Doing laundry is one of the daily chores along with washing dishes and taking out the trash, but unfortunately, in Hell's Kitchen, where laundromats have closed, this essential task seems to be a lot harder to accomplish than it used to be.
While I was out of town last week, I got an email from a neighbor informing me that the ASAN Laundromat on 10th Avenue at the corner of West 51st Street had closed for good. A handwritten sign on the door said the laundromat was “no longer there” and provided a phone number to call to pick up your laundry or dry cleaning. Several of the triple-tray washers had been broken for months, so I had a hunch that something was up.
On a windy January morning, I rushed to the laundromat early (to avoid the crowds) and it hadn't even opened yet. Still, there was already a line outside, and a small group waiting at the deli across the street. As soon as the rolling gates were raised, a crowd flooded inside, even before the lights were on. By the time I paid for my coffee at the deli and got to the laundromat, most of the operating washing machines were in use.
This is the second laundromat to close on West 50th Street in less than a year, leaving Hell's Kitchen with just seven locations. Four are concentrated on West 40th Street, while the others are more spread out, with two on West 30th Street and only one remaining on West 50th Street.
In this district, lined with pre-war tenement buildings, it was once common to see clotheslines crisscrossing between the buildings. Back then, doing laundry meant carrying a pot of water upstairs to boil it on the stove and then scrubbing it by hand. If you lived on a lower floor, the advantage of having to climb fewer stairs was the risk of water dripping from your upstairs neighbor's clothesline onto your own. Those days are long gone, replaced by commercial washers and dryers.
While researching the history of laundromats in Hell's Kitchen, I came across a 2011 Gothamist article titled, “A lack of laundromats is leaving Hell's Kitchen desperate and filthy.” At the time, the closures of laundry facilities were blamed on gentrification, and there was not a single laundromat along a nearly mile-long stretch between W 51st and W 67th Streets, between 8th and 10th Avenues.
The Laundromat Cafe at 439 West 50th Street (bw 9th/10th Ave) was the first to close last fall. Opened in the early 2000s by Jadite Gallery & Framing owner Roland Sainz, the Laundromat Cafe was so named because it offered free coffee to customers. After 15 years in business, Roland sold the business to a neighbor who then sold his business again, resulting in the Laundromat Cafe closing in 2023.
Reflecting on his time running the laundromat, Rowland told W42ST, “A laundromat is a good business if you know how to run it. If you don't know how to run it, you'll fail.” To save on costly repair bills, Rowland trained his employees on basic repairs on fuses and belts, as well as regular maintenance like removing excess lint from dryer drums. The basement of his Laundromat Cafe was full of spare parts, allowing repairs to be made quickly.
Further south, the BKM Laundromat at 525 9th Avenue (bw W39/40th St) was listed as the address for a legal cannabis dispensary operated by Astor Club NYC. At Manhattan Community Board 4's (MCB4) February Cannabis Task Force meeting, the applicant said it has ties to the building's owner. MCB4 member Joe Restuccia commented, “This location is a laundromat that the owner installed years ago that is heavily used by the neighborhood. To approve a location that replaces a business… there are no more laundromats on 9th Avenue, and this is a staple business in the neighborhood.” The proposed legal dispensary was rejected by the board in March by a vote of 19-16.
The lack of laundromats in my neighborhood has been a concern for me for the past few years, as people are increasingly waiting for their washing machines. I've even pitched the idea of a laundromat bar to my neighbors as a way to offset laundry costs with beer and wine sales.
In the UK, laundry co-operatives have sprung up to fill a gap in much-needed services. Kitty's Laundry in the Everton district of Liverpool is “member-owned” and run by a not-for-profit organisation, which reinvests profits from customers back into the business and keeps laundry prices close to cost. Is this a model that Hell's Kitchen could replicate?
As I write this, I'm on the train to New Jersey to visit my family, bringing a duffel bag full of laundry to be washed for free at my mom's house. When I get tired of waiting for my local washer to be free, will this be my new normal? Or will I pay for a laundry delivery service? This is a service I've never wanted to try before, because I actually enjoy The act of doing laundry.
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