The fix is in and uptown

WHEN phones had operators and women wore underwear, 86th Street was big.

Called Yorkville or

Germantown. European restaurants, entertainment, theaters, the country’s oldest “art” motion picture palace.

Now — cheerless buildings. Historic Casino Theatre demolished to put up another building. Apartments. Yorkshire Towers, the Ventura, Harper, Alyn, Hayworth, Lucida, Arloparc, 1931’s landmarked Papaya King. Old, older, some new.

Residents once: Marilyn, Brando, Matt Damon, Zero Mostel, Renée Fleming, Isaac

Bashevis Singer. The street’s now lost its mojo.

Like Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda, 86th Street is getting a makeover. Rejuicing it creates more talk than Rikers. Our Town columnist Arlene Kayatt says an Asian market’s coming. Plans include a performing arts venue, places to please young’uns, redo the Met into a cultural center. Up the whole corridor. Remember what it once was.

I can smell the wiener schnitzel now.