Dive Bar Death Watch

These are bad days for New York's dive bars. City Hall and developers do not see their charms. So they are on their way out. And in December, they've been falling like barflies. Let's count them down, shall we?

• The Rum House. One of the last surviving dives in Times Square, exited in late September.
• Ruby's Bar and Grill. Coney Island legend. Not quite out (it keeps stubbornly opening even though it's supposed to shutter), but definitely down, and probably a goner.
• Mars Bar. The East Village ur-dive. Due to close for two years in 2011 to make way for a highrise. The owner says it will reopen and be bigger than ever. Whether it will be better, or ever the same, is highly in doubt.
• Max Fish. LES mainstay. Victim of a rent hike. Owners says they will relocate. But where, at a reasonable rent, in today's pricey Lower East Side?
• The Stoned Crow. Beloved Village dump, calling it quits on New Year's Eve.
• Hickey's. The latest victim. Dead on 33rd Street after 40 years.

Station Cafe, Holland Bar, Holiday Cocktail Lounge, Subway Inn, Rudy's Bar and Grill and all the rest—watch your back.

Goodbye, LES Youth

I spent my early years in New York on the Lower East Side, specifically Eldridge Street between Houston and Stanton. So the news this week just about stomped my 20s into the ground. Max Fish, the 21-year-old bar on Ludlow Street below Houston announced it would close for good in two months  owing to skyrocketing rent, courtesy of one Mordechai Weiss. Soon after, Max Fish neighbor The Pink Pony also said it was heading for the door.

I wasn't a regular at either, but I did visit on occasion, and both businesses loomed large in my daily life back then. Both owners say they will relocate elsewhere. Don't count on it.

Bad week for the Lower East Side.

Must every landlord wake up one day and decide to double the rent? Where's a wooden stake when you need one?