NYC: Out with the Old

Frank Sinatra once sang of New York, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”

If Ol’ Blue Eyes were around today, he very well may be packing his bags and heading out of New York City. It’s what most landmarks seem to be doing.

The latest landmark to go: The iconic Carnegie Deli, with its towers of pastrami, could be demolished for good. The New York Post summed it up best: “With its walls plastered with pictures of presidents, athletes and movie stars and its gargantuan sandwiches named after luminaries, the landmark restaurant — arguably the most famous deli in the country — has long held out the tantalizing prospect of vicarious celebrity to all who ate there.”

But no more. And the deli’s imminent demise follows a long line of landmarks disappearing from the urban landscape, taking some of the character of Manhattan with them.

The loss of Carnegie Deli appears to be a clear case of mismanagement on the part of its ownership. From a tedious divorce settlement resulting from infidelity, to an employee lawsuit costing over $2.5 million, to illegally diverting gas lines to save on their utility bills, the owners have run the nearly 80-year-old icon into the ground by their own failed strategies and character flaws.

To say that such egregious mismanagement has cast a dark shadow on the Deli’s legacy would be an understatement.

“I don’t think the nostalgia factor is there as much as it once was, between the cheating husband, the immensely dangerous and illegal gas hookup, and the underpaid workers,” New York City resident Jacqui Collins told LifeZette.

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Yet, setting aside the self-inflicted wounds in this case, there seems a broader cultural trend at play. A number of famous landmarks have shut down in New York City, many having been priced out of the evolving and expensive city.

While the owners of Carnegie Deli may have lacked integrity in their approach to business, undoubtedly the pressure of rising costs in the city contributed to poor decision-making — and ultimately, the landmark’s demise.

CBGB, the city’s “original punk rock club” founded in 1973, saw bands such as the Ramones, Blondie, Misfits, Green Day and more come through its doors. It shut down in 2006 after the landlord raised the rent. It is now a high-end clothing store. Hogs and Heifers, the famed honky tonk dive bar in the city’s meatpacking district, closed its doors in August after 23 years in business. It saw its rent jump from $14,000 a month to $60,000 a month when the building was sold.

Even large-scale icons are disappearing. The famed FAO Schwarz store on Fifth Avenue, popularized in the Tom Hanks film “Big,” was closed by parent company Toys R Us due to rising rent costs. Toys R Us subsequently turned around and closed its famous Times Square location for the same reason. Slowly but surely, the many landmarks that draw people to New York City are being priced out of existence.

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What makes the trend particularly concerning is that most New Yorkers either don’t notice or don’t care. While local tabloids are reporting these incidents, there are few, if any, online petitions or community activists drawing attention to the enormous cultural void taking place.

It’s important to understand why.

First, the change reflects the shifting tastes of a new generation of New Yorkers. Dive bars and loud music are out. Rooftop bars and noise-canceling headphones are in. Why go out anyway when you can talk to your friends online and send Snapchats to keep up with each other? Why brave the city streets to pick up toys at an elevated cost when you can have Amazon ship it to you in a day?

From SoHo to the Upper West Side, cultural landmarks that have been passed down through several generations are now being taken for granted. Many people see them as tourist spots, but tourism is also struggling during the recession. At a time when cultural experiences are less affordable (and possibly less important), it’s no surprise cultural landmarks aren’t as cherished as they once were.

We are living in a strange new era, one in which Sinatra himself may not have been a huge star.

An unfortunate set of circumstances has led to the loss of these iconic landmarks, and it’s a shame that future generations won’t be able to share the experiences that shaped the cultural center of the world. But with rising costs, changing tastes, and New Yorker apathy, it looks to be a foregone conclusion.