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The Lo-Down NY

The Lower East Side's most influential online news source. We are Ed Litvak and Traven Rice, a reformed television news producer and filmmaker (in that order).
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The Lo-Down is a local news site dedicated to covering news, events and – most significantly – the people who live and work in one of the world’s greatest neighborhoods, the Lower East Side. We are Lower East Side residents who launched The Lo-Down to help provide our community with a constant source of information about current events, culture, real estate, food and entertainment. We are featured

in the Columbia Journalism Review’s News Frontier Database. You can also read a profile of us in the Village Voice article, “I Blog New York: Your Guide to Gotham’s Best” here. http://bit.ly/1JWybRU The Lo-Down is a member of the Local Independent Online Publishers Association (LION). Rather than serve a single segment of our diverse neighborhood, we are a resource for all cultures and groups on the LES to share information and ideas and to engage in a meaningful dialogue about issues that unite and divide us. We are not a blog that espouses a particular point of view or has an agenda. We work hard to reach out to people and organizations that are not often heard from – and to solicit multiple points of view and new perspectives. It is most important to us that everyone has an opportunity to tell their own story.

12/12/2025

We’re sad to hear the news that Frank Arroyo, one of the most beloved members of the Lower East Side community, has passed away. Frank’s Bike Shop has been a neighborhood fixture on Grand Street since 1976. Generations of LES kids got their first bike from Frank, and never stopped coming back. Back in 2014, Frank shared part of his story with The Lo-Down (see the link in our bio). He and his family moved to the LES in 1955 when he was 9 years old. A couple of decades later, he opened the bike shop. Frank told us his favorite memories on the Lower East Side included seeing the kids’ faces through his shop window after setting up his annual Christmas display each year. Frank, you will be missed.

11/12/2025

Bistrot Ha appears to be very close to opening their new spot at 137 Eldridge St. (formerly occupied by Lena Wine Bar). They recently teased the new name, “Bistrot Ha,” on instagram, and that it’s “coming extremely soon.” It’s all set up inside and decorated for the holidays.

The team from announced last week that things at their current Ha’s Snack Bar location (297 Broome) “will look a little different at our beloved snack bar. More snacks, more room to stand (so less for sitting), a smaller menu of all of our favorite things. Snails will stay! Oysters & egg mayo too. We will change things up, as we always do, but we want this place to act as we imagined- somewhere to stop along the way and have drinks and small bits. BAR ONLY available for reservations via resy, the rest for walk ins. Fun!!”

We look forward to trying out what’s sure to be more delicious offerings at the new spot on Eldridge, as soon as it’s official.

19/11/2025

The creative space and fashion hot spot .nyc has added a wine bar next door to its current shop at 51 Orchard Street. The wine bar is aptly titled .nextdoor Colbo Next Door and the team describes it as “an expansion of the space we love, part wine bar, part retail, more sound, and entirely an extension of what’s made colbo what it is: gathering, hosting, and connecting with our community.”

The shop has been on Orchard Street since 2021, offering coffee, music and weekend events and gatherings that highlight the in-house clothing line along with a rotating collection of local and international designers.

22/10/2025

We’ll miss Top Hops but so glad to hear is going to bring us the Catalyst Market Bar! *xmarket

10/10/2025

Puerto Rican chef Maria Bidó has officially opened her first permanent location in New York City at a new stall in Ess*x Market. Mia’s Cocina offers traditional favorites like empanadas, alcapurrias and pionones along with rice and beans and chicken and pork stew. Bido is known for getting her start in cooking at the age of 6, helping her grandmother prepare family dinners, and has continued to cook traditional dishes for her family and friends for many years on the Lower East Side.

She opened her own business (Mía’s Cocína) vending food at festivals and catering in the neighborhood. She found success by offering popular in-person cooking classes at Ess*x Market, which in turn led to a new stall of her very own. You can check out the daily specials *xmarket

08/10/2025

Hints of Fall arriving in Seward Park

02/10/2025

Morning on Bowery (at Prince Street) and one giant crane. looks to be getting close to finishing their 60,000-square-foot expansion at 235 Bowery, designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas. It will double their exhibition spaces.

01/10/2025

Always something fun in

24/09/2025

Bluestockings Bookstore, the collectively-run activist center, community space and feminist bookstore that has been based on the Lower East Side for over two decades, announced they have officially closed their storefront on Suffolk Street and will be ending all online services by the end of the year.

In a note on website and social media platforms, they addressed their community: “After 26+ years of serving marginalized communities as an independent feminist bookstore, event hub, and all-around radical community space, the daily operations are unfortunately no longer sustainable on multiple fronts.” And noted, “…This decision comes after the shared failures of multiple cohorts to come to consensus around the guiding principles and practices Bluestockings should embody to move forward as a worker-owned cooperative that serves as a radical bookstore, cafe, and community event space. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, but the lack of political and business-operations alignment on upholding the responsibilities of our space has directly led to many of the setbacks we’ve faced the last two years. Of course, $12,000 a month in rent, thousands in utilities, and racist, classist violence from “neighbors” certainly didn’t make our work any easier.”

The collective started in a space on Allen Street and moved to Suffolk Street in 2021. Over the years the activist center adapted with the times and evolved from a feminist bookstore into what they framed as “New York’s only q***r, trans AND s*x worker run bookstore.”

Co-owner Raquel Espasande told Gothamist in a text message “The bookstore has been fighting a losing battle against debt for over two years now… Unfortunately, we frankly hit the wall.” Gothamist also noted, “The closure comes after years of financial strain and mounting public controversy. In late 2023, the store’s landlord issued warnings citing what it described as unauthorized medical activity and unsafe conditions, and by January of this year, Bluestockings workers said the cooperative was nearly $100,000 in debt to publishers and book distributors.”

22/09/2025

Bluestockings announces permanent closure.

18/09/2025

Morning at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park, on the north side of Grand Street. From : “A shimmering stretch of green amidst the sea of concrete, asphalt, and tightly-packed buildings, Sara D. Roosevelt Park provides a refreshing respite for residents and visitors of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Named for philanthropist and Presidential mother Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1934, the park remains a vibrant common ground for senior citizens, children, and recent immigrants, as well as the more recent addition of artists and young professionals. The largest stretch of open space in the neighborhood, Sara D. Roosevelt Park caters to its wide variety of users by offering a diverse array of facilities and activities.”

11/09/2025

Good morning! Preparations are underway for everyone’s favorite feast in the streets of Little Italy. The 99th Annual Feast of San Gennaro starts this evening, with the “blessing of the stands” at 6pm on Mulberry Street. They are welcoming actor and radio host Joe Piscopo as this year’s Grand Marshal, “honoring his outstanding contributions to entertainment, his deep Italian-American roots, and his unwavering support for community and culture.”

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The Lo-Down is a local news site dedicated to covering news, events and – most significantly – the people who live and work in one of the world’s greatest neighborhoods, the Lower East Side.