CBGB

Punk No Longer Chic on Bowery

The former home of pioneering rock club CBGB is to become a boutique for fashion designer John Varvatos come the spring of 2008. The lease deal, reported in today's NY Daily News, means that the chic boutique is coming to a formerly seedy area that recently has added a hotel, a bank, a Starbucks and a Whole Foods.

While many might turn their noses up at this as the gentrification and homogenization of a neighborhood traditionally known as rough n'ready and therefore, perhaps, exciting, others might say that the advent of this boutique is a move towards striking the right balance between chain stores and small retail in a transitional neighborhood. But what do you think? Should the former home of CBGB become a boutique? If not, what should it be?

MAS participated in the 2004-05 campaign to save CBGB. read more...