Lower Manhattan

Premiere: Kilo Kish's Downtown Music Festival Playlist Featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Sky Ferreira, and More

Downtown Music Festival hits lower Manhattan this weekend, and former Village Voice cover star Kilo Kish, who's also playing the festival, has prepped a playlist to get you in the mood.

Picture This: Our 5 Can't Miss Book Events Get Graphic

Tamara Shopsin Spoonbill & Sugartown Wednesday, 7:30pm, Free Shopsin's new memoir is arranged the way any harried artist's journal might be--in fragments, drawings, photographs, and asides--and surprisingly all the more cohesive for it. Mumbai New York Scranton (Scribner) highlights the underlying c ... More >>

A Month And A Half After Sandy, The R Train Returns To Full Service By Friday

If the 12/12/12 concert last week told us anything, it was that Paul McCartney's Nirvana fill-in was something we should talk about more as a society. And that, a month and a half later, there's still a ton of work to do in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.When the storm hit two days before Hal ... More >>

Lead Us Not Astray, Reverend James Cooper

In August 2011, Trinity Church's rector was asked to leave. He stayed with a vengeance.

The Meatball Hero: After Sandy, Michael Chernow Gives Back to the City that Gave Him Everything

Michael Chernow gets his hands dirty. As one half of the cheeky duo behind The Meatball Shop, the successful mini-chain of ball-focused foods, the Manhattan native made a name for himself by capitalizing on polite toilet humor and mugging for the cameras that love him. But don't be fooled by the hig ... More >>

Give It a Few Weeks Before the R Train Returns

Yesterday, we reported on the MTA's no-refund policy enacted in the aftermath of Sandy. Although no reason was given, the situation provided enough explanation: the agency was out a significant amount of cash flow and paying back all those fares definitely wouldn't have helped. So straphangers are f ... More >>

Hurricane Sandy and the Future of the New York Art World

Head above water

Dear New York, Here's Your Disaster Response

If it weren't colossally tragic, the level of disorder, dysfunction, and all-around clusterfuckery that characterizes the official disaster response in New York City in the wake of Hurricane Sandy would be fast approaching hilarious. As it is, the situation is both heartbreaking and enraging. The ... More >>

Chasing Ice

Checking in on Exchange Alley After Sandy [Updated]

This post was originally published on the morning of Friday, November 2 It's not the ideal moment to publish a restaurant review in New York, and certainly not of a place in the East Village struggling to keep business going without power. But such was the print schedule that my piece on Exchange A ... More >>

After Sandy: East Village Restaurants Are Open Despite No Power

The power won't be back on in lower Manhattan for at least another day, but these spots are finding lots of ways to bring in customers and save what's left of their supplies. Paradiso is serving up the rest of their goods that were kept on dry ice this week. Balthazar is still delivering fresh bagu ... More >>

Post-Sandy Deals: Free Waffles, $5 Brats

Hurricane relief: free waffles & snacks at City Hall Park and 3rd Ave/14th street from 3-6pm compliments of NY's hometown airline @jetblue.— Wafels & Dinges (@waffletruck) November 1, 2012 These yummy deals are trying to fill up the city's bellies, with little additional costs. Extr ... More >>

Five Little Mysteries Based on the Food Section of the Voice Best Of Issue

This year's Best Ramen? Ready for a little quiz? Here are five questions concerning establishments FiTR writers have recommend in the Voice Best Ofs, which you can examine here. You can either read the items first, and then answer the questions, or you can read the questions first, and then go on ... More >>

Feds Say Failed Attack On Federal Reserve Was "On Behalf Of Al-Qaeda;" Bomber's Other Target Was "High-Ranking Govt. Official"

Federal authorities thwarted a plot to blow up the Federal Reserve building in lower Manhattan this morning, in a would-be attack that was "on behalf of Al-Qaeda," the U.S. Attorney's Office announced this afternoon.(Read the federal criminal complaint below).According to the feds, the failed bomber ... More >>

New Evidence Emerges About Police Downgrading of Crimes

Accounts of police downgrading crime reports surfaced again on Sunday in a New York Times article, which compared descriptions of crimes in police reports versus the charges eventually brought by prosecutors. The article's author Joseph Goldstein examined more than 100 police reports, and found a n ... More >>

World Trade Center, 11 Years Later: Here's What's Popping Up

It's been eleven years since a group of murderous monsters destroyed a good chunk of lower Manhattan during the September 11, terrorist attacks, but a lot's been going on to remind their buddies that "we're still here, dickweeds!"While the enormous Freedom Tower is perhaps the most visible reminder ... More >>

Wafels & Dinges Expands To Downtown And Brooklyn

[See More Open!: Wasabi To Bring Individually Wrapped Sushi To NYC | Say Hello to Moti Mahal Delux, Hot Bread Almacen] Popular Belgian waffle dessert truck recently won a contract to expand their presence into two city parks. They will be outside Park Slope's Prospect Park and in Lower Manhattan's ... More >>

FDNY: Saturday's Seaport Fire Was Caused By Faulty Wiring

Saturday's three-alarm fire at the South Street Seaport, which temporarily suspended the Voice's 4Knots Music Festival, was caused by faulty electrical wiring, according to a New York Fire Department spokesman.

YOUTH GONE WILD

Who says you're too old for games?

The Crazy Ray + C’est vrai

The Top Ten DIY Venues In New York City

In New York's chaotic do-it-yourself music ecosystem, nothing is a given. A venue might combust as suddenly as easily a new one might spring up, making this list obsolete—yet that volatility is part of the venues' inherent uncivilized appeal. Who's to say where the next bunch of longhairs migh ... More >>

May Day Recap: Highlights from Voice Reports (UPDATE)

Good (late) morning! A lot of the Voice staff is still recovering from a long day of May 1 coverage, but we wanted to bring you a brief recap of what went down from when we stopped liveblogging until now. Enjoy!

What To See at the Tribeca Film Festival

Serial Groping In New York City Is Sooo In Right Now

For the second time in as many days, police are asking the public's help in tracking down a serial groper responsible for at least four unwanted gropings -- and the suspect doesn't appear to be the same man responsible for a recent collection of gropings in Queens. In other words, there currently ar ... More >>

Fences Are Still Up -- What's Going On At Chase Manhattan Plaza?

In January we told you about the fight over Chase Manhattan Plaza, an architectural landmark and one of the few open spaces in Lower Manhattan, which has been completely fenced off for six months. Back in January, there wasn't any obvious reason for closing off the plaza, a popular lunch spot and h ... More >>

The New York Public Library's Maps Project is a Time Machine for Your Neighborhood

While public library systems across the country flounder in the face of declining tax revenue and dwindling readership, the New York Public Library is somehow managing to survive. Rather than run away from digitization, NYPL has embraced it, and has recently produced a series of projects which are h ... More >>

The Hot New Downtown Trend Is Babies

Once upon a time, hip, taste-making Manhattanites in the know would trek to Brooklyn to propagate the species with relatively more space and sometimes even backyards in which to park their Maclarens. But a surprising trend has been uncovered by DNAinfo, which reports that birth rates in Lower Manhat ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street National Day of Action: Live Updates From Downtown Manhattan

Nick PintoThe NYSE, which protestors did not stop from opening today​Good afternoon, and welcome to the evening edition of the Village Voice liveblog of Occupy Wall Street's Day of Action. Today, November 17, marks the two month anniversary since Occupy Wall Street began in Zuccotti Park. Pro ... More >>

Skywriting Freaking People Out Yesterday Was Just Art

Yesterday, an unseasonably lovely day, at some point around 4 in the afternoon, people suddenly started noticing messages in the sky in Lower Manhattan -- things like, "Lost Our Lease," "Last Chance," and "Now Open." The moderately terrifying messages -- last chance for WHAT, exactly? -- were attrib ... More >>

Liquid Sky

Occupy Wall Street, Day Three: Inefficiency Starts to Cripple Protest

This is what democracy looks like.​The Occupy Wall Street protest drew thousands of demonstrators to the Financial District this weekend, when the markets were closed and the neighborhood was largely a ghost town. This morning, as the inexplicably-timed protest entered its third day, demonstr ... More >>

Traces of a 19th-Century Village Have Been Excavated in Central Park

​Think about this when you're relaxing in Central Park over the weekend: An entire community once lived there, with homes and several churches and at least one school, right in the park (before it was the park). We're talking about Seneca Village, a largely African-American community of some 2 ... More >>

First Same-Sex Couples Wed in New York City

Steven ThrasherMichael Furey and Bienvenido Amagna, the first same-sex couple to wed in Brooklyn.​Today's the day! Same-sex marriage is officially legal in New York State, and the weddings are rolling along. The first couple married in New York City was Phyllis Siegal and Connie Kopelov, who e ... More >>

New Yorkers Celebrate Passage of Gay Marriage Bill; Did You Know Another Bill Was Passed Yesterday?

via TPM Crowds gather outside the Stonewall Inn.​We're proud to be New Yorkers today after the state senate passed same-sex marriage last night! And so are the crowds who flooded the West Village to celebrate; revelers gathered outside the Stonewall Inn last night to mark the historic moment. Talk ... More >>

NYPD Crime Stats: Half The Year Over, Neighborhoods Seeing Spikes in Burglaries and Larcenies

​Well, the year is nearly half over, and it's time to do a bit of handicapping of the city's crime statistics. In general, some sections of the city are experiencing a spike in assaults, and a rash of economic crimes--burglaries and grand larcenies, mainly. Overall, citywide crime, according ... More >>

New York Times Still Trying to Push the Rockaways as 'Hipster-Cool' Destination

StuffHipstersDon'tLike, circa 2008​Have you heard about the Rockaways? They are a place that you might want to go! The New York Times wrote about them back in 2008, that's how much you might want to go -- "There are Brooklyn hipsters, Japanese twentysomethings and even Hasidic surfers from Far ... More >>

The dell'anima Team May Colonize the Bowery Wine Co.

dell'anima 2.0?​ Although things at the Bowery Wine Co. have been mostly quiet since its Die Hard Yuppie Scum days, the East 1st Street bar is once again on the blogs, thanks to (of course!) the CB3 SLA agenda.

NYPD Ticket Fixing Scandal: Third Prosecutor Added to Handle Expected Mass of Disciplinary Cases

​The NYPD has transferred a third civilian attorney to its department advocate's office to handle disciplinary cases arising from the ticket fixing scandal -- which could envelope anywhere from 40 to 500 officers and union delegates, depending on various reports. In previous weeks, two lawye ... More >>

MTA's New Trash Can Slogan Will Completely Eliminate Garbage

​People who complain about trash on the subway are like vacationers who whine about the heat in Florida. Nonetheless, the MTA is trying to do something about all that subterranean rubbish. "Hauling reeking, rat-filled garbage" through the cars late at night didn't work, so they've put their th ... More >>

Our 10 Best SoHo Eats

Sarah DiGregorioStuff your belly with these clam bellies from Ed's Lobster Bar​SoHo might automatically come to mind as a place filled with throngs of slow-moving tourists and not populated with tasty treats, but the neighborhood spanning from Houston to Canal Streets and Lafayette to Sixth Av ... More >>

One of Our 'Ten Worst Tenants' Has Seizure While Being Sentenced

​Julienne Sialeu -- named in this week's cover story as one of the city's Ten Worst Tenants -- was convicted yesterday of making false statements after a one-day bench trial in District Court in Lower Manhattan. The judge, Denise Cote, did not actually finish delivering the verdict against her ... More >>

Remembering the Food at Food

​ Speaking of venerable Manhattan food establishments that inspire nostalgia, the Soho Memory Project has a great remembrance of Food, the pioneering cooperative restaurant opened by eight Soho artists in 1971.

Abortion Billboard in SoHo Calls Out African Americans During Black History Month

​Life Always, an anti-abortion group, revealed a giant new billboard today at Sixth Avenue and Watts Street in the New York City neighborhood of SoHo, featuring a picture of a young black girl and text that reads, "The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb." Underneath is ... More >>

The Rumbler Vibration Siren Coming to New York City

​The NYPD has announced "the Rumbler," a new siren for cop cars designed to alert "even the most distracted cellphone-yakking, text-messaging or headphone-addled pedestrian or motorist," according to the New York Post. That is what we need! Louder streets. It can supposedly cut through the ubi ... More >>

After 40 Years, Peace in LES's Seward Park; Middle East Is Next

Cary Conover​ The first 2011 Nobel Peace Prize nomination goes to the Lower East Siders who hammered out Monday night's near-unanimous community board vote approving new housing for those five acres of weed-strewn parking lots sitting forlornly behind chain-link fences these past 40 years alon ... More >>

2010: The Year In Music Photos

​The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon sh ... More >>

New Yorkers Actually Drink Less Than the Nationwide Average. Really.

​There's a new New York City drinking survey out, and chances are, you're a drinker, because more than half of New Yorkers of legal drinking age are (congrats!). We were surprised and vindicated to find, however, that New Yorkers on average (53%) actually drank less than the nationwide average ... More >>

NEVER FORGET

Light a candle on World AIDS Day

Yanks Party While Bleachers Fall

While the World Champion Yankees are fighting their way through lower Manhattan traffic this morning, a more somber ceremony is taking place in the Bronx, where the demolition of old Yankee Stadium has now begun in earnest. WCBS Radio helicopter pilot Tom Kaminski snapped a photo of a backhoe tearin ... More >>

Wurst in Show

New German pork-and-beer joint in Bay Ridge delivers a winner schnitzel