locally-owned

Can Being Undersuccessful Be Good for A Neighborhood?

Time Out New York recently ran an article evaluating Manhattan neighborhoods on their livability based on factors like rental costs and the absence or presence of chain stores, titled Top 10 'Hoods. This put them out ahead of the field, but this week, following on from last Wednesday's MAS program Is New York Losing Its Soul?, at which issues of neighborhood identity, rental prices and the survival of small business featured prominently, many of the rest of the city media are now asking that question, though in different ways.

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Sell-Out Crowd Considers Whether City Is Losing Its Soul

A panel moderated by Clyde Haberman of the New York Times including Alison Tocci of Time Out New York, Darren Walker of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rocco Landesman of Jujamcyn Theaters and novelist Tama Janowitz tackled the multi-faceted issue of whether, in light of all the current development, the city is losing its soul. Addressing the question from very different perspectives the panelists agreed that the city has changed and is continuing to do so, but were divided over whether this was a good or a bad thing. read more...

Can Legislation Protect Neighborhood Character?

The Municipal Art Society of New York recently testified before the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Technology urging them to carry out a study into the disappearance of small, locally-owned retail in many Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods. Citing these small businesses, like bodegas, ethnic food stores, boutiques, and hardware stores, as some of what gives a neighborhood its character, the MAS compared their replacement with banks, drugstores and national chain stores as a wake-up call akin to the destruction of the original Penn Station which signaled that a Landmarks Preservation Commission was necessary. read more...