forbidden LES

I love being a college student in the city. Most of all, I love that if it weren’t for a lack of funds, I’d always have something entertaining to do. Unfortunately, on the Lower East Side, I also need to be two years older to do some of the things I would want to. No, not frequent the plethora of bars, but attend shows at the 21 plus music venues scattered throughout the neighborhood.

Just to show you how unfortunate this is for myself and other under-aged city dwellers, I’ve compiled a list of some of the places I’ve been yearning to go to, but alas, cannot because of my tender age:

Cake Shop (152 Ludlow St.)- Café by day, music club by night, the Cake Shop has it all. Before 5 p.m. the place is unassuming as a café that sells baked goods and coffee along with records. But when the Cake Shop makes its nightly transformation and the bar downstairs opens for business, the doors close to the under-21set, and open to obscure indie and rock bands.

 Arlene's Grocery (95 Stanton St.)- The iconic, red former butcher shop and bodega houses two bars, hosts live music seven nights a week in the band room and on Saturdays between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., an open mic night. Shows are always less than $10 and at a venue known for booking bands such as The Strokes before they were famous, what do you have to lose?

Rockwood Music Hall (196 Allen St.)- I've often walked past the curtained windows of this club praised for its intimate setting. A great place to hear up and coming musicians because of its small size, the legendary music hall also enforces a two-drink minimum, making it a little too pricey for me anyways. 

Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston St.)- Run by The Bowery Presents, Mercury Lounge is a stop off for bands heading up to other Bowery clubs like The Bowery Ballroom, Terminal 5 and Music Hall of Williamsburg. Here, music lovers can enjoy one of the best sound systems around in a setting said to emote Lower East Side cool. I wouldn’t know, but perhaps in two years i'll get to experience the ambiance myself. 

commercialization on the LES

Johnson, a cozy boutique at 179 Orchard St., closed for good Oct. 15. The whimsical cardboard castle that dominated the window display is gone. Instead, there is a single, typed sheet of paper. It’s a farewell letter.

But just up the block the American Apparel chain’s Lower East Side store always attracts customers with its bright lights and even brighter clothing. And the employees at Steven, the more upscale branch of the global Steve Madden chain, on Rivington Street are busy helping shoe-seeking customers find the right fit.

The contrast between Lower East Side independent boutiques and company owned businesses is stark. More chains are moving in.  Today they include Earnest Sewn (90 Orchard St.), Skunk Funk (181 Orchard St.), American Apparel (183 East Houston St.) and Steven (100 Rivington St.). These commercial stores have transformed the face of the neighborhood once dominated by artsy entrepreneurs.

“The creative people that started the neighborhood have all been evicted,” said Mary Adams, a former Lower East Side storeowner. “That’s not to say it’s not a nice neighborhood, it’s just completely different.”

Mary Adams The Dress had been a fixture on the Lower East Side for 25 years. The couture shop vacated its second Ludlow Street location this past May. Adams was evicted from her building on the corner of Ludlow and Stanton streets before moving to 138 Ludlow St. in 2001. The first eviction came about because, according to Adams, landlords “wanted all the old people out.”

 During the seven years Adams spent at the second store, the neighborhood became even more inhospitable to longtime small business owners. She was eventually forced to leave the area entirely, relocating to Murray Hill, because of a sharp increase in real estate tax. Her bill spiked from $2,500 in 2006 to $18,000 in 2008.

Current rent prices are a far cry from what they were when Lower East Side was known for its thriving drug culture. In the 1980s and 90s artists moved into the neighborhood. They were followed by young professionals and as the arts scene gave way to music clubs and vintage shopping the area became a hipster haven. In recent years, the neighborhood has undergone yet another transformation, becoming increasingly attractive to luxury condominium developers and the companies behind chain stores.

According to Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of the retail leasing and sales divisions at Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, rents have risen dramatically throughout the Lower East Side, with 40 percent increases not uncommon. As those that cannot afford such rent hikes leave the neighborhood, the area is beginning to appear more attractive to chains.

“The Lower East Side, historically an area for fairly new immigrants has been gentrifying in recent years,” Consolo responded in an email.

 Steven is a product of this gentrification. The shoe store moved into the area in December. At one time, a family owned restaurant occupied the space. While Adams feels that such changes are pushing the neighborhood even further from its former bohemian character, Linda Micaj, Steven’s store manager, views the increase in company owned businesses as beneficial.

“You know what you’re buying here,” Micaj said. “Do you really want to spend $300 on a dress that someone else wore because it’s vintage? I know I don’t.”

Micaj is not the only one that supports the commercial shift. Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of Urban Policy and Planning in the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, sees the changes in the neighborhood as unquestionably positive.

“The Lower East Side has become a much more attractive place for young people to live,” he said. “There’s a much more lively and interesting night life with more shopping.”

But Danielle Linzer, the education coordinator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, feels that increased commercialization threatens the immigrant community that currently calls the Lower East Side home.

“The developers aren’t the ones that stay and invest in the community but they are changing the neighborhood so that locals can no longer afford what’s for sale in businesses,” she said.

Local Naama Shefi also opposes the increase in upscale, commercial stores.

“If it continues like this I’ll probably move to a different place,” she said.

 Mary Adams The Dress and Johnson already have. 

i'll have what they're having

Go past the American Apparel clothing store, some Japanese restaurants and a falafel place, until you hit the big brick building on the corner of Ludlow and East Houston streets. The neon sign above spells out “Katz’s Delicatessen.” Inside, people in baseball caps and sneakers, often with guidebooks in hand, stretch from the door down the length of the deli counter. They are there for the traditional Jewish deli fare—pastrami, corned beef and latkes—just like the generations of patrons before them.

Katz’s Delicatessen has been a fixture on the Lower East Side since 1888, and remains so despite the changing neighborhood. Now, though, it is predominantly tourists that enjoy the famous pastrami on rye, rather than new immigrants looking for a taste of the Old Country.

A family of Russian immigrants started the now-famous deli at a time when millions of Eastern European Jews began claiming the Lower East Side as their own. These immigrants formed a distinct community and Katz’s Deli gained a following for its ability to recreate the flavors of the new immigrants’ home countries. Today, the current owners of Katz’s, Fred Austin and Alan Dell, serve up the same old world tastes that attracted past generations.

Since Austin and Dell took over in 1988, not much in the restaurant at 205 E. Houston St. has changed. There are a few new additions to the menu, such as the Philly Cheesesteak ($10.60). Once-bare walls now feature portraits of the owners with various celebrities and politicians and table service is offered at the Formica tables along the wall. But other than this, the way the place operates has stayed relatively the same. The techniques that predate refrigeration are still used, making Katz’s a true delicatessen. More importantly, the pastrami, sliced fresh in front of your eyes, is still the best around.

The crowd, however, has changed. At lunchtime, the large cafeteria-like space is filled with people of all ages, ethnicities and even countries. In the center of room two different couples enjoy Katz’s most famous dish, the pastrami on rye. One of these is a young Japanese couple staying on the Upper West Side. They came here for their first meal in America. It was listed in their guidebook. The mature couple to at the table to their right hails from England. The woman says she and her husband came to the deli because it is so well known.

“When we decided to come to New York, it became one of our ambitions,” she said.

According to Franklin Veres, who works behind the counter at Katz’s and has lived on the Lower East Side all of his life, the majority of customers are now tourists.

“Look at the prices,” he said. “A lot of locals can’t afford these prices.”

The price of Katz’s pastrami sandwich ($14.95) is steep for some members of the community that still includes immigrants. They are now mostly Chinese and Hispanic, a different type than when the deli began serving their traditional sandwiches 120 years ago. As long as the restaurant’s pastrami on rye stays the same, though, there should be no problem keeping the line at the deli counter full.

the LES wants change

Lower East Side businesses are expecting change for the better after this Election Day, if Sen. Barack Obama is elected, that is.

Storeowners in the neighborhood characterized by vintage shops and independent boutiques have been feeling the pain of the recession in recent weeks but with Obama elected, they hope people will be more willing to spend their money.

Today, Robert James, owner of the Robert James boutique on Orchard Street, dressed his mannequins in t-shirts that read “vote”. He wears a Barack Obama t-shirt, leaving no mystery as to the candidate he voted for.

“The country will be in better stead under a Democratic president,” he said. “That’s the way it’s been in recent times, economically and environmentally.”

James’s boutique has only been in business for two months, but has already seen the effects of the recession. In fact, he obtained his loan on the day the stock market first fell dramatically and says its amount dropped significantly.

“I’m just holding on for dear life now," he said. "The numbers right now are good, but it’s tough.”

Kris Jensen, owner of Hello Sari, a clothing store on Broome Street, agrees with James’s choice of president. She says business for her has been bad for at least a year and has only gotten worse recently.

“When Clinton was president my business was great,” she said.

For Lower East Side storeowners the choice is clear: a democrat in the White House will restore confidence to shoppers who, today at least, were few in number.

remembering 9/11 in october

As we near Halloween, a holiday centered around taking (both candy and identities), it is important to remember those who have given of themselves. Today, my class and I gave a little of our time to learn more about one of the most tragic days in American history.

John Henderson, our tour guide at the World Trade Center Tribute Center, told us that his wife works with the dying as a hospice volunteer. “I couldn’t do that,’ he said. “But I can do this.”

A history buff and employee of Graduate Enrollment Services at NYU, Henderson is a docent at the Tribute Center. He helps visitors see what he saw, and feel what he and so many others felt on Sept. 11, 2001.

I’ll admit that I thought little about the falling of the twin towers, what is so often called the defining moment of our generation. Even on that Tuesday morning, I was so far removed from downtown New York City that imagining the scope of the situation was impossible. Like Henderson, my first thought was that it had to be an accident, but even after my 12-year-old self came to the realization that it was not, I didn’t shed tears. I didn’t internalize the event as a tragic yet definitive moment in my history. Today that changed.

As Henderson led us around the perimeter of the acre-sized construction site where the towers used to stand, across the Southern Sky Bridge where pock marks are still evident, and into the Tribute Center where the photos of those murdered layer the walls, I came a little closer to realizing the impact of two planes into two skyscrapers in one iconic city. Listening to him tell the stories of the survivors and those lost, and hearing the sniffles of my classmates as he did so, I came closer to understanding that the events of Sept. 11, 2001 were more than just a brief moment in history. They have become a part of the fabric of our generation.

Pete Hamill

Pete Hamill, journalist and author of multiple books including, "Downtown: My Manhattan", his memoir that we just finished reading, came into class to chat with us about his work and the city that has been his lifelong home.

Hamill told us that he wrote "Downtown" for his grandson, who lives in Westchester. “I wanted him to be able to understand why this old guy with the beard has such passion for this strange city without cows in it,” he said.

In reading the book, I came to understand this passion. With each chapter, it is as though you are walking through another New York City neighborhood as it changes over time. This is no coincidence. Hamill takes walks alone to inspire his writing.

“You can’t know any of these places unless you walk it,” he said. In his rhythmic, soothing voice that contains the potential to lull you to sleep, we walked together through his life as a writer in New York.

As a child, Hamill’s mother told him and his brother never to look down on anyone unless you’re giving them a hand to get up. For Hamill, writing is a way of helping people up. In his journalism he writes with the aim of making small changes. And with his books, which he begins by writing longhand on yellow pads of paper, the aim may be similar. In addition to writing "Downtown" for his grandson, he wrote with the idea that in the midst of the biggest wave of immigrants in ten years, children would be able to read the book and then teach their parents about where they live.

As a lifetime New Yorker, Hamill also has a unique perspective on New York today. Though he may tumble back into reverie on his walks, or even when talking to a class of journalism students, he is still very much in tune to the present. I got the chance to ask him about one of the most pressing issues for this neighborhood: gentrification. In his opinion, the Lower East Side will always be home to immigrants. For him, it is a transitional neighborhood.

“People want to make money and move on,” he said. “They’ll always look back nostalgically on it but they’ll be somewhere else.”

human interaction is so overrated

If you can't wander the neighborhood on foot, visit virtually! Virtual Lower East Side (vLES) is a free site based on the neighborhood and created by MTV. You can discover new music, attend shows and meet new people, all without leaving your room. After all, why should you walk around when you can dress up an avatar to do it for you?