Another terrible exultation of hyper-gentrification from the Times. Bravo for giving yet another a voice to rich 'pioneers' and their developer friends who think people were afraid of Canal and are somehow 'reinvigorating' one of the busiest streets in the city. The most New York ending to this story would be all of these places replaced by stores selling food and goods affordable to the majority of New Yorkers.
But that will not happen as long as the real estate lobby maintains its political grip on the city and state (we need rent control), and our media pretends that pricing most of us out of the city is a new and exciting turn of events.
30
And what is "NoMad?" North of Madison? Huh? I can't keep up (and don't want to) with all these ludicrously trendy re-christenings of neighborhoods.
12
This article made me so upset on so many levels it is hard to know where to begin. For now, I will just say that if so many artists are living and working in the area (as the article contends) then why did Pearl Paint, one of the best stores in the city, have to close? And why was there a need for new places people could eat? Aren't the food markets and restaurants in Chinatown a good place to eat? I could go on an on, but I will stop there. Harumph!
31
Interesting to note that there is not one comment here that takes a favorable tone to this article.
It's also worth noting that the original headline of this piece was "Canal Street Cleans up Nice"- more in line with the article's tone, which speaks favorably of Canal Street's gentrification, and by extension, its consequences: long-time denizens and merchants pushed out, and a less diverse and more bland enclave (yet another one!).
Such a disconnect between the Times and its readers makes one wonder just how out of touch the Times is with its readership? I realize that the NYT has never purported to be some sort of populist publication, but wow. This one takes the cake.
29
How nice and elitist of you, NYT. The ONLY way to "clean up" a neighborhood is to bring luxury goods that only a small percentage of the population can afford? How about focusing on why Canal St is a blight? Greedy landlords who have pushed small business out? I am a Chinatown resident and I assure you getting a "high fashion makeover" isn't what we need.
21
I totally agree. As a Manhattan resident for 22 years and Chinatown being my favorite n'hood since it brings me back to my days growing up in HK, I'm sad to see this "cleaning up" and "makeovers" happening. Neighborhoods such as LES, Chinatown and Meatpacking all had special qualities and characteristics. They are gone now due to greedy landlords and annoying 20something year old bros moving in. NYC has changed so much and so many neighborhoods are no longer interesting
15
The thought of changing perfection rattles my bones and pains my soul! What’s gentrification got to do with it! Chinatown is a symbol that should not be tarnished or diminished.
11
Oh, Canal Street. I still have the bootleg Coach-style bags I bought 20 years ago. Most durable pocketbooks I ever bought. The best Thai food I ever had was at a hole in the wall near the A-train exit that was close to 388 Greenwich St.
8
$10k necklace from some newly-established designer? I'll take the $20 Movado for sale just outside. Lot less risk with that purchase.
10
> “I think we’re just beginning to see the neighborhood come alive,” she said.
Ugh. The area was perfectly "alive" before. If anything has been deadening it, it's been skyrocketing rent demands and landlords keeping storefronts vacant while they hold out for tenants willing to pay that high. Landlords should not be able to take tax deductions on lost rent income when they deliberate cause such vacancy.
28
Randy, I agree with you. This article hypes the gentrification but in the meantime it is depressing to walk down that street because of the empty storefronts. Here is what a recent article in CurbedNY said:
"Canal Street is currently one of the city’s worst commercial streetscapes, blighted by empty storefronts and an array of increasingly generic new buildings. Every single block of Canal Street is now undergoing some change to its individual character, be it a new tower rising, a decades-old old business closing down, or an empty shop rotting away. In one four-block stretch between Broadway and West Broadway, there are no less than 31 empty storefronts, some of which have been vacant for at least five years. In another six-block stretch, between Sixth Avenue and West Street, just five street-level businesses exist."
13
It's not unconnected — landlords are holding out for higher rents. Meanwhile, they get a tax write-off for their self-inflicted lack of rent income. See "Change the math that's keeping too many NYC storefronts vacant" in the Daily News at http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/change-math-keeping-nyc-storefronts-v...
7
I remember Canal Street when it was the place you went to for art and industrial supplies. I don't want to see it in its current incarnation.
21
I stayed in Canal Street 35 years ago in a huge warehouse apartment - walkup - the owner left the door unlocked - I enjoyed the view from the iron fire escape balcony with the ladders.
7
This article is so white i got skin cancer
43
Agreed. It was embarrassing for me as a white person.
8
That is the best line ever! Totally!
9
Just what we needed - another part of New York City becoming converted to luxury shopping for wealthy out-of-towners! Canal street was a place to buy hardware, plexiglass, fabrics, various art supplies, and Chinese and other Asian foods - in other words, character. While some of that is still left. I shudder to think what will become of this area now that it's being "upscaled".
This will sound rude, but so be it: What this city needs are designated TFZs - tourism-free zones. Start by charging everyone without a New York ID $ 5 admission to enter such areas- if New York City is becoming more and more like a Zoo, we might as well charge for it.
31
This morning this article's title was "Canal Street Cleans Up Nicely"...
14
Seems to me this story is saying in all sorts of coded language that Canal Street became reputable once it became less Chinese and more white. Shade, anyone? Has anyone really ever been afraid to go down to Canal Street as one interviewee claims? Really? I've been going there since I was a toddler -- that's more than 50 years. Never was I ever afraid, never did I sense I was unsafe. The only change I've seen is gentrification.
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Agreed. Beth Bugdaycay comment that people were afraid....since when?! Canal Street is probably one of the safest streets, it's bustling, so much energy etc. I think it was Beth Bugdaycay who was "afraid." I do not understand some people. Sad to hear and see this happening all over the city.
13
Bye, Bye to yet another great NYC neighborhood. Hello to yet another section of overpriced, banal high end design, culturally vacant, Gringolandia Fantasy New York! Alas.
48
Having lived a blocked removed from canal Street for the past 4 decades, Canal Street was the livliest are for as long as I can remember, filled with real people living and working as normal people do most parts of the world. That NY Times would write “I think we’re just beginning to see the neighborhood come alive,” is offensive to those of us that's lived and enjoyed our real neighborhood, not one catering to the unbable to think on their own, follow the lables psuedo-'creative' minds that sniff out trendy boring and wealth spewing neighborhoods., just as Tribeca and Soho had become. Sadly pop goes another neighborhood of real people ousted replaced by the money and trend followers.......those who really know how to 'live', just as we've witnessed the demise of Tribeca.
63
I preferred the old Canal Street, thank you.
58
Ah Canal Street of my youth - where the phrase 'never give a sucker an even break' might well have been invented and home to the most indifferent Post Office in America - how do I not miss thee.
I always thought NYC could use an actual canal crossing the island though.
3
just awful. more boozhwah profiteering, the last thing anyone needs.
14
So, so upscale. And so, so boring. Just like what happened to Times Square. Nice, safe (in the familiar sense) and dull is killing the New York vibe. Snooze. Soon everything will be beige!
33
Neighborhood people sensed that the real estate business was salivating over Canal St. Then an artist friend at the corner of Wooster and Canal told me her landlord has been trying to get her out for ages. We don't call these moves "revitalizing," a "renaissance," and all that promo stuff. It means we no longer have any normal stores or even art supply stores that cater to our needs. How do the super rich buy their stuff? Is it all discretely delivered to their door without them even shopping? I have lived here for 50 years. The strange thing is you rarely see anyone in the high end stores. I go in just to schmooze with the help, and they seem glad to have someone to talk to. Crazy world.
41
I remember how much I enjoyed shopping at the plastic, rubber, lighting, surplus metal and electronics stores back around 1990, and my dismay at their gradual disappearance. Friends who had been in the city longer than I assured me that Canal was far better in the 70s and 80s.
This comment section will undoubtedly be filled with people bemoaning the latest change. And 25 years from now there will be another article accompanied by comments celebrating the Canal Street of 2018.
11
Yep was better in 70s 80s - was an amazing source as a kid going to Cooper Union. Sad the kids there today have such a horrible, boring, banal, mall-ified NYC.
15
I remember the Canal Street of the 70's and 80's. It was a Mecca for artists to find materials for their work. At the time, I was a commercial still life photographer and I would always find what I needed for my photographic sets at a price I could afford.
There was...plexiglass, surplus metal, rolls of background paper, fabric, W.W.II military stuff, audio equipment, hardware stores, and so much more!
The street was full of interesting people looking for stuff and ideas like me. In artistic endeavors serendipity can be an important factor. Canal Street served this up beautifully and was FUN!
40
How about a follow up article about the people of color being displaced by these developments?
50
Oops ... it would be unusual to hear Mandarin spoken on Canal St., as the predominant language of Chinatown by far is Cantonese.
19
This article is incredibly tone deaf. Chinatown locals are being pushed out by rising rents, and these writers are celebrating the means by which this is happening. I don't need another Luke's Lobster or another place to get a $6 cookie. I'd rather keep Chinatown in Manhattan any day.
77
This is a real change for Canal Street. Before the counterfeit fashions, just after the war, you could buy the Norden Bomb Sight from a display on the street. (The parts were real, not counterfeit.)
3
I remember that! And all the other stores that sold books any thing else you could for any project you needed something for. Lived there for 50 years.
4
I didn’t see any comments from the “gritty” side. The people who work there today.
5
Distressing in so many ways. Another brick in the wall.
22
Half a page before an indication that this refers to the Canal Street in New York City, not one of the many Canal Streets around the rest of the country or world. I understand now why many perceive the NYT to be out-of-touch with middle America; I would imagine that only a small portion of NYT readers are NYC residents.
4
It’s called The New York Times for a reason.
11
That has to be one the most absurd attempts to claim a paper is "out-of-touch" that I have ever seen. Any rational person, who sees an article in the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, etc. that mentions a street name not immediately qualified further, assumes it belongs to the paper's respective city. Anyone offended by such a mention clearly wants to be offended. As it happens, the paper has vastly cut its NYC coverage on the last two decades, reducing it to to less than a third of the coverage back in 2001 ( https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-new-york-times-turns-its-sights-away-f... ) but it has never stopped covering NYC, and it is remarkably silly to expect a New York paper that bears it's city's name in its title to regret assuming its readers are intelligent enough to guess that an article that mentions Brooklyn in the third sentence is referring to New York City. (Should the writer have clarified that she didn't mean hipsters from Brooklyn, Illinois?)
7
Oh gawd. We're at the point where even Chinatown is gentrifying. Depressing. Everything that made Manhattan unique is slowly being made bland. I mean, Chinatown for crying out loud!
28
Interesting. When I walk down Canal I see blocks of empty storefronts because retail stores can't afford rent. This feels like a puff piece for real estate developers.
33
Real people lived and shopped and went to work and created crowds on Canal Street.If you had a destination that took you through or to Canal Street (Pearl Paint, Chinatown, jury duty) it reinforced the sense that this was your city, you the native, not the tourist. This is so distressing. Bye home.
62
Canal Street used to be gritty, but it was also home to an amazing amount of creativity and independence. That has since been traded in for a fairly banal selection of shops that would be equally at home in an upscale suburban shopping mall.
I am not sure anyone should celebrate this change.
65