NY Times update on Harlem's missing "Big Apple"

It's New York City's symbol--of neglect, apparently.

In November 2006, I shared with Room Eight an e-mail I had received. A Popeye's fried chicken restaurant was being built on the corner of 135th Street and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard in Harlem. The iconic sign of the 'Big Apple" jazz club that had been there since 1934 was going to be destroyed, but this person had saved it and asked me how much it was worth. He put it up for sale on eBay.

I just shook my head.

No one preserved it? The Popeye's owner wasn't the least bit curious to simply Google and find my website and contact me? The Harlem Community Board gave the OK to simply tear the "Big Apple" down? Don't these people live there and know a damn thing about where they live?