New York City's still got it and always will (until we're buried by the Atlantic Ocean in a couple of decades), but this town's insatiable dynamism has a way of obliterating many of the places we love and sentimentally we cherish, inexorably shuffling our favorite unique things into the gutter of oblivion, more and more each year. It was always thus. Your favorite dive bar is probably long gone, that movie theater you saw the original Star Wars at is now a Chase Bank, you're paying to get onto the subway in a completely different way, you probably can't afford your neighborhood anymore, or the next neighborhood over. We've compiled the below list of things that are now extinct or impossible to do in NYC in 2016, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. Enjoy? And see you at the Urban Outfitters mall on North 6th later, we're taking an Uber.
Things We Will Never Do In NYC Again
- See a movie at the glorious Ziegfeld Theater movie palace
- Use a token to get into the subway system
- Suck tokens out of turnstiles with your mouth
- Take the 9 train
- Watch a deal go down in Needle Park
- See the inside, or the outside, or anything nearly as beautiful as Pennsylvania Station
- Get issued a 917 phone number
- Walk by the CBGB awning on the Bowery
- Dance at Studio 54 until 6 a.m. next to Andy Warhol and Liza Minnelli
- Check your Hotmail at the Burger King on Broadway
- Go to Tower Records for an in-store performance, or anything else
- Sneak on to the High Line and roam it in solitude
...like you could in 2002. (LO5 ICF)
- Step inside a curbside phone booth
- Heckle the original Silver Man of Times Square
- Take a car on the Staten Island Ferry
- Marvel at the East Village Toy Tower
- Watch Savion Glover tapdance exultantly after a night of mind-blowing jazz at St. Nick's in Harlem
- Be given the middle finger by David Bowie :(
- Drink in a tavern built on top of the frozen Hudson River (it happened!)
- Press a button at the Horn & Hardart Automat to get a "frizzled beef"
(Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York)
- See Radiohead rock Roseland
- See Law & Order filming (or be an extra)
- Attend a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman
- Watch the Mets lose at Shea Stadium
- Play the piano from Big inside the iconic F.A.O. Schwarz
- Browse through books at Brazenhead
- Sneak into the magnificent old Revere sugar refinery in Red Hook
- Buy some beautiful junk at Billy's on Houston Street
(Photo by Wally G)
- Get a to-go margarita from El Sombrero
- Drink beer out of a dirty pint glass at Motor City Bar
- Chill on the vintage velvet couches of Lolita bar
- Go to Pink Pony for brunch
- See Apes & Androids at Sin-é, or anywhere
- Play foosball and see a band at Luna Lounge on Ludlow
- Go to Laser Floyd at the AMNH
- Check out some mellow live bands at the Living Room
- Go to the Urban Outfitters on 72nd and Broadway
- Drink under bras at Hogs & Heifers
- Drink anything at Mars Bar
(Photos via Bitchcakes, jimandkarlamurray, ixtayul, and EV Grieve)
- Slurp a warm bowl of soup at Cafe Edison
- See a show at Cameo Gallery, or Big Terrific at Cameo Gallery
- Pound a PBR at Trash Bar
- Hoover up filthy cocaine at Kokie's.
- Smoke cigarettes and commit misdemeanors in the basement of Lit Lounge
- Play drunken dodgeball at the McCarren Park Pool Parties
- Go to any of the Pool Parties
- Expand your mind with free jazz at Tonic
- Lose at tic-tac-toe to a Chinatown chicken
- Order Lover In The Stars at Hunan Balcony
- Purchase a 1 day unlimited MetroCard
(Photo by Sam Horine/Gothamist)
- Go to Lenox Lounge
- Check out some newsreel footage in Grand Central's theater
- Get stoned inside the tree sculpture at the original Rubulad
- Sit in the jump-seat of a cab
- Take refuge in Florent
- Catch They Might Be Giants on the Joe Franklin Show.
- Take over an abandoned tenement in the East Village
- Wear a colorful Met Museum tag
- Get neon sleazy in Times Square
- Shoot the Freak
- See Bruce Springsteen at the Palladium
- Pick up art supplies at Pearl Paint on Canal
Photo via bitchcakes
Whatever, New York City recreates itself anew every day we are lucky enough to live here. Nostalgia = Death!
