NEW VIDEO; East 8th Street Between Bway and University Place-- It's Not "The Village" Anymore, But What Is It?

Granted, this couple of blocks of the Village were always sort of drab an "un-Villagey" anyway, but they had touches that made it part of the greater scene

The pioneering modern furniture store Maurice Villency left years and years ago...

The famous Art Movie Theater, where the local audience knew a lot of the revival films by heart and would break into applause every so often, after, say, a good dance routine by Jimmy Cagney, has been replaced by a severe "Film Studies Center" run by NYU, which owns most everything around here

Most notably, the TOURISTS are gone...rather sterile upscale coffee places and stores have knocked out the old supermarket, the ancient Chinese restaurant that had a picture of the young Barbra Streisand eating there for so many years, and  typically, the eatery called "The Cookery "(which featured jazz pianists) at University Place in now a bank branch....but with the outdoor table space still there, which is weird--and finally, Brentano's Bookstore is now a CVS....etc.

So sandwiched between the still historic Grace Church area on Bway and the Washington Mews area on University is this strange new area, which is ...well, it's not really the Upper East Side exactly ( as people once predicted for it), --but what is it?

See for yourself at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dja11K6V9Qo

Note: I added some music (Bach) to this an hour ago but it still has not been processed by Youtube now..well, it may never be, knowing YouTube