Lower East Side

Of course, this is not the 'East Village,' a real estate term that began to be used in the late 1970s in an effort to clean up the image of the neighborhood, i.e., guilt by association with the West Village, which used to be called Greenwich Village when I lived there back in the mid-60s.

This picture shows the heart of the Lower East Side, Pike Street and East Broadway, vastly different than it was 50 or 60 years ago, except for the Manhattan Bridge, which opened 100 years ago -- funny, no great centenary celebrations like for the Queensboro Bridge, also 100 years old in 2009. In the background at left is a public housing project, Rutgers Houses. In the foreground is someone who looks as though he could have walked off the boat onto Ellis Island 100 years ago, except for the expensive looking loafers. Now the neighborhood in the photo is part of the constantly expanding Chinatown.