Bowery Boogie | A Lower East Side Chronicle

Washington Mutual has completely vanished from the neighborhood.  That’s right, the onetime Delancey branch is now officially a member of the Chase bank empire. Resistance is futile!

Here on the Lower East Side, the Chase transition is nearly complete.  Last week, Jeremiah reported on the Washington Mutual bank swap at Second Avenue and Eighth Street; the corner branch at Avenue A and Second Street has also fallen.  However, the slowest to switch sides is certainly the Delancey outpost between Ludlow and Essex [...]

Thanks to a tip from a concerned neighborhood reader, we bring news of another NoLita closure.  According to a sign on their door, Cinema Nolita at 178 Mulberry Street will be closing on August 2.  According to the email: Cinema Nolita is closing after 7 years as the principal — well, the only — video [...]

Boy, have the tables turned. The Ludlow, a major proponent of “living like a Rockefeller” and “partying like a rockstar,” is now whoring itself out to a re-branded Western Union. Just take a look at the windows of the vacant ground-level storefront. Definitely an unlikely partnership which, if nothing more, is an obvious sign of [...]

Plastered above the entrance to the Knickerbocker Post Office [link] on East Broadway is a “Shit is Coming” sticker. Rather appropriate amidst the financial crisis. Yet, this fitting prophecy defies the aging sign which beckons neighborhood folk to help keep the building graffiti free.

With our economy edging closer to the brink of collapse, it’s only appropriate to show Depression-era footage of NYC. This vintage silent film brilliantly documents past struggles for survival on the Bowery. Definitely a far cry from the musuems and galleries popping up along the thoroughfare now. “The port of missing men is the New [...]