The Decline of Manhattan: Wherein Gas Stations Make Us Sad
The Sun notes something today that's been troubling us lately, too:
Just months after the City Council paved the way for big residential projects in Chelsea, gas stations are quickly disappearing as developers seek large plots to capitalize on the housing boom.
OK, it's not the disappearance of gas stations that bothers us, per se. (As long as the cabbies know where to find it, we're good.) But it's the general, wanton, Curbed-y condo-ification of Manhattan that's really starting to get to us. Isn't part of the whole point of living here that there's a bodega on the corner where you can get a quart of milk and a ham-and-egg sandwich at 3 in the morning? Seven different dry cleaners to chose from within a few blocks? A quick subway ride to mini-storage warehouses and parking lots-cum-sprawling flea markets? And, yeah, a place to buy gas? Granted we might be feeling overly morose and nostalgic this morning — first thing we read on Romenesko was that one of our very favorite college professors had died — but, still, doesn't anyone worry that very soon, while there'll be more spaces for people to live here, it'll become deeply unpleasant to actually, you know, live here?
Guess not, so long as there are new condos. Shiny!
Gasoline Stations Are Disappearing From Manhattan Landscape [NYSun]