2007-08-10 - 10:05 p.m.

I�ll cry for you, Greenwich Village! And I do. For the past 29 years I�ve lived on Horatio Street in the heart of the far West Village and have loved every single minute of it. But over the past five or six years, the Village I�ve known and loved has been disappearing. Little by little, so many wonderful shops and restaurants have closed and been replaced by a range of upscale retailers better suited to Madison Avenue than to the environs of Minetta Lane. Take Bleecker Street, for instance. That funky strip which once was home to the Bird Jungle, Exotic Aquatics, army-navy stores, half a dozen antique shops, groovy vintage emporiums, Kim�s Video and the Moon Dog Ice Cream Parlor now features at least FOUR Marc Jacobs stores, Ralph Lauren, Intermix, Miguelina, Olive & Bette�s, Selima Eyewear and, soon, a Coach boutique.

On one tiny strip of Bleecker Street between Carmine Street and Seventh Avenue, the famous Bruno�s Bakery closed last week, and, while I must confess I wasn�t a frequent patron of Bruno�s (but rather a devotee of its next-door neighbor Rocco�s Pastries), still, I loved that Bruno�s was there and had its own passionate following of Village regulars. It�s where my friend Bob always bought his panettone, and it served as the basis of good-hearted arguments among Village friends. "Are you a Bruno�s guy�or a Rocco�s guy?"

Heart-breaking sign in the window of the now-empty Bruno's.

GREED is the name of the game in this neighborhood now. Long-standing family-owned businesses are losing their leases because of skyrocketing rents. The sky�s the limit�and there�s just no stopping the upscale sprawl! Everything that was once unique and charming, cozy and comfortable is now boring, pretentious, expensive and depressing.

Hudson Street is no better. Hunan Pan closed down a few months back�a great Chinese restaurant where Elizabeth and I would stop for an early dinner on our way home from St. Luke�s School. Soon it will be a Pain Quotidien. Don�t they know that New Yorkers treasure their anonymity...that we don�t dig the whole �communal table� thing?

There�s also a new Starbuck�s on Hudson Street, and though it features more subtle signage than the usual Starbuck�s, it�s still home to bitter, overpriced coffee and ultra-fattening fake-flavored frappuccinos.

Hudson Corner restaurant with its white picket fence-enclosed outdoor tables closed up last month. And the Woodland Deli at Hudson & West 10th closed down ages ago. When I walked past it last week, some workers were inside and I asked a guy out front what this was gonna be�certain he would say �the new Marc Jacobs Children�s Store� or something.

Guy: �It�s gonna be a Dunkin� Donuts.�
Me: �You are KIDDING me..!!�
Guy: �What�s-a-matter�you don�t like donuts?�
Me: �It�s not that. It�s just that Dunkin� Donuts doesn�t belong on Hudson Street. It belongs on Staten Island.�
Guy: �Well, it�s about time this neighborhood had some place for 'poor' people.�
Me: �But there ARE no poor people in Greenwich Village..!!�

So, what does this mean? Will it be Hudson Street versus Bleecker Street in a battle of the �haves� and �have nots?� Will they turn the former Hudson Corner restaurant into a T.G.I. Friday�s? I give up!

All I know is that every day something in the Village is changing�and not for the better. Soon I will lose a big chunk of sky from the view outside my window. A huge undulating glass building is going up in the parking lot across the street. And, while I always thought the parking lot was an eyesore, I think I�d still prefer it to a building whose design is completely incongruous with this neighborhood and that advertises itself as��35 unique luxury loft residences featuring discreet personal services�
�which sounds as if they�ll be offering midnight blow-jobs along with a state-of-the-art gym.

In fact, the only thing that makes me smile in this neighborhood lately is Julian Schnabel�s controversial �pink palace" on West 11th Street. I LOVE this building!

Every time I bike past it I say, �YESsssss!!� It�s such a wonderful reminder of what the Village once was�a place of unique artistic expression, wit, whimsy and rebellion.

Enough�or I really WILL start crying! Tell me about the Village closings that have broken your heart�and what those locations are now (Washington Mutual?). I�m still missing the old Lion�s Head and the Bells of Hell�and hoping that someday there will be another �talking bar� in the Village. No loud music, no slick interior, no attitude�just good TALK and laughs. If you know of any�please clue me in.


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