Gothamist: Tonic Goes To City Hall

will

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:30:57 -0500

amen, dg. i really liked tonic as well, and its really unfortunate that the place has to close.

Eric

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:15:25 -0500

Jack, I'm with you. I'm already planning to move. The benefits of living in New York are quickly being outpaced by the cost and disappearance of the city's uniqueness. Every place in this country pretty much looks like every other place now, and I don't need to spend 50% more to experience the same crap I can get in Des Moines or Philadelphia or Orlando.

dug

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:02:20 -0500

sad as i am to see tonic go, i think DG got it exactly right.

DG

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:31:58 -0500

I don't think that the answer is in the city subsidizing cutting-edge music venues for a couple of reasons; I think that puts the whole thing at the mercy of the current city government. and it sort of runs counter to the whole spirit of artistic freedom. What do you think will happen when a band does or says something controversial or politically incorrect in one of these venues during an election year? The fact is that music is and always has been subject to market forces and I think that really, this is ultimately good thing. I'm not trying to say that artists who don't appeal to the masses don't deserve a venue for their work. I am saying that artificially propping it up a venue with public funding means that you're eliminating the element of a sort of artistic darwinism for lack of a better term, that allows the truly good art to rise to the top and the more mediocre stuff (and there's lots of it these days which doesn't help this situation) to fall by the wayside. Anyway, I think that the ultimate answer is the same as it's always been: enterprising people need to open new clubs in the neighborhoods that are now what the LES was 10 years ago (and these places do exisit in brooklyn and elsewhere) Then, in a few years, those neighborhoods will become more attractive to people with money who want to appear cultured, the rents will go up, and the whole cycle will continue..... Bottom Line (pun intended) - don't hang on to the past, these clubs had their moments, the neighborhoods have changed, it's time for something new. Isn't that truly in the spirit of the cutting-edge and the avant-garde?

Sue

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:30:34 -0500

Personally, I'd rather have the Village Gate or CB's back myself. Manhattan is now a boring suburb, all the people who actually make the city interesting and functional, from chefs to cops to artists can't afford it anymore. Just a bunch of boring rich people. I have never been against change, but how many condos do we need? Are any of them under $1 mill? I miss the old NY.

mpw

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:56:34 -0500

You have to enter your actual name, but you have the option of having it displayed on the website as "Anonymous," so everyone reading the site can't see your name and where you work.

jenon

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:46:01 -0500

Who signs a petition "Anonymous"? What's the point of that? Way to stand up for what you believe in.

waitwaitwait

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:11:58 -0500

Wait, wait, wait - didn't I JUST read that the Knitting Factory is re-upping it's lease or something?

a

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:55:15 -0500

tonic goes to CITY hall? or are they putting on some benefit at town hall?

Jack

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:49:24 -0500

I always used to have a saying that whenever NYC isn't the BEST city in the whole world to live in, I would leave. While it's not there yet, it's getting more and more like a suburb every day and these people (read: soulless morons who moved to NYC but seem to hate the inconvenience, of, I dunno, noise and people??!) will have to bus in their baristas and waiters from Yonkers and New Rochelle and Newark. They'll cross their fingers that someone so hip like Dave Matthews wants to play in Central Park. Ahem. Let the yuppies have Manhattan and turn it into a culturally bankrupt city like Orlando or Cleveland and see what happens then. Idiots.