Vanishing Ridgewood

Eater 

 Morscher’s, a German and Polish pork store staple, in operation for nearly 70 years, is closing permanently. The Ridgewood butcher shop announced that February 3 would be its last day. QNS reports that Herbert (who also goes by Herbie) Morscher, a co-owner at the pork store, told the publication that their landlord planned to “quadruple” the rent this March. Interestingly, however, Morscher added that the building’s owner, Siegfried Strahl, is a business partner of Morscher’s. Morscher’s opened in 1955, before relocating to its current home at 58-44 Catalpa Avenue two years later. Local businesses, such as Gottscheer Hall, around for a century in Ridgewood, have flooded the comments section with their goodbyes. 

  QNS

Morscher’s Pork Store, an iconic German and Polish butcher shop in Ridgewood, has stood the test of time for decades—but no more.

Despite being a historic piece of Ridgewood, the 58-44 Catalpa Ave. store is slated to close for good on Feb. 3. 

Herbert (Herbie) Morscher, one of three owners of the pork store, says the decision to close up shop wasn’t his doing. He says the owner of the building, Siegfried Strahl, a senior partner in business with Morscher since 1983, is quadrupling the rent come March. 

“I mean, at the end of the game, Yes. We did very well. I did well for my family here, but it is what it is. It’s sad. It’s bittersweet,” says Morscher. 

The farewell to Morscher’s Pork Store represents an end of an era for the Morscher family who have operated the business since its founding. 

The Last Picture Show

Queens Chronicle 

Showcase Cinemas, a global chain that manages movie theaters across the country, has told the Chronicle via email that Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas will cease operations on Tuesday, April 30, about two months earlier than what has been reported over the past few weeks.

“Members of our Starpass loyalty program will receive a special offer as a way to thank them for their many years of movie-going at Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas,” said a marketing and partnerships representative of the chain. “Showcase Cinemas remains deeply committed to our theatrical exhibition business and we look forward to continuing to provide a superior movie-going experience at our U.S. cinema locations.”

When asked why the multiplex, located at 159-02 Jamaica Ave., is closing, the representative said the move follows a failure to come to terms with the landlord on a new lease agreement.

Michael Mattone, CEO of Mattone Investors, LLC, the owner of the building that houses the movie theater, told the Chronicle there was no dispute with Showcase Cinemas.

“Their lease terms came to an end,” Mattone said. “They were there for 20 years and then we gave them an extension. That extension basically expired and they decided not to seek an additional term.”

When asked about the April 30 end date, Mattone said he had been told it was June.

“That’s news to me,” said Mattone, who opened up a JD Sports next door to the multiplex two weeks ago.

As for whether he will work with a different movie chain or replace the business with a retailer, the CEO said he has a couple of things in the works.

“I am not at liberty to get into the details on those just yet,” Mattone said. “Those range from maintaining it as a theater to change of use ... [Details] coming soon to a theater near you.”

Several people were shocked and dismayed on Monday to learn that Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas will be closing.

The move comes on the heels of Brooklyn’s Linden Boulevard Multiplex Cinemas’ closure on Jan. 2 and the announcement that College Point Multiplex Cinemas will close May 7 and eventually be replaced by a logistics center.

According to multiple reports, Showcase Cinemas, owned by National Amusements, which owns all three theaters, has been shuttering movie houses across the country due to the rise of streaming, low foot traffic since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and expiring lease agreements.

“I think another theater would be good,” passerby Javonte Wooten said when asked by the Chronicle if there should be a new business or another moviehouse. “I actually live near where the Linden Boulevard theater just closed. Those are staples in our community.”

 

Vanishing Queens: Alpha Donuts annihilated by costs of doing business in NYC

 

Sunnyside Post 

And just like that, it was gone.

Having served the Sunnyside community for nearly 50 years, the old-school coffee shop Alpha Donuts closed its doors for good last week leaving patrons shocked and in disbelief.

The no-frills diner, located just a few feet from the Sunnyside Arch on Queens Boulevard and known for its donuts and greasy breakfasts, abruptly shuttered on Wednesday, June 28. Around 48 hours later its interior had been completely stripped and dumped.

The only remnant of the Sunnyside staple is its bright yellow and red exterior sign, while a notice attached to the diner’s front window reads: “Thank you for so many years of beautiful memories.”

The Sunnyside/Queens Post visited the location on Monday, July 3, and passersby could be seen gazing through the shop’s windows with astonishment and asking what had happened.

Cab drivers, who were known for parking in a line along Queens Boulevard and then frequenting the business, speculated that massive rent hikes had forced the business to shutter. The rumor was also rife on social media.

However, Patty Zorbas, 62, who owns Alpha Donuts, told the Sunnyside/Queens Post on July 5, that she was forced to close due to inflation and the potential costs of several upgrades needed to keep the business afloat — which she said she could not afford to carry out.

She said that while her rent had increased, it was not the reason behind her decision to close.

Zorbas said equipment such as the grill as well as other items at the eatery needed to be replaced.

“I sat down and put down the numbers together, and with insurance, taxes and inflation, the amount of money I would have to spend was above my reach,” said Zorbas, who is originally from Greece and lives in Woodside.

“I’ve been crying for two weeks. I’ve been there for 32 years.”

She said she decided to close late Tuesday, June 27, and the following day she shut down Alpha Donuts and started stripping out all of the equipment and fittings.

Gone is the establishment’s unique S-shaped countertop that allowed workers to serve customers up close, and gone is the shop’s vintage, button-styled cash register.

“It was tough. I was exhausted both physically and mentally,” Zorbas said. “It’s life-changing and I’m trying to sort my mind. I’m very sad but that’s life.”

Hochul shooting down Aqueduct Race Track

Queens Chronicle 

The 128-year-old Aqueduct Race Track appears to be heading into the home stretch, according to Gov. Hochul's 2023-24 executive budget proposal.

Hochul’s proposal for the fiscal year beginning April 1 includes $455 million in capital spending for the redevelopment of Belmont Racetrack, located just the other side of the Cross Island Parkway in Nassau County.

A report on the website casino.org on Wednesday stated that the move could lead to the land being used for construction of a casino right next to the Resorts World New York City in Ozone Park.

“The [Belmont] project will result in the creation of new tracks and parking as well as the construction of a new clubhouse,” according to an entry on page 33 of Hochul’s briefing book. “This project will facilitate the move of Aqueduct racing to Belmont, allowing the State to repurpose the Aqueduct property.”

The document does not offer timelines. It goes on to say that the New York Racing Association will repay the state for the entire cost of the project.

The New York Racing Association, in a statement on its Twitter page on Wednesday, thanked Hochul for supporting the Belmont rebuild, but made no mention of Aqueduct.

Aqueduct first opened in September 1894.

The last picture show on Main Street.

 

Queens Chronicle 

 When Kew Gardens Hills resident Richard Reif first attended Main Street Cinemas back in 1946, a day at the picture show cost only 25 cents.

“You could spend the whole afternoon there, which me and my friends did,” he remembered fondly. “You got two feature films, a cartoon, a newsreel and an episode of a serial — and you could bring your own food.”

So it’s not difficult to imagine his disappointment when, after seeing Idris Elba’s latest film, “The Beast,” last weekend, he found out that would be the last movie he ever saw at the theatre, which closed its doors earlier this week.

It is rumored that the theater is closing due to a rent increase; however, the Chronicle was unable to confirm that, as owner Rudy Toolasprashad did not respond to multiple queries. City property records show that the lot — which includes the movie theater and all the stores between it and the corner of 72nd Drive — was purchased by G & Y Main Street Plaza LLC in February of this year. It is not clear whether the purchase has any connection to Main Street Cinemas’ shuttering.

Like all theaters, Main Street Cinemas had previously closed during the earliest days of the pandemic. Though many other small film venues across the country never reopened, Main Street Cinemas welcomed movie-goers back in March 2021.

“I thought then it would close for good, but it didn’t,” Reif said. “This summer you know, I went to movies like ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ and ‘Elvis’ and ‘Thor,’ and there were big turnouts — people of all ages, parents brought their kids for things like the Sonic Hedgehog movie. So that really surprised me that it’s closing.”

The institution has been a staple in the community since it opened in 1941, when it was called the The Main Street Playhouse. It played the starring role in the lives of many young people over the years.

 Queens Chronicle

“You could spend the whole afternoon there, which me and my friends did,” he remembered fondly. “You got two feature films, a cartoon, a newsreel and an episode of a serial — and you could bring your own food.”

So it’s not difficult to imagine his disappointment when, after seeing Idris Elba’s latest film, “The Beast,” last weekend, he found out that would be the last movie he ever saw at the theatre, which closed its doors earlier this week.

It is rumored that the theater is closing due to a rent increase; however, the Chronicle was unable to confirm that, as owner Rudy Toolasprashad did not respond to multiple queries. City property records show that the lot — which includes the movie theater and all the stores between it and the corner of 72nd Drive — was purchased by G & Y Main Street Plaza LLC in February of this year. It is not clear whether the purchase has any connection to Main Street Cinemas’ shuttering.

Like all theaters, Main Street Cinemas had previously closed during the earliest days of the pandemic. Though many other small film venues across the country never reopened, Main Street Cinemas welcomed movie-goers back in March 2021.

“I thought then it would close for good, but it didn’t,” Reif said. “This summer you know, I went to movies like ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ and ‘Elvis’ and ‘Thor,’ and there were big turnouts — people of all ages, parents brought their kids for things like the Sonic Hedgehog movie. So that really surprised me that it’s closing.”

The institution has been a staple in the community since it opened in 1941, when it was called the The Main Street Playhouse. It played the starring role in the lives of many young people over the years.

 

Rockaway Summertime Blues

Real estate firm and big bank swaggers back at Adams

 

Brooklyn Eagle

A lawsuit has been filed in federal court challenging New York City’s sweeping mandate requiring nearly all private-sector businesses to ban unvaccinated employees from the workplace, asserting that the city’s attempt to control the coronavirus pandemic deprives tens of thousands of businesses from pursuing their livelihoods.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday contends businesses like Cornerstone Realty, a Staten Island real estate firm that is the only named plaintiff in the case, are being unduly forced to fire unvaccinated workers and asserts the city’s vaccination edict lacks mechanisms for businesses to appeal.

“This case is not about vaccines, but about an employer’s right to be heard,” the lawsuit states.

The edict was one of two-term Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final acts before relinquishing his office at the end of the year. He set a Dec. 27 deadline for virtually all private sector businesses — roughly 184,000 businesses that employ hundreds of thousands of people — to require workers to show proof that they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Businesses face fines of at least $1,000 for noncompliance.

The city’s new mayor, Eric Adams, has been in his job for less than a week but must immediately confront myriad challenges posed by COVID-19, including the latest surge that has spiked the number of infections to record levels.

It remains to be seen how Adams will respond to those challenges and what measures put in place by his predecessor he might keep or jettison as he formulates his own pandemic policies. Before taking office, Adams affirmed his support for the vaccine mandate, as well as de Blasio’s insistence on keeping schools open.

While acknowledging the turmoil the pandemic has wrought on small businesses, Adams made no mention of the mandate in his remarks during a visit Tuesday to a struggling small business in Manhattan, where he signed an executive order that he said would “slash red tape, reduce needless fines and penalties,” and would “bring relief to our heartbroken entrepreneurs.”

 

NY Post

Chase Bank has shuttered more than three dozen branches in the Big Apple as the mega-bank struggles with staff shortages and vaccine mandates amid a surge in Omicron.

While the COVID variant has shelved many JP Morgan Chase employees, at least one local pol blamed the bank closures on “prohibitive” city and state mandates that require private-sector workers to be vaccinated before they can show up for a day at the office.

“It doesn’t give business an opportunity to open the front door,” City Councilman Joe Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, told The Post.

“If we want to re-populate our offices in New York, this mandate is a prohibition on many of those people coming back,” Borelli said.

Borelli also took to Twitter Wednesday to make his point, posting a photo of the laminated signs that adorn many closed branches.

“I don’t think the mandates are working in #nyc,” he wrote.

“Our branch is temporarily closed due to New York City’s COVID-19 Workplace Vaccination Order,” the sign on the door of one branch reads.

It only took five days

NY Post 

After being open only a week, a city public school in East Harlem is the first to cancel in-person classes, after a COVID-19 outbreak among staffers.

Nineteen people tested positive as of Friday at P.S. 79 on East 120th Street, prompting officials to switch over to remote education, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer tweeted.

“My understanding is there are enough cases of COVID that the [Department of Education COVID-19] Situation Room has decided to close the school for 10 days until Sept. 28,” Brewer told The Post.

In addition to 19 “confirmed” cases, 45 others were quarantined, the City Council’s education chair, Mark Treyger, added.

The DOE said all of the cases were among staff.

High End Ghetto Manhattan