Bad to Worse

Just a few tiding of encroaching lousiness to pass on.

Gotham Book Mart now has a "for sale" sign on the front. Doesn't look like there will be a savior this time around, certainly not by the owner's fair-weather billionaire friends who so generously decided to RENT his a building rather than BUY him one.

The old Second Avenue Deli space will become another Chase Bank branch. Aren't there enough Duane Reades around to satisfy every Chase customer in town?

And some greedhead grandchildren in Carroll Gardens are kicking out the 94-year-old man who lives in a Woodhull Street building they own. The story's on the front page of Brooklyn Papers. Gramps was best friends with the grandfather of the young landlords. He's lived there 50 years or so. But Grampa Landlord died. So, sorry old man! Your $500 monthly rent just ain't pleasing the progeny's pocketbooks.

I know this scenario. I lived through it. Believe me, the children of the Carroll Gardens old-timers are heartless wonders. We lived on Carroll Street renting from a nice old longshoreman named Joe. Lived there seven years. Joe was nice to us and we were nice to Joe, and he never asked for a rent hike. When my wife was eight months pregnant, Joe died. Couple weeks later, we were asked to get out by his granddaughter. The pregancy didn't seem to make much of an impression on her.

Oh, and here's the delicious catch: granddaughter was pregnant at the time!