I finished the East Village walk today and made it a couple blocks into the Lower East Side, going from E. 7th St. down to Rivington St.; about 8 miles.

The walk started across from Cooper Union, which is a college founded in 1859. Lincoln gave a famous speech here in 1860 and until last year it offered all of its students free tuition. Along the way I almost unknowingly passed by the former site of the Fillmore East theater (thanks rock and roll walking tour!), where one of my favorite Grateful Dead albums was recorded. As before, the blocks between Bowery and Ave. B are largely older walk-up apartments with some restaurants, bars and boutique stores at street-level. Between about Ave. B and Ave. D is a Puerto Rican neighborhood with a bunch of community gardens. East of Ave. D are the Jacob Riis Houses, public housing projects named for the famed tenement photographer and author of "How the Other Half Lives".

I kept walking for a couple blocks after going down Houston (pronouned "how-stun", not "hyoo-stun"), into the Lower East Side (or "LES"). I've heard that back in the day the East Village was considered a sub-neighborhood of the LES, but I think today it's generally considered to be the area east of Bowery between Houston to the north and Canal St. to the south (roughly).

Getting south of Houston is where this gets tough - you leave the numbered streets and avenues along with the nice grid-layout from the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. The Plan laid out the development of Manhattan north of 14th St. before it was heavily developed so that the rest of the island wouldn't evolve into a morass of streets strewn haphazardly at odd angles with no common naming convention.

So even though the Plan only really applies to the island north of 14th St., with the exception of the West Village, the area between 14th St. and Houston St. mostly adheres to some form of grid, which makes setting out a logical/efficient path easier for me.

Not quite ready for the chaos of Lower Manhattan, so I'll probably head back north for my next couple walks.

Start

E 7th @ Cooper Sq./3rd Ave.

Cooper Union

E 7th @ Cooper Sq./3rd Ave.

Oldest (possibly) bar in Manhattan in continuous operation (est. 1854)

E 7th btw Cooper Sq./3rd Ave. and 2nd Ave.

Sterotypes

E 7th St. btw 2nd Ave. and 1st Ave.

Hey bro, quit hitting on my wife!

E 7th St. btw 2nd Ave. and 1st Ave.

Cool building

E 7th St. btw 1st Ave. and Ave. A

Jacob Riis Houses

E 6th St. btw the FDR and Ave. D

Shoe in a tree

E 6th St. btw Ave. C and Ave. D

Community garden/treehouse

E 6th St. btw Ave. C and Ave. B

Mosaic signpost by former sight of Fillmore East concert hall

E 6th St. btw 2nd Ave. and 3rd Ave.

East Village rock and roll history walking tour

E 6th St. btw 2nd Ave. and 3rd Ave.

Rembrandt wuz here

E 5th St. btw 2nd Ave. and 3rd Ave.

Sinking Titanic super fun slide (too soon?)

E 5th St. btw Ave. B and Ave. C

Community garden 2

E 5th St. btw Ave. C and Ave. D

Cool little church

E 4th St. btw Ave. C and Ave. D

Colorful building

E 4th St. btw Ave. B and Ave. C

Apartment buildings

E 4th St. btw 1st Ave. and 2nd Ave.

You get a little bit of everything here

E 3rd St. btw 1st Ave. and 2nd Ave.

Church of the Most Holy Redeemer (built 1852)

E 3rd St. btw Ave. A and Ave. B

Interpretive chalk

E 3rd St. btw Ave. A and Ave. B

Maria's Cafe

E 3rd St. btw Ave. C and Ave. D

Crumbling facade

E 3rd St. btw Ave. C and Ave. D

Typewriter and trumpet

E 2nd St. btw Bowery/3rd Ave. 2nd Ave.

Marble Cemetery

E 2nd St. btw 2nd Ave. and 1st Ave.

Notable names

E 2nd St. btw 2nd Ave. and 1st Ave.

Confusing clock

E 2nd St. btw 1st Ave. and Ave. A

And a statue of Lenin

E 2nd St. btw 1st Ave. and Ave. A

An anarchist's history of the East Village

E 1st St. btw 1st Ave. and 2nd Ave.

These flowers smelled nice

E 1st St. btw 1st Ave. and 2nd Ave.

Road work

1st. St. at 1st Ave

Williamsburg Bridge

Houston at FRD Drive

How do you get to Attorney St.? Just pass the Bar! I crack myself up

Houston btw Ridge St. and Attorney St.

They all want what she's having

Houston btw Ludlow St. and Orchard St.

House on top of an apartment building

Houston btw Orchard St. and Allen St.

Green space

Houston btw Forsyth St. and Eldridge St.

Bowery

Houston btw Chrystie and Bowery

Nose art

Stanton St. btw Forsyth St. and Eldridge St.

Lower East Side St.

Stanton St. btw Allen St. and Eldridge St.

Lower East Side street #2

Rivington St. btw Ridge St. and Attorney St.

Cool buildings

Rivington St. btw Orchard St. and Allen St.