Gothamist: The LES: from Dangerous to Endangered

dlee

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:03:45 -0500

Back in May when this article was posted, rents for doorman one-bedrooms on the LES actually broke the $4,000 mark due to all the new developments "looming large over the original tenement streetscape".Since then, prices have come down a bit (around $3,500 in August), but now non-doorman two-bedrooms have gotten more expensive (I imagine that, even though they're not new, being close to the new developments are making them more desirable), to the point where they're more costly than those in the Village! Which is crazy. $3,725 for one of those units...the cost of gentrification and endangerment, I suppose.Check out The Real Estate Group's August Manhattan Rental Market Report to see what I'm talking about:http://www.tregny.com/pdf/market_report_aug_08.pdf

sonyactivision

Wed, 21 May 2008 23:16:40 -0500

It's gone so find a new 'neighborhood celebre' of get the fuck over it.

R U Serious

Wed, 21 May 2008 11:27:42 -0500

"Then Paul Stallings wouldn't have built his crappy Rivington Hotel and we would have been saved of cheesy Eurotrash." Save us! Save us from "cheesy Eurotrash"! We want our junkies, homeless and squatters back!! OHHH those were happy times.

blablanyc

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:12:30 -0500

As a LES resident, I ask you to do what you can to save this historic neighborhood. It should have been done a long time ago. Then Paul Stallings wouldn't have built his crappy Rivington Hotel and we would have been saved of cheesy Eurotrash.

csk

Tue, 20 May 2008 22:54:01 -0500

There's a limit to the amount of gentrification in the LES. The city would have to first get rid of all the projects along the East River, from Smith to Baruch to LaGuardia all the way up to 14th Street. Will that ever happen?

Jerk Store

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:55:10 -0500

Off by a mere 4 comments :(

blablanyc

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:30:31 -0500

Lower East Side Preservation Coalition needs to include the area north of East Houston St to 14th Street for this act to be genuine. This is the LES according to Ruth Abram, the LES Tenement Museum and the LES BID. Fun fact: The LES Tenement Museum receives $400,000 a year in Federal pork dollars. It pays to have friends in high places.

matty

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:36:47 -0500

"and live in the real world." This is why I am moving to Brooklyn. To live at least near the cast of the Real World.

R U Serious

Tue, 20 May 2008 14:55:50 -0500

Is this a "news article" or an op/ed piece? Do we really have to rehash the "progress" vs. "charm" argument again? I agree the LES has historical significance and that should never be forgotten or paved over. BUT the dilapidated buildings, dirty streets and any other of the myriad of "detractions" needs to be remedied. I love how crumbling buildings with rusted fire-escapes and NO access to mass transit is considered "charming" in the 21st Century. People who rail against "ugly" new things need to get over themselves and live in the real world.

slappy

Tue, 20 May 2008 14:02:42 -0500

I never could understand this loathing of "hipsters". (its hip to hate hipsters, etc, duh!) Its just vieled fascist crap. So called "hipsters" are people who don't fit into the mold of expectation in an increasingly homogenized society, deliberately or otherwise. I don't care if they are spending their trust fund, or if they are poor as church mice. And I don't think the measure of a great society is conformity. Non-conformity is not contrived, its deliberate. You can't buy it. You have to live it. If that urks you, then maybe you are a conformist. You may think that is a good thing. But life is a work of art. Not everyone is good at it. But its laudible to at least try thinking out of the box.

matty

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:51:47 -0500

NYC was so much more "real" and "authentic" when I first moved to the LES from Italy in 1886.

drewo

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:18:16 -0500

In the not-too-distant future, hipsters and their trend-seeking followers will be flocking to rust-belt cities in places like Ohio... Round on the end, high in the middle, O-HI-O!

Spiritof76

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:59:28 -0500

The city grows organically. It has from the beginning and will continue on that way. Unfortunately, infections and sickness are organic too. It's not an infection. It's more like cancer. Fast, uncontrolled growth rather than normal, healthy growth. I'm a Lower Manhattan fan and I love views like the picture above much more than Midtown or the upper sides. There's such character in the neighborhood that's missing from the sterile areas further north, even Tribeca and the Village nowadays.

tien mao

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:55:40 -0500

and i blame rudy.

tien mao

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:54:34 -0500

ooh ooh!! go back to ohio!! 5/5.

dagblad

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:34:27 -0500

The city grows organically. It has from the beginning and will continue on that way. Unfortunately, infections and sickness are organic too.

plk779

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:12:25 -0500

I imagine it's harder to strike a balance between preserving history and moving forward than most people think. History is great and all, but I'm less inclined to live in the past.. Not that a bunch of boring steel buildings is any better.

Aridginal

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:08:14 -0500

I WILL GO ON A FUCKING ATTACK SPREE ONE DAY ON ALL THESE STANTON SOCIAL AND LIBATION GOING, TOO MUCH MAKEUP AND PERFUME WEARING, 4AM MEAT CART VISITING, RUDE AND DISGUSTING SCUM OF THE EARTH TYPICAL POST-GRAD LOSERS AND THE MORONS THAT HAVE INFESTED, WE STILL MAINTAIN A WONDERFUL NEIGHBORHOOD FOR THE MOST PART, DURING THE DAY, ETC., BUT IT IS TIME TO END THESE SCUM. WE WILL SCARE YOU, BUTTON DOWN IDIOTS AND ROCKS WILL FALL THROUGH WINDOWS OF THE LUDLOW.

Tim N.

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:01:32 -0500

I went back to Ohio But my pretty countryside Had been paved down the middle By a government that had no pride The farms of Ohio Had been replaced by shopping malls And muzak filled the air From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls I said A, Oh, way to go Ohio New Yorkers know how they feel.

slappy

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:57:32 -0500

LES and the East Village have been targeted for gentrification for a long time by real estate developers in cahoots with the city. We fought it as best we could in the 80's. This is 20 years later. The complex story of the LES, from immigrant turn of the century through 50s - 80s artists, poets, intellectuals, etc seeking an affordable community setting, is a fabulous history. To me, the deeper question is not about preserving history but making it. Go for it. In the LES or wherever you are.

MightyBoognish

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:41:02 -0500

People still get mugged and shot at in the LES don't they? Oh, and go back to Ohio. 4/5

Tim N.

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:40:41 -0500

Thank you, Roquentin... you saved me the trouble. Dead right on all counts. And go back to Indiana... oops, sorry...

nivek

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:26:49 -0500

Well, as long as "gentrified" doesn't mean ugly ass glass buildings or carbon-copy designs. Oh, and gtfo and go back to Ohio. 3/5

aveB4life

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:23:15 -0500

i'd rather have an LES with boutiques and good restaurants than one with drug pushers. i'm ok with me being gentrified. oh, and go back to ohio. 2/5

Roquentin

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:22:10 -0500

Blaming people from the Midwest and elsewhere is a cop out of the cheapest variety. The ugly truth is NYC is doing this to itself. The elected officials, for the most part put in office by long term residents are the ones making these zoning decisions in the interest of making cold hard cash. Rather than deal with that, it's easier to just bitch about people coming into the city from other parts of the country, which in reality is nothing new. Kids have flocked to the city in droves for decades.

aa77

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:06:29 -0500

Hey Jerk Store, go back to Ohio. comment 1/5

bklyngrrl

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:02:05 -0500

On a some what related note, my neighbors in Greenpoint on India Street (off Manhattan Ave) had to be evacuated from their apartments this past weekend for fear of the building collapsing (from neglect...landlord's neglect). (No doubt luxury condo construction will start next year). The NYFD, NYPD, and Red Cross were there...these poor people had to gather everything they owned, their pets, and find a new place to live. Seems like this should be a bigger concern to the city than it is...

matty

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:45:29 -0500

I, for one, blame the midwest... *ahem* Why does NYC have such lax zoning laws? The blue condos are atrocious and out of scale not to mention the other less eye catching glass steel structures all over the area. In Chicago you can't build out of scale housing in most neighborhoods. Much like Brooklyn, 3-flat neighborhoods stay 3-flat neighborhoods. This isn't to say that you can't build ugly ass 3 flats, but at least their ugliness isn't any taller than anywhere else.

WesleySnipesAlot

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:44:14 -0500

I also predict several armchair historians to chime in with completely erroneous facts and the ever hackneyed "New York is about change" argument.

TimSPC

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:43:54 -0500

Check out the pictures on their web site. http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/ The Boyd Theater is terrific.

Jerk Store

Tue, 20 May 2008 10:34:25 -0500

I predict at least 30 comments to this post, and I also predict that at least 5 of those comments will involve telling somebody to go back to Ohio.