INWOOD — The recent announcement that a Dyckman Street laundromat would close in June to make way for a restaurant has brought renewed attention to the number of eating and drinking establishments along a two-block stretch of the street — leaving some residents to wonder how much is too much.
“I don’t need more restaurants. I have five restaurants on Dyckman already," said Juana Peña, a customer of Duce Laundry at 267 Dyckman St., when she heard about its closing and the plan to replace it with another restaurant.
"It's enough."
The number of eating and drinking establishments on the north side of Dyckman Street, between Broadway and Payson Avenue, totals 11 over the two-block stretch. All but two have opened since 2007.
In the map below, eating and drinking venues are marked in green, while service businesses are marked in blue.
As bars and restaurants along this strip have sprouted, other small businesses have closed due to rising costs.
Most recently, the 26-year-old Dyckman Seaman Grocery closed in July 2014 due to a sharp increase in property taxes. The restaurant Mama Sushi expanded into the space vacated by the shop.
Three non-restaurant businesses remain in the area, including a small grocery store, an auto-supply shop and a boutique.
Proponents of the nightlife spots argue that they have helped to revitalize a once-downtrodden strip and bring jobs to the area.
However, many residents lamented the loss of service-oriented businesses like Duce Laundry.
“I need that Laundromat. I go there weekly,” Tagan Lisko Rios wrote in response to the news. “Now are we to carry our laundry five blocks away?”
