Record Tony to be evicted

oneoneone

"Record & Tape Center" proprietor Tony is getting jerked around by his
landlord after 31 years at his 5th and 9th location. According to
article (linked below) landlord owns several delis, wants the space for
himself and is bouncing the store at the end of the month. :evil:

Tony's a quality individual and I like having him and his store around.

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"Record riot! Eviction will end four decades of selling LPs in Slope
By Evan Gardner
for The Brooklyn Paper

It’s nearly the day the music died in Park Slope.

The Record and Tape Center, a dusty, cramped record store that has occupied the same spot on Fifth Avenue, near Ninth Street, for the past 38 years, will be shuttered by May 31, the result of an eviction notice that store owner Tony Mignone said came out of the blue.

“The letter just arrived at the beginning of the month,” said Mignone, who opened his store on Fifth Avenue and Sixth Street in 1965, and moved to his present location in 1971. “I’ve never even been late on my rent!”

According to the letter, the landlords, a family that owns several grocery stores in the neighborhood, including the Deli and Smoke Shop next door, do not want to renew the lease and will take Mignone to court if he does not clear out.
Brooklyn Bridge Realty

“If he’s still there [on May 31], we’ll go to court,” said John Wilson, the family’s lawyer. Wilson said that he doesn’t know the owner’s plans for the store, but all he knows is that the owner “wants to use it for himself.”

Despite the threat, Mignone, who spends his days amid rows of records and cassettes, has no intention of leaving.

“I don’t even have a Plan A,” said Mignone, 73, who has been on a month-to-month lease since last fall. “If you move someplace else, you gotta start all over again. I can’t do that. All those years I put into it, and now I just gotta walk away? That’s crazy!”

Crazier still, perhaps, is Mignone’s store itself. Looks like a graveyard of musical and video formats, boxes and shelves are filled to the brim with vinyl records while walls are covered with shelves of cassette and VHS tapes. By the front door, there is a glass case full of 8-track tapes. Most of his stock is second- or third-hand, and most dates from the 1980s or earlier, giving the entire store the feel of a time capsule.

If he can hold out, though, it looks like demand may be returning for Mignone’s esoteric merchandise.

Having dominated the musical market for most of the 20th century, records fell out of favor in the late 1980s with the introduction of the compact disc. But renewed interest in vinyl’s sound quality, which many argue is superior to the digitized coldness of modern formats, has recently led to increased sales. Over the last four years, vinyl record sales have nearly doubled every year.

Still, Mignone’s friends are trying to convince him to face the music.

“[The landlords] have sent him threats in the past, but it looks like they’re serious this time,” said Neal Goldstein, who is also Mignone’s lawyer.

One customer suggested that Mignone move to Williamsburg — but others dismissed the idea outright.

“Williamsburg doesn’t need another f–ing record store!” said another, older customer. “We need you here!”

And he’ll stay — for two more weeks."

sharpie

SEE OTHER THREAD FOR LONGER DISCUSSION. RECORD + TAPE CENTER TO CLOSE.

MOD

Thanks for your post OneOne,
Here's the other discussion
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50756

Locking this just to help keep discussion in one place