May 1, 2006
Kim's Video on Bleecker Replaced By...
Jeez-- just what the Village needs-- another Duane Reade! Kim's Video used to live in the basement of this building on the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia-- it was a dank, fetid, dark little hole, but it was the only place within ten blocks where you could rent a video or DVD, and the clerks knew what they were talking about. The facade of the building was decorated with strange plexiglass sculptures-- it's too bad that we can't find a picture of them online.
It's not that Duane Reade is bad-- but there's a Rite Aid on the next corner, and a drugstore literally on the same block. There's also two other Duane Reade's about two blocks away on Broadway. At this rate, ten years from now every storefront below 14th Street will be occupied by big box drug stores, and you'll have to go to Williamsburg to buy a bagel or get a movie. Awesome!
Theodore Grunewald wrote in with a little more info on the building's history-- very interesting stuff:
This Gothamist post on the Bleecker St. Duane Reed --now housed in what used to be Kim’s Video made me a little nostalgic, and reminded me that this building --like an onion, --has a lot of layers that have different associations to multiple generations of New Yorkers.Pre-Kim's --as the Bleecker St. Cinema, --it’s where I and a good many New Yorkers experienced our adolescent introduction to “art films” --just as Woody Allen’s character introduced them to his niece in his 1998 film "Crimes and Misdemeanors".
Here are some pictures of the old Bleecker St. Cinema from those days:
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~molouns/amst450/village/bleecker.htmlIn jazz age New York, this was where the starving architect Raymond Hood lived (and struggled) while designing his winning entry in the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition that would make him world famous. In exchange for cheap rent and spaghetti dinners, he re-designed this building for his landlord, restaurateur Placido Mori.
Hood would later go on to design the American Standard, a.k.a. Radiator Building on 40th St. overlooking Bryant Park...
...and the 42nd St. Mc-Graw Hill and Daily News towers, together with Rockefeller Center --before dying prematurely at the age of 53.
The most brain-peelingly interesting layer of this building's hidden history though, is the mysterious Spanish Civil War era, anti-war frescos painted on the walls of the building’s interior by Spanish artist Luis Quintanilla in the 1940’s and hidden behind false walls. They were discovered by art historian Dr. Francis V. O'Connor, and were written up by the architectural historian and sleuth extraordinaire, Christopher Gray in his excellent, 1990 NYT article.
Fascinating.
I wonder if the frescos are still there, disguised beyond all recognition behind their thick pancake makeup of fluorescent light and sheetrock.
I guess Duane Reed felt that the only "values" that New Yorkers want are in cosmetics –-not our hidden Greenwich Village history, or the cool work of a great, though forgotten Spanish wall muralist.
Sad.
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That is truly depressing. That old Kim's was a great place to loiter. Seeing what was once those old black crumbly columns painted "franchise grey" brings a tear to my eye.
As was said on the Sopranos last night, what's become of the neighborhood?
eez-- just what the Village needs-- another Duane Reade! Kim's Video used to live in the basement of this building on the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia-
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And before that, the building housed the Bleecker Street Cinema!
Worse than Duane Reades are banks. They crop up almost just as much.
Are the only Kim's on St. Marks and the West Village location (forgot the street)?
There's a Kim's on Broadway around 114th Street.
Don't worry, that independently-owned mom-and-pop drug store on the block will be gone soon enough.
The West Village Kim's (Bleecker and 10th, I think) has been gone for many years now, though interestingly enough, nothing has gone into that space and last I looked the sign was still there.
This is sad. Both Kim's locations were great places to hang out. And you're right, the folks there knew their stuff.
As they said on the Sopranos last night... it's over for the little guy. Drug stores, banks, Starbucks... the only places that can afford the rents. Sad, just sad.
The Kim's Video that used to be on Bleeker and 10th moved to Christopher Street, about 3 doors in between Bleeker and 7th. It's small, but it's there.
There is a place to rent videos just up the street. Evergreen Video on Carmine (cross six and take first left) Pretty good place, very mom and pop
Actually, it's a CVS, not a Rite-Aid on the next block. Not that it really matters--either way, the last thing that block needed was another drugstore. And it's not even 24 hours, at that.
Kim's video sucked. They always threw me out when I asked for "big black titfuckers 3". Geez, they sell porn there but don't know jack about it. Also the porn was all the way in the back and usually had cumstains on the cassettes. NASTY. Also the workers there were pretentious jerkwads who could only self flagellate to Fellini, Godard, and the Coen brothers. When I asked for a copy of Police Academy 5 - the one without steve guttenburg they were dumbfounded. they were like "how do you spell police?" let me check it out. And who the hell is Kim?
I'd rather see a Duane Reade than a Starbucks. Duane Reade originated here in New York in 1960, and is only located in the NYC metro area. Starbucks is from Seattle, and has sprouted up all over the world.
Read The Mystery of Duane Reade
If the store is more profitable as a Duane Reade than as a video store, then by definition it was precisely "just what the Village needs."
See generally, "free markets."
See also, "Netflix."
Kim's sucked. The staff had major attitude and you had to hold a $250 deposit on your credit card just to rent there. It also smelled really bad. Not sure if that was the staff or the space?? TLA video is up on 8th street and they have over-priced rentals and a patronizing staff. See, you can still get poor service in the village!
The other boroughs are not immune to this. A few months ago my beloved diner on Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria suddenly went out of business and was replaced by... a bank. In a 10 block stretch, there are like 6 banks. But of course, no place to get a hamburger.
Tangentially, what is it about New York that makes businesses disappear literally overnight? Is it a lease thing?
It's a lease thing. The new businesses don't literally push the old ones away.
It's the landlord that raises the rent so high, the old business leaves and the new moneybags business moves in.
If you owned a cheap building and someone offered to pay a few million more in rent, would YOU turn it down? Thank god for greed.
Get used to it. This is the future. A chicken in every pot and a Duane Reade on every block.
the worst place is Burger King. Only black people eat at Burger King.
Maybe we should cut those snooty Kim's Video staff some slack. They are most likely NYU film majors who are only working to fund their independent masterpieces, and try to educate the masses on how watching artsy fartsy films can give meanings to their lives.
Most of them will have their dreams crushed, be in tons of debt and forced to work for one of those banks that keep popping up everywhere, whining about how they could've been the next Tarantino or something.
Does anyone remember Mrs. Hudson's?
That place I miss.
oh my god SUE THE CITY!!!! WHY NOBODY DID SOMETHING! THIS IS FOR CULTURE FOR GODS SAKE, WHAT ARE THEY FRICKING GOING TO DEMOLISH THE MOMA IN 10 YEARS TO BUILD A HUGE DUANE READ FOR ALL THE SICKOS FROM THE AIR POLLUTION IN MAHATTAN??????
UNBELIVABLE THAT BRINGS 2 KIMS VIDEO STORES DOWN!
LOVED AVENUE A VIDEO STORE.
SHAME ON WHO EVER DIDN'Y CARE TO STOP THE MADNESS IN THE NAME OF CULTURE
I AM GLAD I LIVE IN WILLIAMSBURG
Duane Reade is officially everywhere. I was floored when I was driving down the street in Staten Island and found one. I was happy to see that Staten Island is finally getting some civilization, but at the same time I was sad to see it there. Staten Island always seemed like an untouchable (if unwanted) outpost.
Dude, guatafok, there's no Kim's in Williamsburg, either. Must be hard.
There's another Kim's location uptown, near Columbia. 113th and Broadway or around there. It's the least snooty.
Kim is the last name of the owner, I think.
Why are you so floored? Duane Reade originated in the city, right across the water!
Don't worry about the MOMA, guatafok, it has wealthy corporate sponsors and donors to keep it around for a long time. Only mom and pop video stores with bad customer service and supported by porn collections from the 80's are doomed to be taken down.
Duane Reade is officially everywhere. I was floored when I was driving down the street in Staten Island and found one. I was happy to see that Staten Island is finally getting some civilization, but at the same time I was sad to see it there. Staten Island always seemed like an untouchable (if unwanted) outpost.
[22] Posted by: MT | May 1, 2006 01:23 PM
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Seriously, what do you have against Staten Island?
I don't know it, really, and I've made the jokes too but, in reality, what's wrong with it?
As for a Duane Reade in that oft-dismissed borough -- I'd be surprised not to find one there.
For one thing, it's a local chain -- a New York business. But anyway, isn't Staten Island sort of a transition zone between New York and America (or New Jersey, at any rate)? In that case, you'd be more likely to find a national chain there than in other parts of the city (which is still somewhat resistant).
And I don't just mean drug stores. Would anyone be surprised to find a Denny's in Staten Island?
I guess NYers really need their drugs...
The Kim's on Christopher (he's been cracking some good one liners on the Sopranos lately hasn't he) isn't bad; their new release rentals get snatched up quick though. For purchase they usually get a few copies of the latest indie bits.
Wonder if Tony's gay for not sealing the deal with Julianna?
I think that is the 3 Trillionth Duane Reade in Manhattan.
TLA Guys, stop advertising on the commentary page. Everyone know that Kim's Video kicks TLA's ass.
Cool. now there's a Chase ATM really close to my apartment. Love it.
TLA rocks! The staff is patient, helpful and HOT! You can't beat the selection! Screw netflix! Screw it up the behind!