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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).

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.

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.”

08/09/2025

Openings and closings at East River Park as the East Side Coastal Resiliency project enter the next phase. The bridge at Corlears Hook Park is now open, offering access to the new amphitheater, NYC Ferry and Pier 42. On the northern stretch of the park, the running track and all of the amenities above East Houston Street close today. More details: https://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2025/09/east-river-park-track-closes-monday-other-amenities-opened-friday.html

07/09/2025

Food journalist, former New York Times recipe columnist and author of the renowned cookbook How To Cook Everything, Mark Bittman is creating a new type of restaurant with a focus on equitable access for all involved. The pilot project, Community/KITCHEN, is a non-profit public restaurant model that will be based in the LES and will operate on a sliding scale for diners.

The concept combines locally sourced, seasonal meals made by workers being paid a living wage.

The restaurant will pay staff in excess of $32 an hour, and menu prices will be tiered at $15, $45, and $125 for diners to select what they can afford.

Located at The Lower East Side Girls Club at 7th Street and Avenue D, they plan to serve dinner for the next three months, Wednesday through Saturday, beginning September 19th. We talked with Bittman and two members of his team, Executive Director Rae Gomes and Culinary Director Mavis-Jay Sanders about the endeavor and how it came about:

“When I decided I’d had enough of writing or at least of writing full time, I thought I wanted to do something,” Bittman said. “I wanted to do something in food, and I wanted to do something in good food. And I first thought it was important for me to come up with a definition of what good food is, and it’s pretty simple, but people weren’t saying it. It’s food that’s sourced well, sourced from farmers who care about the land and care about the crops and care about their workers. Handled by workers who are being treated respectfully, which as you probably know has been long been a problem in the food chain. Cooked well, deliciously, nutritiously, wholesomely. And then made accessible to everybody.” … Read the full story on The Lo-Down. 👆 Link tree Photo 1 - Culinary director Mavis-Jay Sanders (left), executive director Rae Gomes (center) and founder Mark Bittman in their soon-to-be new restaurant space at The Lower East Side Girls Club. Photo 2-4 courtesy of Community Kitchen

05/09/2025

Here’s some news just about everyone in the Lower East Side/Chinatown community will be happy to hear. As we reported this past Friday, D**g Wang and Helen Chen of Shan Fu Grocery (A&N Fruit Store) were preparing to shut down their business. There was an outpouring of love and support for what’s known to most of us as “the snowman fruit stand,” after it appeared that new owners of the building wanted the popular grocery at 23 Canal St./1 Ess*x St. to vacate the space effective October 1. But D**g and Helen were all smilies today, telling The Lo-Down that they will be returning to the space after renovations are completed next spring.

We’re told there was a failure to communicate due to differences in language. The building was purchased earlier this year by TTC Investments VII LLC, which is controlled by local resident and property owner Adam Woodward. He’s working with Ron Castellano, the Lower East Side-based architect behind the restorations of The Forward Building on East Broadway and the Jarmulowsky Bank Building (now known as the hotel, Nine Orchard). Castellano tells us Woodward always wanted Shan Fu Grocery to stay. Castellano went by yesterday, with a Chinese translator, to explain the situation. The grocery will need to move out temporarily, but is set to return following renovations.

There was a lot of speculation that the new owners would demolish 1 Ess*x Street, replacing it with a tall, glassy tower. That’s not happening. In the months ahead, there will be repairs and restoration of the facade; work will take place on the first floor and cellar level. For inspiration, the design team will be drawing on historic photos of the building, including these from the 1930s. As you can see, a corner grocer has been part of the history at this location going back decades.

More details: https://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2025/09/snowman-fruit-store-owners-say-they-will-return-after-renovations.html

04/09/2025

Curious how this will go….

02/09/2025

We finally tried the tasty competition from just down the street from Doughnut Plant. The young entrepreneur Kieran Madan (center, with friends) who started his business four years ago, when he was 10 years old, has been out on Grand Street with his cart, selling his homemade doughnuts three days a week, all summer long. We got the last chai latte doughnut and it was delicious!

30/08/2025

It feels like the pace of neighborhood change on the Lower East Side is always accelerating, with new businesses opening and closing every month. But this one hurts more than most. In recent days, loyal customers of Shan Fu Grocery (A&N Fruit Store) at 23 Canal St. have been saying their goodbyes. The grocery, better known to most of us as, “the snowman fruit stand,” will close at the beginning of October, following the sale earlier this year of the property for $7 million. All of the businesses in the building are being forced out.

D**g Wang and Helen Chen opened the business in December of 2010, taking over a corner location at Canal and Ess*x streets, a decade before anyone had heard of “Dimes Square.” D**g’s broad smile and friendly demeanor, as well as the grocery’s freshly made watermelon juices and slushies built a devoted clientele. That first winter in business, after a big snow storm, they decided to build a huge snowman in front of the store. We all loved it (The Lo-Down covered the Ess*x Street Snowman like breaking news)! Year after year, the snowman reappeared, brightening those cold winter days, seemingly speaking a language everyone who passed by the store could understand. It reflected D**g and Helen’s generous spirit and earnest desire to welcome the entire Lower East Side and Chinatown community. Read the full story online, including details about the broader chnages on this corner impacting 23 Canal St. and 3-5 Ess*x St., the former home of the Schames paint store.

https://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2025/08/the-snowman-fruit-store-set-to-close-as-big-changes-await-at-canal-and-ess*x-streets.html

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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.