Varvatos vs Bleeker
A few weeks back, Ben Gold enlightened us of the controversy surrounding the new John Varvatos boutique, which recently opened up on Bowery and Bleeker in the old CBGBs space. Comments on the story ranged from the pro-Varvatos (the designer is keeping the spirit of the old punk sanctuary somewhat alive), to the anti-Varvatos (the designer is riding on CBGBs fame, and is bringing the wrong crowd to the area).
Rebecca Moore, one of the lead protesters against the new Varvatos store, took the time to leave a lengthy comment on Ben's post, which I've reposted below. I respect her argument, but disagree with her resistance to a changing community. I'm curious as to other people's thoughts. Here's what Moore had to say:
We have been making noise about the frat boy and increasingly upscale and tourist-type bars taking over... do you read the Villager, the neighborhood newspaper? You will see many articles on the work I have done if you search their site... we have thrown town halls for the LES that hundreds of people came out to, on these issues (in that particular issue, it is the SLA's devastating effect on the neighborhood by ignoring its own rules and laws in poorer neighborhoods.) Spent years educating myself on this stuff, taking part in efforts to save everything from here to coney - - doing community work, so please don't criticize the efforts of someone who's work you do not know. And I see it actually is all clearly connected.
Those frat boys (the more upscale ones) coming down here on saturday nights are the very ones who will invest in a $2500 jacket at Varvatos ($1600 USED jackets, too) in order to complete their costume party hang on the Lower East Side.
I am surprised you can't see how the varvatos store is part and parcel to this - - and while the cb's space was "saved" from becoming a bank, you'll note that - thanks to Varvatos breaking ground as the FIRST luxury retailer on the Bowery - - a chase bank opened next door. Yes, he is part of history. He is the first, and we protesters felt that historic occasion was worth observing.
Excuse me, but what "integrity" are we talking about when a persons business plan is to sell $1600 used jackets? And you are saying I am the one with weird priorities? Hmmm. At least a Starbucks is a Starbucks, and a Chase bank is a Chase bank, though. What gets us hopping mad is major corporate entities (Varvatos is connected to Louis-Vuitton) associating themselves with the icons of anti-establishment to do something very pro-establishment, pro-elitist.
For crying out loud, even a used - USED - cheap trick t-shirt sells for $250 there. The walls saved? WOw! I am so grateful!!! (not.) I want more than just museum-clothing stores for my friends kids when they grow up - I want active music spaces where they can make the future's legendary music just like previous generations had in NYC.
CB's will live on no matter what in history - but we were not actually there specifically about cb's. we are a musicians advocacy group. We were there because the community lost something that was accessible to the public, to the neighborhood - -another music space - - and got something (clothes and sporadic showcase concerts) that are going to be only available to the select few.
Mr. Varvatos did not open a music space. He claims he doesn't need to profit off that store -but then why not open a full-time music space if that is true? It is all a part of the smokescreen that helps him line-up people to cheer him on, while the city fills up more and more with stores that sell luxury goods and runs out small entities. Unlike you, I do not feel at all "grateful" that someone like Varvatos opened his luxury store here. I just feel he is the usual corporate entity in a cooler outfit with a good record collection; a cunning businessman. I have not met one person in the neighborhood that can afford his clothes. I am very worried and cautious about a world now where thriftstore clothes go up in price like this - what are the poor supposed to wear? Oh, I forgot - the "uncool stuff." It is absurd.
Well, no matter what, the wealthy who take over the Bowery will have their share of glowing blue banks to look out on - - i wish them well in the happy disneyland bowery for rich people environment they are creating
Comments
I mostly agree with Moore. But it should be made clear that CBGB's was not, in the end, the haven it used to be. In fact, it was probably frequented by the same pubescent, New Jersey-living versions of the people who grew up, got MBAs, and are now throwing down a couple thou for Varvatos-approved memorabilia. Personally, I think the city should have intervened, landmarked CB's, *really* preserved the place as it was, and turned it into a museum of New York punk rock. As a venue, it just wasn't relevant anymore. But what Moore is right about is that someone needs to fight against the so-called progress that transforms an art scene into a high-rent shopping mall. It's depressing that, as music fans, we would give up one of the city's most important, historic landmarks without a fight.
thx, Judy. Good points. I guess my own perception is that people still came from all over the world to go to cb's, bands pilgrimaged from across the country and world to play there... maybe people don't perceive it being relevant because of the mostly young kids who hung there while older artists had up and moved on... but those kids deserve to have a place to head to for history and inspiration other than a clothing store environment. From my standpoint, it takes years and years for a new music movement to foment, and in the meantime, there just have to be rooms where young people, artists good, bad and otherwise, can get a gig. That is the environment where a musical revolution can happen, something new can get thru the door that doesn't have the "built in audience" all the nyc bookers ask you if you have, now. Cb's was still that kind of a room (especially I will say the gallery had a very egalitarian booking policy) or at least one of the few places left even approaching that environment. I don't think a lot of the music-going public realizes how things have clamped down, and how our whole live music environment is becoming as curated as a clear channel radio station. www.Takeittothebridge.com has done actions to show how skyrocketing rents have fostered this phenomena, to force discussion. I will say to Mike thanks for the dialogue - I have to differ on one comment you made: I don't see any new "community" moving in. A community as defined is a group of people who depend on each other in some symbiotic way. What NYC is becoming more and more is something more transient and privatized; wealthy people who have other homes and only reside here occasionally; tourists, students, or people here for otherwise brief amounts of time with work (staying in corporate apartments and the like). The rents are too prohibitive for most people to move here. They tell us the luxury condos are all sold but the buildings look empty, don't they. Anything defined as community is being pushed out, and that is my concern. When you don't have roots in a neighborhood or a city, you are not taking part in a community; you don't care about it long term. And communities are what made NYC so completely and amazingly unique. This is part of the awareness we hope to keep raising so that people connect skyrocketing rents with loss of culture, loss of authenticity (and with those two things comes loss of free speech down the road), loss of community and loss of diversity. I am of course not against change; but I think we can define what is positive change, not what just benefits a few; and I think a city can be more compassionate to the poor who are still trying to live there. Thanks.