24 April 2007

Holy Suffering Crap! The Brooklyn Inn to Close?


How did I miss the posts on this? The great old Brooklyn Inn, which have been on the corner of Hoyt and Bergen in Brooklyn since dinosaurs roamed the borough, is to close??!!!

It's news like this that makes me fearful that anything could happen in horrid li'l olde New York in today's real estate market under the reign of Mayor "What-Me-Worry-About-The-City's-Cultural-Legacy" Bloomberg. (Big pictures he's great at; small ones, he sucks.) The Old Town Bar to become a Duane Reade. Rao's to convert into a Dunkin' Donuts outlet. The Fraunces Tavern to be ripped down to make way for condos. It could all happen tomorrow, folks! Where developers have a will, they'll find a slimy, loophole-ridden way.

The Brooklyn Inn has been on that corner for a century or more. My 90-year-old landlord told me how he used to drink there. It's famous for having no signage to speak of, a la Chumley's, and for its high tin ceiling and massive wooden bar. It's has literary status, too: Jonathan Lehman made it one of the settings in "Motherless Brooklyn." I can't bear to think it's on the way out. I ask you people: What the fuck is wrong with this city?

1 comment:

Fran said...

Scarey shit, but all the big realestate cares about is money. Greed is, not going to be, it is - the downfall of this country..
All over the country, and out into the entire world. Who cares, as long as deep pockets are being filled, why care about history!!
Yes, scarey shit.!!