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The urban experience and La Rosita
It's been a tough week for good urban experience. First Jane Jacobs, and now, it seems, La Rosita. One of the most beloved neighborhood restaurants on Manhattan's Upper West Side may close soon.
From the NYT, For a Warm, Unvarnished Place, High Rent and Dark Times:
But as the neighborhood has increasingly buffed away its rough edges, rising rents have forced out many family-owned businesses, and La Rosita seems poised to become the next to go. After 24 years of dishing out carne guisada and camaraderie, Enrique Fernandez and his two sons, Eduardo and Fernando, have all but made up their minds to close up shop when their lease runs out in December. They may leave sooner.
As neighborhoods improve, old family-owned places disappear. I remember closing day at Zito's, the historic West Village bakery - I bought some of the last focaccia they ever made... and I kept thinking: does it have to be this way? Rising rents bring safer streets, but fewer Zito's and La Rositas (and more Starbucks, it seems).
Here's an idea... why not create a conglomerate company that buys up, and retains, beloved old neighborhood restaurants, bakeries, restaurants? Call it the Wal-Mart of Main Street - using corporate size to infuse life back into small, family owned places. Would this work?
(If you've been to La Rosita, add your own comments at addyourown.)
Had plenty of Good Experiences at la Rosita restaurant, and support the idea of Main Street comglomerate.