'Jimi Hendrix Way' Could Bring Bohemian Spirit Back To Greenwich Village

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY – Jimi Hendrix fans want the city to recognize the mark the guitar god left on the former center of the world for all things Bohemian, Greenwich Village.

A block of West Eighth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues – the street where the Foxey Lady and Purple Haze star opened his Electric Lady Studios just before his death in 1970 – could soon be named "Jimi Hendrix Way" if a campaign is successful, the New York Times reports.

Though the music studio has survived, the block is now filled with upscale restaurants, nail salons, coffee shops and the vacant storefronts that have plagued the village as property owners demand higher and higher rents, the Times said.

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“Gentrification is killing us,” Richard Geist, owner of Uncle Sam Army/Navy who's involved in the campaign, told the Times. “Eighth Street has lost the magic and we want to bring that magic back, and bring traffic back to help business.”

Co-naming a street in New York City involves community board approval before it goes to the full city council for a vote.
Lead image AP Photo, File