LES (Lower East Side); Unscotti

[Grant Barrett]

On Aug 31, 2004, at 02:27, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> "ALLAN RICHMAN on New York's Lower East SIde" announces the September
> 2004
> BON APPETIT, the "Where to eat now" issue. From page 97, col. 3:
> "Don't call it the Lower East Side,: she chided.

I don't know anyone, native New Yorker or not, resident of that hood or
not, who calls it L.E.S. ("ell ee ess") with any kind of regularity.
It's certainly no shibboleth. It's Lower East Side when I hear it. I
don't hear the "Loisaida" term the Puerto Ricans supposedly use,
either, which I've always figured was an affectation on the order of
calling NYC "Gotham." Loisaida, in any case, is now mostly just Avenue
C north of Houston and some of Avenue D, and not part of what is
currently known as the Lower East Side, which is below Houston (though
all of what is currently the East Village and Alphabet City can be seen
on old maps designated as the Lower East Side, too, although they are
above Houston; I figure 14th Street, above those areas, used to be the
divider).

Grant Barrett