Bowery Boogie | A Lower East Side Chronicle

The Lower East Side receives an anthem of sorts in “Downtown King,” courtesy of Jelly Jells and Fab 5 Freddy.  Neighborhood landmarks and luminaries including Billy Leroy, the busted Shepard Fairey mural, and Sara D. Roosevelt Park amongst others, are all featured prominently in the music video.

An African American male, aged approximately 25 to 30, is wanted in connection with a series of burglaries along Orchard Street between Delancey and Canal.  Since June 28, the perpetrator has been preying off unsuspecting residents between the hours of 10 am and 11 pm.  Dozens of wanted posters are now hanging in doorways and [...]

The southwest corner of Orchard and Delancey Street is a beautiful mess.  Partitions are exposed, wires and splintered planks dangle from the ceiling, and elements of the old are poking through. This is the current state of 103 Orchard Street, now amidst a high-profile conversion into the new visitors center for the Tenement Museum. Once [...]

There is a bit of new sidewalk masonry to report just outside the Essex Street Market.  Three of the four mid-block trees between Delancey and Rivington are no longer flush with the cracked concrete.  Instead, they are now rooted in raised stone planters, and accompanied by blooming flowers.

Construction of the new Assafa Islamic Center at 172 Eldridge Street is straddling the proverbial speed bump. From the outset, the fourteen-year-old institution has had plenty of problems with the new facility, including subtle run-ins with the DOB, some stop work orders, and numerous complaints for after-hours construction. But now the issue is funding.