Did that New Jersey storefront on the Upper West Side get you across the Hudson to check out some foliage? The NY Times reports from the state's temporary Manhattan outpost (which is still up and running), saying that it's not about competition or stealing Manhattanites away (was that really ever a fear?). more ›

The sneaky state of New Jersey has quietly made its way into a storefront on the Upper West Side; opening a pop-up tourism store on West 73rd and Columbus that is suspiciously devoid of Bon Jovi, the Boss, scrunchies and mall references. more ›

There's a new outdoor exhibition sitting pretty atop the Gawker HQ rooftop called MOM & POPism that you can go check out today. (In fact, it's only open today through 4 p.m., but if you miss out on this public viewing you can make an appointment throughout the month.) We headed to 210 Elizabeth Street yesterday to see the installation for ourselves; it's like a colorful old New York up there! The show was curated by Billi Kid and reinterprets James and Karla Murray's latest book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York ("a breathtaking visual guide to New York City’s cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the historic streets and ethnic shops that have defined its many neighborhoods"). more ›

Okay, not really. But Wes Verhoeve spotted this in a storefront on Lorimer and Jackson in Brooklyn. Art? Joke? Crazy hipsters? We may never know. more ›

Storefronts on the Lower East Side are constantly changing. What used to be a cobbler's shop might now be a high-end boutique that later might become a pre-prohibition cocktail bar with an special "cobbler" concoction as a nod to the olden days. Anyway, tonight a new store is opening, but it's also closing! Yes, a comment on instability by a collective of artists. Stop by 55 Delancey Street from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight where 31 artists will be hosting an exhibition in a vacant store front. Read more about the project here. more ›

As we've learned with the illegal, non-permitted Snickers campaign, shuttered storefronts are perfect for cheap advertising. The NY Times now reports that companies are "taking advantage of all the abandoned retail spaces in urban areas, marketers are leasing them at cut-rate prices and filling them with their ads." They call it the poor man's billboard, and it can cost just $500 for a 3-month runs in prime locations (something that could cost $50,000 were it on a regular billboard). Some landlords even donate the space, especially if they like the message. For example, Conservation International's campaign compared the destruction of the environment with that of the economy. The windows carried messages like 'Our shopping districts are starting to look as barren as our rain forests.'" Note that the retail vacancy rose 11.2% in the first quarter, the highest since the early 90s. more ›

The New York Historical Society has some noteworthy photo exhibits coming up in the next month. We'll have a full preview coming up prior to their openings, but after taking a peek at Camilo José Vergara's "Harlem 1970-2009" exhibit, this sequence seemed worth sharing now. The street photographer and MacArthur Foundation genius award winner visited this one spot repeatedly, documenting the ongoing transformation in the neighborhood. Only eight photographs, taken between 1977 and 2007 outside of 65 East 125th Street, are included in the exhibit, but there are 24 on his website, where you can see what starts off as a local nightclub transform into a vacant storefront. more ›

Looks like the Mars Company has some illegal advertising going up around town, whether they know it or not. The Public Ad Campaign spotted these ads on University Place in an otherwise empty storefront, noting that "as the economic crisis leaves storefronts abandoned and landlords without income" some unique ad spaces are popping up. "These locations are treated by the Department of buildings the same way billboards are treated and thus require permits. If permits are not obtained the signage is considered illegal and is subject to the same fines and violations associated will illegal billboards." And guess what, this Snickers building wrap has no permits and is reportedly "larger than most billboards even in Times Square." So would Poster Boy be for or against this? more ›

Get used to seeing empty retail space: Real estate brokers tell the NY Times "they expect store closings in the city to rise this year." Over the next weeks, retailers will determine how their fourth quarter (especially holiday period) sales were and many expect the "pace of store closings to pick up in February and March." The number of Manhattan retail leases fell 33%, comparing 4th quarter 2008 to 4th quarter 2007, and landlords have——started to lower rents, even on Madison Avenue and in SoHo. One broker explains, "Savvy landlords are keeping tenants in place, even if it means accepting a rent that they might feel is under market." So maybe there is hope for the mom-and-pop venues out there, like the Emerald Inn. more ›

Opening up tonight at the Brooklyn Historical Society is the new exhibit, "The Disappearing Face of Brooklyn's Storefronts." Photographer-curators James and Karla Murray have scoured Brooklyn to observe "mom and pop" businesses from humble neighborhood stores tucked away on narrow side streets to well-known institutions on historic avenues. The Murrays have published two bestselling books on the graffiti scene and now turn their eye to some of the last commercial relics in Brooklyn's rapidly changing streets. more ›

This past week, the NY Times peeked inside the Vermont Market and Pharmacy in Carroll Gardens, which has been closed for over a decade...actually, owner Mark Stein wouldn't let them inside, but he does shed some light on the shuttered store. Apparently when it was open, it had a 1920s aesthetic and "was a combination drugstore and market, selling specialties from Vermont"; prior to that, and under the same owner, it was called Mark's Pharmacy. These days it serves as a look into the past, a frozen-in-time storefront sitting on Henry and Sackett Streets. Local lore is that the suspender-wearing Stein is a quirky genius and recluse who is perhaps unwilling to sell his piece of prime real estate. He recently addressed some of the speculation about the store's past with the Times:

He dispelled some of the rumors, though, saying that aliens were not the reason the store closed down. Mr. Stein said: “It didn’t quite work out.” more ›

Proliferating in great number in the wake of the Civil War by freed slaves migrating north, who had little economic resources, "storefront churches" are primarily a black and urban phenomena, where small congregations could worship in smaller numbers. More recently, the ecclesiastic form has been adopted by other ethnic groups such as recent immigrants. The site Fotki has a collection of 100 images of storefront churches located in Brooklyn that makes for some interesting browsing. There are more photos after the jump. [via Satan's Laundromat].
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