Second Wave (Allison Joyce)
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A tide of rankled residents on Manhattan’s West Side can kiss their clean underwear goodbye.
One of the last Laundromats in Hell’s Kitchen shuttered last week, forcing residents between 51st and 67th Streets to take cabs to clean their clothes, throw “champagne and laundry parties” in apartments with washing machines, and scrub their knickers in the sink.
The loss of the Laundromat on 53rd Street and Ninth Avenue has created a mile-long, laundry-less desert between Eighth and Tenth Avenues.
“The Laundromats are fleeing our area,” said Christine Gorman, president of the West 55th Block Association. “The services in our neighborhood are disappearing. There’s rumors that the Laundromat is going to become a Citibank. We have to go farther and farther away, and we’re worried about our quality of life.”
Carl Bevelhymer, 31, said there was one upside to getting stranded in the Midwest during last week’s blizzard: it was easier for him to wash his clothes there.
“I brought my laundry home to Michigan because it was easier than washing it in my neighborhood,” said Bevelhymer, who has resorted to paying double to use a dry cleaner’s drop-off service. “A Laundromat is like a privately owned public utility. It’s like having running water or a grocery store. This is a deal-breaker for me with the neighborhood.”
Last September, Second Wave Laundry, the largest Laundromat in the neighborhood on 55th Street and Ninth Avenue, had its last spin cycle when the landlord threatened to raise the rent from $14,000 to $20,000 a month and demanded an $80,000 security deposit.
“These people are almost in tears,” said Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who has introduced a resolution to give tax breaks to owner-operated city businesses. “This is the most basic challenge to the crisis of the lack of mom-and-pop stores in the city. It’s beyond frustrating.”
“I dragged my laundry through the snow, slush and backed-up traffic over to 51st and Tenth Avenue,” said stylist Kathy Kalafut, who lives on 55th Street and Eighth Avenue. “Our neighborhood’s lost half a dozen grocery stores and delis over the past few years, and gotten a bank on every corner. I’d just like a place to do laundry!”