Economy
The Life and Death of Local Institutions
Amid threats of closure, mainstays like Carnegie Deli in New York and the Kingfish in Oakland feel like essential parts of a city's culture.
On their lurching routes through New York City, hop-on, hop-off buses used to pull to a stop at 55 th Street and Seventh Avenue. Their passengers would tumble out hungry and head into Carnegie Deli, where they’d consume $30 worth of corned beef and pastrami in a sandwich named after Woody Allen.
But on April 24, 2015, the Carnegie Deli closed, and the buses stopped coming. ConEd workers had discovered evidence of an illegal gas connection in the restaurant; rumors spread that it would never reopen. “It was heartbreaking,” Marian Harper, the Carnegie owner and president, tells CityLab.