Chelsea's Rawhide bar, opened in 1979, is set to shutter, according to Vanishing New York:
"The building that houses it on 8th and 21st in Chelsea was sold a couple of years ago and the new landlord has jacked up the rent, nearly doubling it from $15,000 to $27,000 a month. The Rawhide has officially been evicted. Their last day will be March 31."
Mayoral frontrunner and Council Speaker Christine Quinn said this about the Rawhide in a recent New York magazine profile:
“One of the things I loved about Chelsea,” she said, “is that on Eighth Avenue, there is the Rawhide bar—not a luxury product. And for many years there were Latino guys from the neighborhood who had a folding card table every Friday and Saturday night and played dominoes. And they knew every guy who walked into the Rawhide, and every guy that walked in the Rawhide knew them. A leather bar may or may not be the best example, but it is the type of neighborhood experience we want to be able to have, what Jane Jacobs called ‘the eyes on the streets' all watching out for each other.”
What will Quinn do about it?
Is there room on the street for yet another bank or nail salon?
