Open Storefront Directory

Business turnover is constant in every neighborhood in New York: bakeries replace Mexican restaurants; glasses stores replace butcher shops. In his essay, “City Limits,” Colson Whitehead wrote about this change as a natural condition of New York. But what if the experience of being in a neighborhood––the experience of that very change––has itself changed? With the rise of e-commerce, social media, and the Covid-19 pandemic, have New Yorkers begun approaching the storefronts in their neighborhoods differently? We have created a database of all the storefront businesses in New York City from 2010-Present using publicly available business data.