Downtown Music Gallery

[Alastair]

Just got this. Hope premises can be found.

At the end of this past January, our five-year lease ran out here at
342 Bowery. Our landlord has graciously given us another 3-6 months to find another place but, with 4 to 5 times the rent we're paying being offered by bar/restaurants ['cause we know you can't get a drink anywhere around here - NOT!] for the space our stay will come to an end soon.

We have been searching for a new location for the past 6 months, but if it's anything close to the 1500 sq. ft. we now occupy and need, no matter how far east we go, the realtors are convincing the landlords to hold off renting until they get a minimum of $ 60-75 per sq ft per year - which for 1500 sq ft means a monthly base rent nut of $7500-9400 - even on Ave D, where no one ventures to!

The only people who can afford that are banks that now make a tidy new-found profit off of people taking $20 out of their account every ten minutes [!] and national chains that take a tax loss to blanket NYC with their outlets. No merchant who deals in anything but items that have over 1000% markup [like drinks] can afford to stay in business here, not even groceries and supermarkets, which have all been closing rapidly. Just think: the overuse of debit cards has caused the price of all everyday goods and food to skyrocket - most of the increased amount just goes to the rent!

Anyone in NYC knows there are many spaces - in both prime and not prime areas - that have remained empty for YEARS due to realtors who have sold their bill of goods to landlords - when we've met those landlords, many have lamented the money they've lost due to the pressure from realtors, and were perfectly willing to talk lower prices, when beforehand the agent said they wouldn't budge [and wouldn't put us in contact directly, naturally]

We have many friends here in NYC, some 10,000 of you around the world receive our newsletter each week. What we would like is a basement, second floor or higher loft space [with elevator] with about 1,500 square feet for under $4000, hopefully in lower Manhattan - we don't really care what it looks like, or what some snobs might have to say about the neighborhood, just as long as it's secure. We'll do the rest.

We would love to stay in the Lower Manhattan, but we might have to move to mid-town or further uptown or even nearby in Brooklyn or Queens

If you know of a space for us to rent - especially where we deal with the landlord directly - please contact us immediately!

Our time here is limited. We may have to go with one overpriced
space - that otherwise meets our needs - within two weeks, so we'd like to hear from you before then

Thank You

Bruce, Manny, Mikey, Chuck, Bret & all at DMG

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Downtown Music Gallery
342 Bowery
New York, NY 10012-2408
USA

Tel: 212 473-0043 / 800 622-1387
Fax: 212-533-5059

dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com

Hours:
12 noon -8pm Seven days a week

Sundays we have in-store concerts from 6 to 7:30, please don't call then.

Visit our website to see what we our collected offerings are
http://www.downtownmusicgallery.com" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

[user_5095]

We would love to stay in the Lower Manhattan, but we might have to move to mid-town or further uptown or even nearby in Brooklyn or Queens

what seems to be the problem ?

"never take a chance cause Brooklyn's the borough"

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

We would love to stay in the Lower Manhattan, but we might have to move to mid-town or further uptown or even nearby in Brooklyn or Queens

what seems to be the problem ?

"never take a chance cause Brooklyn's the borough"

its remarkable to see you, as a communist, snagging some hard working guys who are fucked by men in too expensive suits. give in and move, how's that for preaching revolution?

have you ever been in the shop or its neighbourhood?
i did only once, and I find the above sad.

[user_2021]

Just think: the overuse of debit cards has caused the price of all everyday goods and food to skyrocket - most of the increased amount just goes to the rent!

what the hell does this mean?

[jon abbey]

yeah, I didn't understand that part either, except maybe something about bank fees? it was pretty incoherent certainly.

that being said, I like DMG and I hope they find a place, but they're probably best suited to a mail order operation in an outer borough or near Bruce in NJ with browsing by appointment. Manhattan sucks for everyone these days, in sizable part because of the increasingly weak dollar.

[Dan Warburton]

We would love to stay in the Lower Manhattan, but we might have to move to mid-town or further uptown or even nearby in Brooklyn or Queens

what seems to be the problem ?

"never take a chance cause Brooklyn's the borough"

its remarkable to see you, as a communist, snagging some hard working guys who are fucked by men in too expensive suits. give in and move, how's that for preaching revolution?.

You haven't figured it out yet? Mr Stalin's contributions to this site represent the current state of communism, reduced to glib slogans and snidy soundbites. Come back Ben Watson, all is forgiven.

I too was saddened to read the above. Wouldn't be Downtown Music Gallery if it wasn't Downtown, would it? Can't Zorn pull a few strings? After all he and Bruce go way back..

[jon abbey]

Wouldn't be Downtown Music Gallery if it wasn't Downtown, would it?

I think it would, the point is it specializes in 'downtown music'.

Can't Zorn pull a few strings? After all he and Bruce go way back..

there's not much anyone who's not absurdly wealthy can do to stop the tide of cafes and condos and banks at this point.

[user_5300]

I do not understand what was expected from the poster under nick "nash bridges", what can you do to resist the flow of capital, there's no such thing as "verbal opposition".
I mean, either they would organize to resist any move from their current location, or they would obey the law of the market and move to a location where the fees are lower. and a third option, highly adventurous one, they would start a revolutionary party to abolish the capitalism entirely.

all in all, I also wouldn't have a problem to move near Brooklyn or Queens, they're both neighborhoods with a fame and tradition, especially mid-80's onwards.

[jon abbey]

all in all, I also wouldn't have a problem to move near Brooklyn or Queens, they're both neighborhoods with a fame and tradition, especially mid-80's onwards.

right, but you don't have a clue as to what you're talking about in this case, since they'd lose a ton of foot traffic from tourists and casual passersby if they left manhattan, clearly that's why they're trying to avoid that by this public plea. how many times a borough is namechecked in the rap songs you listen to from halfway around the world isn't really relevant here.

[user_5300]

ok, thank you for clarifying me a thing or two.

as it stands, they have three options remaining:

- to agree to pay insanely overpriced space and basically to work to pay the rent, of course they'd have to raise the price of their goods
- organize with the rest of the pushed out to resist any move from their current location
- start a revolutionary party to abolish the capitalism entirely (in order to avoid artificially pumped housing rents dictated by market and many other things)

[jon abbey]

you need to stop talking sometimes.

[user_5300]

why's that ?

[jon abbey]

because sometimes you have nothing to add to the discussion. recognizing when that is will be a nice step forward for you at some point.

[jon abbey]

in this case, the obvious option is one that in all your wisdom you didn't list, they'll move and keep on chooglin. they'll lose the foot traffic but save the rent.

[user_5300]

ok, I'd like for those people to continue the work.
every man should have a job.

[MRS]

but we might have to move to mid-town or further uptown

stupid question: why would this proposition be more affordable than the same or another downtown location?

[jon abbey]

not sure what they mean by 'midtown', but uptown could be Harlem or another neighborhood that's not gentrifying quite so quickly. on the other hand, 125th St. got rezoned this week, so now massive condo buildings can go up there in the near future also.

[user_1696]

all in all, I also wouldn't have a problem to move near Brooklyn or Queens, they're both neighborhoods with a fame and tradition, especially mid-80's onwards.

right, but you don't have a clue as to what you're talking about in this case, since they'd lose a ton of foot traffic from tourists and casual passersby if they left manhattan, clearly that's why they're trying to avoid that by this public plea. how many times a borough is namechecked in the rap songs you listen to from halfway around the world isn't really relevant here.

i dunno, i agree that this is a sad occasion. but i don't find a move to somewhere like brooklyn to be so traumatic. i mean what is the likelihood of the average person on the street to "just wander" into an improvised music store? the most people i've seen everytime i've gone to that store has only been one or two other than myself - if you're in there, chances are you are aware of its existence prior to visiting.

brooklyn for instance, is only right across the bridge from the lower east side anyway. aside from all of the hipster poppycock that goes on there, the borough does show some promise for coming up improvisers. if anything, the loads of overhyped zorn merchandise should be enough to pool some interest among all crowds.

the real sad thing however, is that the same thing is probably going to happen in brooklyn too anyway.

[jon abbey]

i dunno, i agree that this is a sad occasion. but i don't find a move to somewhere like brooklyn to be so traumatic. i mean what is the likelihood of the average person on the street to "just wander" into an improvised music store? the most people i've seen everytime i've gone to that store has only been one or two other than myself - if you're in there, chances are you are aware of its existence prior to visiting.

according to them, they get/got a ton of foot traffic and sales just because of the location, customers they didn't get when they were on a side street in their previous location.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

that entire erea seemed a bit desolate to me, i dunno, probably that had more to do with the urban landscape in that part of NY.