Love is Lost

Sadly, the most famous store in the east village is a thing of the past. "Love Saves the Day" has graced first avenue for as long as I can remember.

And now it's gone.

I haven't been to the Village in awhile and yesterday I hit on this unfortunate event.
It's not the economy that done this it's the greed. In fact the east village looks more like chain store amusement park then a mecca of the new, the unique the unusual the what you can't find anywhere else in the world.

The other closing that broke my heart was the famous restaurant Dojo's. Dojo's introduced me to the idea that a soy burger was a good things. Dojo's fed the artists of the Village with vegetarian recipes that could be found nowhere else. What replaced it was a chain fried chicken joint and a yogurt bar. Wow.. what an upgrade. The landlords got their rent and the Village lost big.
These new chains are places mean that you don't need bother to make pilgrimage to the Village. You can find them in any major and minor city in the world.

Now that the Village is beginning to look like anywhere else it will loose it's mystique, it flavour and it's draw. We have to value in NYC what is unique, and what makes us different from anywhere else. If we don't start to preserve these places we will loose our identity. Once they're gone we can't bring them back.