A group of lawmakers rallied Friday to stop the eviction of Jimmy\u2019s Corner, the last remaining dive bar near Times Square.<\/p>\n
Jimmy’s has been serving beers and shots since 1971, when the Crossroads of the World was a notorious epicenter of porn shops and skullduggery. The bar’s founder, Jimmy Glenn, died of COVID-19 in 2020, and his son Adam Glenn has since taken over. The landlord, the Durst Organization, wants to sell the building, and argues in court documents it could terminate the bar\u2019s lease upon the founder\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The younger Glenn filed a lawsuit in December in an attempt to halt the eviction, arguing the bar\u2019s lease doesn\u2019t expire until 2029. Now, some elected officials say the bar is a symbol of small businesses being priced out by landlords.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said during Friday\u2019s rally that the pending eviction was a reason to pass their proposed Small Business Rent Stabilization Act, which would limit rent hikes and guarantee lease renewals for businesses that don\u2019t owe back rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we are here rallying to save Jimmy’s, this problem is bigger than a single bar. This is about the fact that small businesses are being squeezed out of our city,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cWhile there was a lot of focus on doing this at the city level \u2026 it’s time for us to act through state law to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glenn said the legislation wouldn\u2019t save the bar because he\u2019s not being priced out by rent, but argued it would \u201chelp protect the next Jimmy’s Corner, the next business that builds themselves up, that puts themselves in a position to provide their family a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jimmy\u2019s Corner sticks out compared to its neighbors. In an area filled with high-priced tourist traps, most of the drinks at the bar cost less than $5 and its walls are adorned with boxing memorabilia.<\/p>\n
Regulars say the bar is special because it attracts people from all walks of life.<\/p>\n
\u201dOne night I was here, there were people just coming in dressed like they were going to the Tony’s, and it was a couple of construction workers that were right next to them,\u201d said Melvin Jones who has been visiting the bar for almost 30 years.<\/p>\n
Durst Organization spokesperson Jovana Rizzo wrote in a statement that the company let the bar stay for years while paying just $5,000 in base rent \u201cdue to the personal relationship with Jimmy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have done our best to be good neighbors, and we regret it has come to this,\u201d Rizzo added.<\/p>\n
The company wants to sell the lot to a housing developer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place is a community staple. It’s an important part of New York City. It’s what makes it vibrant and alive,\u201d said Dan Holton-Roth, a lawyer and friend of one of Jimmy\u2019s Corner\u2019s longterm bartenders. \u201cWe don’t need more luxury condos. There’s plenty of those in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glenn said that if the beloved bar gets evicted, he will find it a new location.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if we’re going win, but what I do know is we’re winning today. They wanted us out in November and we’re still here,” he said. \u201cI’ve told everyone: No matter how this fight goes I’ll fight it till the bitter end. There’ll always be a Jimmy’s corner in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of lawmakers rallied Friday to stop the eviction of Jimmy\u2019s Corner, the last remaining dive bar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-192962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}