went by Billy�s a week ago and spoke to a heart-broken Joan as
workers dismantled the legendary 1880 wooden bar behind her with crowbars.
�Everybody I meet on the street is just so devastated,� she said. �They
come up to me and say �It�s like the neighborhood has just died.The
neighborhood will never be the same. The city will never be the same.��
�Billy�s managed to survive stock market crashes and prohibition,� she
said, �but today anybody who�s in the middle class or even the upper middle
class are struggling to survive in the city�The landlords are getting
tremendously greedy and the mom and pop businesses are just disappearing.

I�m the fourth generation. My daughter is the fifth. I lost it. And it�s
the Blockbuster�s that are coming in.�

These businesses could no longer compete in the rising tide of New
York�s real estate market. Landlords could get better tenants � but as many
New York City neighborhood residents know, the better tenants are too often
chain stores such as Starbucks, Dunkin� Donuts, and Northfork Bank.These
businesses may be more profitable and predictable for the landlords, but
their proliferation does not add to the unique character of a neighborhood
as nearly much as longstanding neighborhood landmarks.

And so perhaps it is time to consider a new sort of landmark status.
Not just for architectural merit, but one for preserving certain historic
businesses that have achieved a kind of cultural landmark status themselves.

I�m not suggesting a government imposition on landlords which would
paralyze their investments and require them to perpetually subsidize
unprofitable businesses, but instead the creation of a new local
tax-incentive that would make it easier to keep classic businesses in place.
Currently the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is
forbidden from land-marking �use.� The case of Brooklyn�s Gage & Tollner
indicates the limits of this logic.The seafood and steakhouse opened in
1879 on Fulton Street in Brooklyn, and merited both an entry in the
Encyclopedia of New York City and landmark status of both its interior and
exterior. Gage & Tollner survived the bad old days of decaying Brooklyn in
the 1970s and 80s, changed ownership, but its waiters continued to light
its gas-lamps at dinner until 2004, when it closed its historic doors to be
replaced by a TGI Friday�s chain restaurant and bar, which can also be
enjoyed in places such as the Pittsburgh airport. This move may make short
term economic sense for the landlord, but it�s a bad trade for the
neighborhood and the city as a whole.

New York City�s success as a destination depends in part on the
diversity of its offerings, the uniqueness of the stores and restaurants
that can be found here. When the businesses that help define us are
replaced by a business that could exist in any mall in America, it is time
for a new piece of local legislation or administrative action to address
this downside to our city�s economic success. A new reducedtax status might
provide a market-palatable solution � the landlord should not be penalized
for having the privilege of a landmark business in their building, but it
should be easier to keep such businesses in place. It may be an innovative
approach, but it can help preserve our city�s cultural heritage � and
that�s priceless.

jpavlon@nysun.com