Gothamist: Love Saves the Day, Colorful East Village Icon, to Close!

bornbrednewyorker

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:18:08 -0500

Very sad to see it go. I'd say it's another nail in the coffin but that coffin was nailed shut years ago when the St. Marks Cinema became a Gap.

femiredwood

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:30:41 -0500

Dude! This sucks! Half of the wall art in my livingroom is from this place.

The Edge

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:16:50 -0500

It's almost as if folks would prefer NYC to be more like LA.

smitty

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:17:12 -0500

where am I going to get my fake moustaches?

thefacts

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:09:25 -0500

Flash: Spiritross likes Starbucks and shops at Duane Reade right after he took his money out of the ATM across the street. This is spiritross' new New York. IF you don't like it, leave, because spritross knows what he is ranting about.

spiritross

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:57:00 -0500

Boring New York City is 400 years old Things change That is the very essence of this great city If you don't like it Then you don't like NYC Deal with it or Get out

robingee

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:04:04 -0500

I preferred Little Ricky's. But you know, with all of the old-toy nostalgia coming back and all the thrift-store finds that abound, LSTD wasn't all that original anymore. It was fun to look in, but way overpriced. I'd still rather it be there than a Starbuck's. Maybe the proprietors of Big Fun in Cleveland and Uncle Fun in Chicago can open a store in NYC?

MrManhattan

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:33:49 -0500

So so sad. I must admit that I don't think I ever bought anything there, and was probably last in there in the mid to late 80's. But it's been a fixture since about the time I fell in love with this city, and it was nice to have a funky tourist attraction/landmark in the neighborhood that didn't attract drunks or troublemakers.

REALITY CHECK

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:02:39 -0500

Some people with stones for hearts just shrug and attribute this to inevitable change. There's a difference between changing and dying. Change implies something new takes its place. New York is not changing, it's dying.

sartre_is_for_lovers

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:13:01 -0500

ngl. i gasped.

clydefitch

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:50:11 -0500

I am beyond bummed. I put something up about this at The Clyde Fitch Report (clydefitch.blogspot.com). Why is my New York dying?

jink

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:37:37 -0500

dignam hit the nail on the head. long live love saves the day!

thefacts

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:05:36 -0500

Hi BabyHitler, You like the name? You know what it's acronym is, right? Remember, it was started in 1966. LSD was still legal then.

The Edge

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:32:46 -0500

These are the businesses that is the heart and soul of NYC. Price and convenience sure have taken over service. And while the landlords are partly responsible for this, it does go a little further up the real estate food chain than them...

NannyState

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:21:32 -0500

^ Just keep hoping the Wall St. mess kills off greedy landlords. Then the fun and the funky will return like spring weeds.

dignam

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:19:51 -0500

Of all the businesses failed or falling in Gotham, of all the changes wrought by gentrification modernization and rent-escalation, this is the one that hurts the most for me. It's one of the places that I truly embrace, that is the essence of what New York means to me. Its awning makes me happy, gives me hope, even in the most downcast of winter nights and the brutal psychic tolchuks that Manhattan can inflict upon you day after day. In wanderings, I frequently sidetrack my way over to 2nd Avenue just so I can walk down, break the borderland of 14th Street, and have New York tell me that no matter what's going wrong LOVE SAVES THE DAY. There is no genre for this store. It is sui-generis and when it is gone, nothing will precisely replace it. Future historians will label it "bric-a-brac" or "novelty" or "nostalgia" but it is all of this and more. I nursed a secret desire to be their stockboy so I could ledger in the pop plastic figurines collected from kids of three generations – all the characters of The Simpsons, Star Wars, Barbie, My Little Pony – the hats and masks and vintage jackets and flannel shirts and crenoline '50s ballgowns and Garbage Pail Kids trading cards and comic books. They have the big plastic X-Wing Fighter I had as a kid, as well as the smaller die-cast Millennium Falcon and TIE Fighter and dozens of the hottest Hot Wheels. On a circular table they display at least two Playboy magazines from every year from 1966 to 1988. It is an epic time capsule of American pop culture, a living, bartering, retail museum that will be dispersed into fragments and no one will ever again walk into a store and see, at one crazy pell-mell glance, the kaleidoscopic colors of American pop-culture history. It is a store that exhilarated me, enlightened me, and gave me, through what I bought, parts of myself that I had lost to the greyness of adulthood. I am heartbroken, heartbroken, and I would do whatever I could to save the love, but it looks as though I can't.

peanut100

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:42:57 -0500

"why should I feel guilty that I'm not supporting someone else's opportunity to have the quaint small business?" you do realize that it's these "quaint small business[es]" that make nyc what it is right? do you think that nyc would be what it is with a bunch of fucking wal marts & home depots?? you CAN'T be a native ny'er.

SP

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:33:26 -0500

Hmm, yeah. Tell that to Ford, Chrysler, GM, AIG, Citi, lehman, et. al. The rules of capitalism only need apply to the big guys when it's in their favor. And vice versa. Can't wait for the next Chipotle to move in, yay New York!

r1b2

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:02:36 -0500

The economy turns, tastes turn. While sorry to see this store close, if it doesn't really add value to the community, perhaps its time has passed. At first I felt guilty about buying meats at my Fairway instead of my local butcher. But at Fairway, prices are lower and it's more convenient (I'm already there, right?) Further, why should I feel guilty that I'm not supporting someone else's opportunity to have the quaint small business? If the business no longer makes sense economically, so be it. Circle of life, baby.

NannyState

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:59:42 -0500

Well, in all likelihood it won't become a Starbucks, WaMu, Commerce Bank, Citibank, or a Bennigans. The bad news is that their greedy scumbag landlords will lease it to the first idiot to come their way who still thinks it's 2006.

pete

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:48:29 -0500

Will the non-hipster please turn off the light.

sidenote

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:46:15 -0500

Sucks.

Toby von Meistersinger

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:37:07 -0500

This sucks. Although with the economy, it will probably won't wind up being a bank.

babyhitler

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:28:53 -0500

Noooo! Where will I not buy He-man action figures and smurfs figurines from now? oh, ebay? nevermind. Cool ass name though.

zodak

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:19:48 -0500

wow, that really sucks. i love this store & always go in whenever i'm in the neighborhood.