The Bowery: Is Manhattan’s Edgiest Street Losing its Soul?
By Spectrum News Staff New York City
PUBLISHED 5:00 AM ET Aug. 27, 2019
This story is the third installment of NY1’s new initiative, “Street Level,” which explores the city through the history and culture of specific streets and the people who live there.
Every true New Yorker knows, it’s not Bowery Street or Bowery Avenue. It’s the Bowery. This mile-long stretch in Lower Manhattan was home to the city’s original performing arts scene. From vaudeville to punk rock, the Bowery has played host to New York’s edgiest acts. Down on the Bowery, far from the bright lights uptown, the art was bawdy. It was eccentric. At times it was offensive. This was entertainment for the masses, the misfits, and the misunderstood. But with all that’s changed since, has the Bowery lost its artistic soul?