June 18th, 2020 - In late February 1998, I made my last visit to New York City prior to moving here. One of my tasks on that trip was to arrange for a private mailbox down in The Village, where I would be living. I chose The Golden Rabbit, a small shop which is part of the White Horse Tavern building. The little store sells cards, souvenirs, lottery tickets; they have fax and copy service, and private mailboxes for $15 a month, which includes package service. The couple who've run Golden Rabbit for some 25 years are so nice.
After meeting Wei, two weeks after I moved here, I added his name to the mailbox. He became friendly with the owners of the store. When, after five years of living on Perry Street, we moved up to Inwood, we always kept the mailbox; Wei or I would stop in every three or four days to pick up the mail.
When the White Horse Tavern (a designated historic landmark) was bought recently by a new landlord, he wanted to drastically increase the rent for the Golden Rabbit. The owner and tenant were trying to iron things out when the pandemic struck and everything shut down.
The Golden Rabbit re-opened in late May with reduced hours, and it soon became apparent that they could not sustain the business in the current atmosphere. And so they are closing as of June 30th, 2020.
Having a West Village address was a big deal for me: I'd waited so long to move to New York City, and at the time the Village was still wonderfully Bohemian, relatively inexpensive, and an oasis of drugs, sex, and rock n' roll. But today, when I went down to say goodbye to the couple, I realized how drastically things have changed. Restaurants and shops (mostly boarded up now) are for the most part unaffordable to mere mortals. Manatus closed years ago, as did the Chinese restaurant where we celebrated my 50th birthday. The piers where I used to sunbathe and misbehave have turned into a promenade for Latte-slurping, cellphone-addicted mothers wheeling double-wide baby strollers, whilst at the same time walking the dog.
So with the closing of the Golden Rabbit, it feels like a chapter of my life is coming to an end. I love it here in Inwood with its vastly diverse population, its beautiful park, great pizza and Chinese food, and laid-back atmosphere. But I'll always think fondly of the days we lived on Perry Street, where my longtime dream of living in Gotham came true.
~ Oberon