It’s officially a meme: The New York Times, following in the footsteps of WNYC and WCBS-TV, has an article today on how business at stores on 161st Street has cratered after the new Yankee Steakhouse and Baseball Stadium opened this year. A sample of the Times’ contribution to the genre:

While working in his father’s souvenir shop up the block, [Saeed Alawy of Pin Stripe Collectibles] recalled, there was no time to fold the T-shirts before selling them. Customers were lined up three and four deep at the counter yelling out orders and tossing wads of bills.

“They were throwing the money,” Mr. Alawy, 47, said.

Over the course of an hour on Monday, just 13 shoppers wandered into Pin Stripe Collectibles and Mr. Alawy made only four sales, for a total of $107.

One could nitpick that there wasn’t actually a game in the Bronx on Monday, but the other reports indicate that it’s a problem even on game days: The Yankee Tavern’s owner told WCBS that his business is off 20 percent this season, while the Concourse Card Shop’s is down by half. “This playoff is totally different,” Jeans Plus manager Abdul Traore told WNYC. “Saturday, I stayed here from the time the game start until 2 o’clock in the morning, I don’t even make a thousand dollars” — compared to $5,000 on a typical game night at the old stadium. Read more..

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A quiet preseason day at Stan’s Sports Bar, long a central watering hole for Yankee fans

 THIRTY feet. That is the distance between the entrance of Stan’s Sports Bar at 158th Street and River Avenue and the faded black sign affixed to the side of Yankee Stadium that says “Bleacher Entrance.” It is a third of the length between first and second base, easy strolling distance for the droves of Yankee fans who crowded in religiously each baseball season.

And for 30 years, this archetypal American sports bar, with wooden baseball bats as its door handles and sketches of Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig on its walls, has been a prime piece of Bronx real estate.

Until the Yankees moved across the street, and then it wasn’t.

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Bronx boosters are raring to turn this four-mile stretch into a pathway to a more sparkling future

The intersection of the Grand Concourse and 161st Street, as seen from the top of 888 Grand Concourse. Joyce Kilmer Park is in the center, with the Bronx County courthouse on the left, and Yankee Stadium in the background

The intersection of the Grand Concourse and 161st Street, as seen from the top of 888 Grand Concourse. Joyce Kilmer Park is in the center, with the Bronx County courthouse on the left, and Yankee Stadium in the background.

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NEW YORK, NY February 26, 2009 —The crisis that started on Wall Street is now hitting main streets everywhere. WNYC has started a new project called Main Street NYC to track the changes on five streets. Last month we took you to Smith street in Brooklyn. In the Bronx we’re going to 161 st Street just in the shadow of the new Yankee Stadium.

Visit Main Street NYC for more photos

Urban planners and developers have begun the process of converting this commercial strip into a global marketplace. A massive proposed rezoning has many long time Bronx residents watching this street closely. WNYC Elaine Rivera has the story.

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BurdenNEW YORK CITY-A 30-block swath of the South Bronx would be rezoned to include 3,400 housing units and as much as 841,000 square feet of new commercial space under a plan the Bloomberg administration released on Monday. The unveiling marks the beginning of the public review process for the rezoning along the southern end of the Grand Concourse, part of the “South Bronx Initiative” first announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006.

At present, the neighborhood is predominantly industrial, with about 20% of the building space vacant, according to the Department of City Planning. The industrial sector would be protected under the new zoning, but the city also hopes to encourage the development of market-rate and affordable housing to accommodate the South Bronx’s increasing residential population. Current zoning in the so-called Lower Concourse district does not allow residential development. Read more..

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