The ugly building on 18th Street and 6th Avenue continues to transform the immediate neighborhood. Not only has it placed Models across the street from the more expensive Sports Authority, but the block is getting it's own Duane Reade!
This is good because now I do not have to walk the long block from 6th Avenue and 19th Street to 7th Avenue and 19th Street or two blocks to 5th Avenue and 17th Street or 4 blocks to 6th Avenue and 23rd Street or another half block from there to 23rd Street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue or 5 blocks to 14th Street and 7th Avenue.
Best of all, as mentioned before, Duane Reade has a Chase ATM Machine in it. You can't make this stuff up.
The rest of the block is emptying out. The Pizza Store is gone. the Bagel Store with the extremely rude employees is gone. The X-Rated DVD/Dirty Lingerie store where you used to buy your crotchless panties is gone (although I believe that there is still one between 16th and 17th). The "massage parlor" upstairs from the Pizza store is gone. The frame store is on it's way out. That leaves....nothing. I can only imagine what is coming next..Something high class to match the tone of Duane Reade and Models, I imagine. Perhaps 7-11 or Kentucky Fried Chicken.
In the meantime in Park Slope, The Tea Lounge on 7th Avenue is closing down. Once considered a symbol of the gentrification of the neighborhood that was once called "The South Slope", The Tea Lounge is being pushed out of the neighborhood.
In a moment of pure irony:
Susan Fox, who is not only a Park Slope parent, but the founder of the seminal Park Slope Parents Web site, said the closure would hit local moms hard.
“It’s an iconic mommy meeting place,” said Fox, a mother of two. “I blame gentrification.”
What will replace it? Some say a Real Estate Office. I'm betting on a Duane Reade.
