sandr085

This tiny place is either called Broadway Shoe Repair or Ban's Shoe Repair. (The signs vary.) It is at 272 Broadway, under the shadow of the Marcy Avenue elevated JMZ subway track. It's one of the last really old looking shops on that strip, which has become crowded with crummy chain stores. Note that, despite the narrow frontage, the shop managed to have an indented entrance and glass display cases on either side. Based on Yelp reviews I've read, the little shop boasts great service and low prices. Seems to be a vestige of an old-fashioned merchant work ethic.

Klenosky Paint on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was the first shop I showcased in the running column "A Perfect Storefront," a feature I occasionally use to spotlight what I called at the time "Gothamite street art, coming in the form of conscious, sub-conscious or unconscious mercantile design." "What makes a perfect storefront?" I continued in that first column, which ran January 2010. "Well, a lot of things. Originality, for one. That doesn't mean the store owner has to be self-consciously bizarre or artful, just that they show a little character and individuality. One should be able to tell that the store is owned by a person or a family, not a corporation or chain... Great storefronts are almost always accidents of time, putting themselves together in haphazard style with the flipping calendar." There's further philosophizing here , should you wish to read it. Apparently, Klenosky didn't see the beauty of their o...