Lower East Side

The Lower East Side is home to "Alphabet City" so named because most of the avenues have letters rather than numbers or names. Originally known for its slums and tenements the area also was a hot spot of drug activity especially along Avenues A,B,C and D east of fist Avenue. The area has changed dramatically over the past 25 years and is today a hipster hang-out with many nice restaurants and bars next to small shops that retain the original off-beat and funky nature of the neighborhood.

The area has retained its punk and artsy vibe and offers several venues for music and entertainment. Popular places include the Spitzer's Corner offering one of the city;s larges selection of beers, the Laugh Lounge, which offers comedy performances, heavy metal music at the Mercury Lounge, along with free musical shows at the Piano Bar. if you just want some good conversation head over to Local 138 on Ludlow Street which offers an eclectic mix of people and friendly vibe.

The Tenement Museum is located at 97 Orchard Street tells the life stories of those who resided at 97 Orchard Street. The building was home to nearly 7000 immigrant families since its construction in 1873. The museum offers guided tours that recreate immigrant life in the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum is a must-see for New York City History buffs.

Another area attraction is the Essex Street Market located at 120 Essex Street on the corner of Delancy. The Essex Street Market just turned 70 and offers a wide selection of foods tthat includes gourmet cheeses, prime cuts of meat fresh fish and a host of other products to satisfy every taste.

With regard to housing, rents in the area are relatively inexpensive although creeping upward as the area continues to gentrify. This is a popular area for students since it is a quick walk west to NYU and Cooper Union. While in times past it might not have been wise to venture forth at night, this is no longer the case and many young hipsters can be found hanging out into the wee hours.

The one major downside is that transportation to the area is poor with a long walk to the subway. You can take the F or V train to Delancey Street or the J,M, or Z to Essex Street and work north several blocks. Buses to the area include the M9 to Essex Street or the M14 to the Lower East Side.

Being the homebody I am this would not be my preferred area to visit (except for the museum and market), the neighborhood is a sure destination for out-and-about hipsters since it offers a unique blend of the sketchy with the upscale.

The Lower East Side of Manhattan has changed enormously in the last 30 years. It used to be quite seedy, and Alphabet City (Avenues A, B, C, and D, which are east of First Avenue) was well-known as the place for drug addicts. But that has mostly changed. Today, it's a hip yuppy atmosphere for the most part with fine restaurants alongside a few stores that maintain the neighborhood's original funky character and immigrant roots. There are quite a few historical synagogues in the area, too.

The Lower East Side is still a bit up and coming, and it's trendy enough that rents are not all that cheap anymore. I have become very fond of the area. In years past, I didn't feel safe walking around a lot of this neighborhood at night. That's no longer the case, so I often find myself in the area having dinner with someone. The gentrification has been a bit distressing to those who want to hold on to the neighborhood's history, and I can understand that. But I appreciate the fact that it's a safer place to be now, and it's still a youthful and vibrant neighborhood.

If you're a health nut, this is your 'hood. I suspect there are more health food stores in this area, many of which specialize in raw foods, than any other in the city. In fact, if I need raw foods beyond what the average health food store carries, this is where I go.

The Lower East Side strikes the perfect balance between old, gritty New York and the new hipster-fueled gentrification. The hard-living, hard-drinking rock and roll vibe is still alive and well on the streets and in the bars and music venues, but you don’t have to look too far for a charming café or a vintage dress shop, either. For this reason, the LES is decidedly one of the “It” spots to hang out and/or live in New York. Streets like Ludlow and Orchard fuse punk rock and artsy attitudes to offer a little bit of something for everyone – everyone often meaning New York’s “bright young things.”

While scenesters broaden their beer horizons with a long brew menu at Spitzer’s Corner, big groups of friends catch a comedy show at Laugh Lounge. While bachelor and bachelorette parties ride the bull at Mason Dixon, hipsters throw back PBR at Welcome to the Johnson’s. While downtown fashionistas score the next big trend at Pixie Market, vintage lovers find the perfect pair of 1960’s Chanel kitten heels at Daha Vintage. While metalheads headbang at the Mercury Lounge, punks find their new favorite band while standing at a perfectly beer-soaked floor at Cake Shop. From free shows at popular bar Pianos to locals-only conversation at Local 138, the Lower East Side gives its too-cool natives special treatment – but is pretty nice to trendy visitors from other neighborhoods, too, with spots like Essex, Back Room and The Delancey. Day or night, the Lower East Side is a go-to destination for whatever you need or want to do, and the fact that is perfectly epitomizes New York’s spirit helps, too.

The Lower East Side is alive and well. Those who think it's lost its swagger may be glorifying the 80s and 90s too much. It's the same age as it was, only we are older...

The LES is still a funky, off beat, Urban oasis where edge meets expense. It's hip, trendy, and pricey...but I'd rather spend my money here than most midtown stores.

Boutiques are still in and vegan hubs like Baby Cakes--the best vegan cakes in the world. Street markets and Whole Foods make quality food shopping fun and easy. Narrow streets, old buildings, it's still rustic and charm and character.

LES offers plenty of places to drink and sample aspiring artists and opportunities to join them. Some older folks camp out in front of various stoops sipping coffee or wine (depending on the hour), spilling tidbits of wisdom and spreading local legends.

There is some low income housing, the streets are a bit confusing, and some annoying street riff raff, but that’s always been the case. Crime could be worse, but do be careful late at night, as it’s easy to make a wrong turn down the wrong alley…

Still, for those that like to life with a little edge, the LES still has enough to rub off on you.

The Lower East Side was known for decades for its tenement housing and slums. Then it was known for large Jewish and then Latino populations. Now it’s known for its hipsters. I could sigh dramatically for the Place That Was the LES, but why bother? It seems like most ethnic places in Manhattan have been scrubbed clean of their interesting bits of grit and coated with shellac.

While I wouldn’t say the results of gentrification in the Lower East Side are dramatically different than other neighborhoods, I would say that the change is remarkable. What was more recently a low-rent, kind of shady neighborhood with families and generations growing under the same roof is now a trendy place, desperately seeking cool. Kosher delis have been overtaken by organic smoothie bars. Cramped apartments have been converted into exposed brick residences for the upwardly mobile.

The neighborhood is fine, don’t get me wrong. It still has a considerable trend factor, though lacking a bit of the edge that used to make it a kind of dangerous, exciting place to go drinking in the evenings. There are all the conveniences that make living in New York great. There are clubs and bars and diners. It’s just lost a lot of the feel of what used to make the Lower East Side the Lower East side. Plus, it’s difficult to get to and from places like Alphabet City by train, which is just a pain.

The Lower East Side has become more of an extension of Soho than anything else - every inch has been overtaken by something that hopes to offer trendiness, be it in the form of food, clothing, or bar-slash-music-venue. These days I hear it's still okay for hipsters to maintain their image by sneaking into the LES only on weekdays, as weekends draw in something other than a hipster crowd. (Though I am not convinced that hipsters leave Williamsburg all that often.)

Anyway, this neighborhood has seen a lot of turnover in the last five years in terms of shops and especially in terms of restaurants. The young hipsters who could barely afford to live here in 2005 have since been driven across the Williamsburg bridge, however, and it seems like the yuppies are increasingly moving in. Either that or the hipsters that staked out the place when it was still predominately a Hispanic neighborhood are just aging?

Traditionally a working class and immigrant-filled neighborhood, you won't believe what's happened to this place recently. It was famously a center of Jewish culture, and later was settled by immigrants from Latin America. One report has it that at the height of its artiest art scene in the 1980's The Lower East Side had some 200 galleries, most of them devoted to non-commercial and outsider art. There was also a time in the 1990's in which the Lower East Side was quite a destination for the hottest indie musicians in the city. Those in the know pretty much agree the Lower East Side's music and art scenes are now both lame, with the real artists and venues having all moved to Brooklyn. So, the area's most recent settlers have been ferocious yuppies. Orchard Street is now lined with chrome and glass boutiques and upscale restaurants. It is also currently a favorite night-life scene for those Manhattan yuppies who don't live in the Lower East Side but like to party there. The result in actual time is a neighborhood in which the old and the new are thrown together in odd and dizzying juxtaposition. To wit, the fabulous and famous eateries like El Castillo de Jagua (Latin, Dominican), Katz' Deli (Old World Jewish) and Teany (hipster vegan) are all within a block or two of each other. The mix is still interesting, though gentrifying and overloading with hipsters at an astonishing rate.

The Lower East Side is rich in quintessential New York City history. From the touching Lower East Side Tenement Museum (and surrounding former tenement buildings) to the delis on many corner, the LES, as it is often known, speaks to New York City's immigrant, particularly Jewish immigrant, past. It's less of a Jewish enclave today, but there is a significant Jewish population (including a small section that is nearly entirely Hasidic), and names like Katz's Deli, the Bialystokr Synagogue, Gus's Pickes, and Knickerbocker Village all evoke a sense of the Lower East Side's cultural character.

Today, however, this cultural character is somewhat threatened by the neighborhood's trendiness. The still-surviving fabric sales and unassuming delis are forced to compete with hot new bars, poetry slam clubs, art galleries, and other sigils of gentrification. That said, venues like Cake Shop, Pianos, and art gallery ABC No Rio are certainly exciting, and have a charm all their own. It is a pity, however, that that charm comes at the expense of much of the neighborhood's working-class roots.

Being an immigrant in NYC , it’s hardly surprising that one of my favorite neighborhoods in the big apple is the gritty and somewhat grotty neighborhood of the Lower East Side. This historic neighborhood has an important place in the history of the melting pot that is New York City for it has traditionally always been occupied by immigrants. From the Italian, German, and Ukrainian immigrants who came here from Europe at the turn of the century to the Latin Americans who were then followed them to the present-day occupants of the neighborhood who seem to hail from Bangladesh in South Asia, the Lower East Side has always been welcoming of foreign peoples.

The neighborhood, whose boundaries stretch west from the East River to the south of East Houston Street, was initially a Jewish enclave and evidence of this exists until today in the form of the sizable Orthodox Jewish community that continues to reside here. Several historic kosher delis like the renowned Katz Deli (well known for its melt in the mouth pastrami) and Russ and Daughters which sells a large variety of Jewish specialties like smoked fish, lox, bagels and excellent pastries like babka, halvah and rugalach cater to the various needs of this old and established community. Additionally the neighborhood also has within its folds several historic synagogues like the Bialystoker Synagogue Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, the Eldridge Street Synagogue and Kehila Kedosha Janina.
Aside from these synagogues, the Lower East Side has several other historic sites like the Tenement Museum which is a fascinating institution located on Orchard Street that catalogs the lives and history of the immigrants who once called this section of New York City home. Guided tours of the neighborhood are offered by the museum help tourists and even locals explore the neighborhood better.

The Lower East Side was in fact once known as the original 'Bargain district' of New York as it was filled with discount retail stores that were owned and operated by these hard working and industrious immigrants. These retail stores essentially catered to the diverse needs of the various immigrant communities who lived there. Some of these discount retail stores continue to exist along Stanton, Ludlow and Rivington Streets and sell a wide variety of merchandise like competitively priced leather goods, household goods, luggage and discounted apparel.

However, over the past few years the neighborhood like many other old enclaves of New York City has been undergoing a rapid gentrification and now in addition to its historic sites, the Lower East Side is also well known for its many hip boutiques, bars and eateries like Pala, the Clinton Street Baking Company, Café Charbon, Verlaine, Kampuchea Noodle Bar, WD*50, Stanton Social and Teany (a tea lounge owned and operated by the musician Moby) which have helped to transform this historic neighborhood into a much sought after party district in New York City.

My family roots are in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My grandparents lived and died there and my dad was born and raised there. I spent many, many good times in my grandmother's apartment, looking out over the fire escape to the streets below. And I loved to visit the neighborhood shops and restaurants and come away with a "bargain." Sadly, quite a bit of what "was" the Lower East Side is gone, having been replaced with much needed renovation and some out-of-place new construction. Still, if you know where to look, the old, original Lower East Side still exists. Formerly a neighborhood filled with immigrants and the center of Jewish culture in New York, you can still stroll down Orchard Street, Hester Street, Essex, Grand, Delancy and Houston Streets and find what made the Lower East Side the "go to" place for New York bargains, especially on Sunday mornings, when the original Lower East Side business people come out to sell their wares in the little shops. One of my favorite places for a "nosh" is Yonah Schimmel's on E. Houston Street. They sell knishes of all varieties and have been there since FOREVER (actually, since 1910) in the SAME LOCATION. It looks like a dive, but their knishes are melt-in-your mouth goodness. Also on E. Houston Street is another culinary landmark - Katz's Delicatessen, which has been serving humongous sandwiches since 1888. But aside from gastronomical delights, the Lower East Side is a good place to live if you have to live in Manhattan, even though it has become pricey and populated by young professionals who enjoy the new night life that has invaded the area.

I don't mean to sound bitter, but I just hate to see the Lower East Side lose its personality and morph into another upscale, vanilla neighborhood without any character. Thankfully there are enough remnants of the past to keep the Lower East Side authentic to its roots. If I had to live in Manhattan, here is where I'd choose to live (if I could afford it). There are still lots of tenement houses in the area that are walk-ups (meaning you have to walk up the stairs to the 4th, 5th or 6th floors -- no elevators) and you pay dearly for that privilege. But the Lower East Side has come up in the world from where it was. It's cleaner, sleeker, more modern and definitely more accessible. I am very positive about the neighborhood. I just hope that progress doesn't ruin the historical significance of this neighborhood that is dear to my heart.

I had an apartment in the Lower East Side until rent became too expensive, but it’s still my favorite neighborhood in Manhattan. That is to say, it is one of the neighborhoods which still feel a little like NYC before the gentrification turned the island into a mall for the wealthy. I know people who manage to live in cheap places in the LES, but they pay the price of living in slightly dingy and small spaces. The things that keep me returning to this neighborhood are the nightlife, the galleries and the proximity to Chinatown. For nightlife the LES can’t be beat. There are plenty of hip bars which don’t yet cost an arm and a leg, and where people are still friendly. The gallery district around Chrystie street is still active, and although much of the work is crappy, most things you see in Chelsea galleries are just more polished crap. And finally, if you walk to the bottom of Chrystie you’ll be in Chinatown, with all the great fish markets, scamming street vendors and activity. In short, a great place for people watching.

You know everything they say about the gentrification of New York? The Lower East Side is a prime example. When I was growing up it was mostly older, mostly Jewish. The fact that the subway is a little bit hard to access (for many parts of the neighborhood, only the F train, which is annoyingly infrequent, is convenient) kept it affordable for a long time, and probably keeps it down in price a little bit (though if they ever build the 2nd avenue subway line that will change). In the past 10 years most of the old, discount stores have closed, replaced by chic, ultra-expensive shops and boutiques. There is very little cheap anything in this area anymore. Like everywhere else in the city, it's become a very expensive place to live. There is also a lot of renovating of old buildings into luxury apartments. This is contrasted with a few truly hideous newer buildings, the tallest in the area, that look bizarre against the old buildings and lend a cheap air to the area. As in much of Manhattan, primarily luxury residences are being built. The one high point of all this has been the food - you can get truly excellent food in this neighborhood now (in restaurants), though the closest fancy supermarket is still at Union Square. The people are mostly yuppies. This means that the neighborhood is filled with high-income young couples with very young children. The parts that aren't are occupied by hipsters (young single people who tend to like to party). The overall result is that unless you fit into one of those two groups, I would not recommend this neighborhood, but if you do and you have the money it might be a better-value location than much of the rest of Manhattan.