The New York Times: “How Bleecker went from quintessential Greenwich Village street, with shops like Condomania and Rebel Rebel Records, to a destination for Black Card-wielding 1-percenters, to its current iteration as a luxury blightscape is a classic New York story. It involves a visionary businessman, a hit HBO show, an Afghan immigrant, a star architect, European tourists, aggressive landlords and, above all, the relentless commercial churn of Manhattan.”
“In 1996, Magnolia Bakery opened at 401 Bleecker … It was just another local business, like the bodega operated by Turks or the Greek diner Manatus. But on July 9, 2000, Magnolia was featured on ‘Sex and the City’ … The 30 seconds of Carrie Bradshaw and her friend Miranda eating cupcakes outside the bakery were all it took to turn the street … The Magnolia crowd in part convinced Robert Duffy, then the president and vice chairman of Marc Jacobs, that the company should open a store nearby … the arrival of the first Marc Jacobs store, with its trendsetting clothes and clientele of fashion editors and celebrities like Sofia Coppola, was the tipping point.”
“And then? Blowback. While quirky independent stores couldn’t afford the new Bleecker, it became apparent over time that neither could the corporate brands that had remade the street. An open secret among retailers had it that Bleecker Street was a fancy Potemkin village, empty of customers. Celebrities shopped there because they wouldn’t be bothered … The original Marc Jacobs store on Bleecker that started the boom” is now empty, “its windows blacked out … Marjorie Reitman, who has lived in the Village for 43 years …has an idea for that space and the other empty stores that dot Bleecker Street like missing teeth in a very expensive mouth.” Her thought: “They should all be pot shops. Seriously. I’m not kidding. I can’t imagine what else could go in and pay the rent.”
