Take a Self-Guided Tour of the Lower East Side
An Eye-Opening Lower East Side Stroll
Abroad in New York
BY FRANCIS MORRONE
January 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/68849
Manhattan’s Lower East Side is a topic of special interest right now. Preservation groups are working to get the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate a Lower East Side Historic District. Immigration, the great historical theme of the Lower East Side, has emerged as a major issue among the 2008 presidential contenders, making it incumbent upon us all to understand the role of immigration in America’s past; and that means understanding the Lower East Side. Finally, while the Lower East Side continues to be, as it has been for more than 200 years, an immigrant neighborhood, it has also, in the last decade, become a fashionable neighborhood of costly dwellings and upscale shopping and dining. The shift is emblematic of dramatic changes in the social geography of New York City in recent years. I will devote my January “Abroad in New York” columns to different Lower East Side walking tours.
For the tour, see http://www.nysun.com/article/68849