3/30/2023 0 Comments Grounded coffee shop![]() ![]() I am saddened that I have to write this article in an unfamiliar place. Now, as the owner of the bar next door tells me, the latest padlock that I saw on her door is permanent. The lack of a wine and beer license financially hurt a great deal over the years, but it was the mandatory lockdown due to Covid that did in her business. The only person who really seemed to have been disabled was Jen, who lost a significant portion of her precious, tiny kitchen space to the ridiculously gigantic bathroom she was made to install. Over the years, both before and after the emergency bathroom installation, I only saw a wheelchair patron once. So, the inspector shut her business down on the spot, and it remained closed for a week while Jen hurriedly tried to find a contractor to rectify the “emergency.” Apparently, a city inspector had shown up one day and declared that the bathroom was too small to accommodate a wheelchair, which was true. Then there was the time I stopped by to do some writing and saw a padlock on the door and some sort of official notice from the mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (or some such agency). For example, for years she unsuccessfully tried to get a simple license to serve wine and beer, something that some of her more politically connected competitors seemed to have less trouble obtaining. Throughout this time, I sympathized as I saw Jen struggle to make a living from her business, a struggle made harder by capricious and callous city and state government officials. Over the years, I met playwrights, plenty of Columbia students who liked to take the subway down from Columbia’s Upper Manhattan campus to the West Village, and people who earned a living in odd ways, such as the Caucasian fellow who wrote English subtitles for Chinese movies that he watched all day, every day at the coffee shop. Its eclectic atmosphere, loaded with plants and quirky West Village New York City people, its longtime employees, many of whom I knew by name, and its friendly owner, Jen, all combined to create an atmosphere that encouraged creativity. Grounded was simply my favorite place to write. I wrote ⅓ of my doctoral dissertation there, as I did many of my articles that have appeared on this august website. ![]() ![]() I did some of my best writing there, including my favorite article, “ Property Rights and the Crisis of the Electric Grid,” which contains the fruit of my 15 years experience working on Wall Street as an electric utility analyst and investor, and proposes a novel way to deregulate the electricity industry. I had been a regular at Grounded since shortly after it opened in 2004. This happens just as colder weather has begun to end the benefit of outdoor sidewalk dining, which since June has been the only lifeline for restaurants and bars trying to make money during the pandemic.īut it is too little, too late for the half of all restaurants and bars that will never reopen.Īmong those victims is my favorite coffee bar in the city, Grounded, which used to reside at 28 Jane Street in the West Village in Manhattan. ![]() Just a few days ago, the City finally permitted indoor dining, but in only ¼ of available restaurant space. It is now estimated that half of all bars and restaurants in New York City will close forever, as a result of the loss of customers due to fears of Covid transmission, mandatory lockdowns, and the slow pace of reopening. ![]()
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