"art" & real estate
I heard this maybe a week or two ago but didn't mention it because... well, I thought why ruin the nice summer, and what I heard was 2nd-hand and vague anyway. But it's apparently real estate, which is what just about everything in NYC is about anyway, so that part is surely true. It seems Stevenson's building was bought (I always figured with his name across the facade he already owned it, silly me-- but when he moved there from his first NYC gallery -- the location of which I don't recall -- Chelsea wasn't yet ***CHELSEA***, anyway) and the new owner wanted much too much more rent (which he probably needed because of the humongous price he paid) so Stevenson decided to close the gallery and -- what I heard, was go back to Santa Fe (if that's where he'd been, tho I'm not exactly sure where that is-- New Mexico?), but of course that wasn't cast in concrete either. Meanwhile, what's really depressing us is the makeover of our neighborhood -- increasingly rapid loss of local amenities and services -- this week our last remaining Chinese takeout, and it was great -- as upscale shopping for tourists and chains recognized by tourists (last I heard was an Applebee, whatever that is) take their place, and at any given moment troops of tourists up and down the block, perfectly nice, even lovely people, but.... it's like living in Disney World. Still, they none of them are walking two or three dogs that piss on my front stoop, like the locals do. That keeps getting worse... Some of the neighbors used to have a dog, now nearly all of them have THREE DOGS. But with the dollar so low, I suppose the tourists are a boon to the galleries--- prices in dollars are bargains. We hear that folks who've vacationed in Europe this summer suffered serious sticker shock.... which is another reason we get so many Europeans. NYC is a bargain ! Judy
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