Things We Lost in 2008

Recently, every year seems to be a banner year of lost NYC institutions, but 2008 is one for the record books.  Here are ten off the top of my head:

Wall Street 

(If you think that one way arrow should be pointing down, realize that it is pointing south.) 

However Wall Street survives, it's going to be drastically transformed with the loss of 40% of the Dow's value since its high last October, and the fall of some of the largest investment banks around including:

 

Bear Stearns

 

(Photo:  Reuters:  Eric Thayer)

Lehman Brothers

 

Merrill Lynch

(All clients of mine as recently as this past summer). 

The New York Sun

 

Photo by Lee Clower for W Magazine

Philippe de Montebello

Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1977!  He officially steps down tomorrow.

 

Yankee Stadium

 

Shea Stadium

 

Photo by Noah Kalina, New York Magazine

Florent, the mainstay that helped give birth to the new Meatpacking District, a neighborhood that closed it down in a move sharper than a serpent's tooth.  And speaking of gentrification...

 

Rent, the musical which dealt with changes in the East Village and ran on Broadway for twelve years, closed this summer. 

Several more long-running shows announced their closing this year (see our December 12th blog).  Nine Broadway theaters are yet to be booked for the spring.

Are there any other major omissions you can think of?  Leave a comment.

Comments

[Cayce]

Personally, you & I lost our minds a few times in 2008. We seemed to have recovered them, however. There is truly nothing like owning your own business.