The Lo-Down is a community web site dedicated to covering news, events and – most significantly – the people who live and work in one of the world’s greatest neighborhoods, the Lower East Side.
We are Ed Litvak and Traven Rice, a reformed television news producer and filmmaker (in that order). We are Lower East Side residents who launched The Lo-Down to help provide our community with a constant source of information about current events, culture, real estate, food and entertainment. We are featured in the Columbia Journalism Review’s News Frontier Database. You can also read a profile of us in the Village Voice article, “I Blog New York: Your Guide to Gotham’s Best” here.
Rather than serve a single segment of our diverse neighborhood, we are a resource for all cultures and groups on the LES to share information and ideas and to engage in a meaningful dialogue about issues that unite and divide us. We are not a blog that espouses a particular point of view or has an agenda. We work hard to reach out to people and organizations that are not often heard from – and to solicit multiple points of view and new perspectives. It is most important to us that everyone has an opportunity to tell their own story.
Who Works on The Lo-Down
Ed Litvak (Co-founder/Editor-in-Chief) has more than 20 years of experience as a television news producer in local stations, cable properties and broadcast networks. He was a supervising producer at NBC’s Today Show and the executive producer of CNN’s morning program.
Traven Rice (Co-founder/Arts & Culture Editor) is an award-winning filmmaker and theatrical director. You can visit her film and theatrical web site here. She is the co-founder of Say Something Productions.
Jennifer Strom (Associate Editor) has worked as an investigative reporter and editor at daily and alternative newspapers for two decades. Prior to joining The Lo-Down, she was the managing editor of North Carolina’s Independent Weekly, where her work was recognized by numerous awards. Email her here.
Robin Schatell is our Associate Arts Editor. Robin has lived in the Lower East Side for nine years, and has worked in the arts for over 20 years, developing innovative programs and events from concept to production, and presenting adventurous new work by emerging and established artists.
Leo Kin is The Lo-Down’s design and tech consultant.
Mark Ward designed The Lo-Down banner and the topical logos you see on the web site. He can be contacted at mward@threeoeight.com.
Our Contributors
Ken Beasley is our Music Contributor. A New Yorker of 10 years, Ken hails from Texas originally, and his music (and attitude) are a perfect mix of the two. Splitting his time between performing and producing, Ken primarily plays with his own roots/rock band Ken Beasley & Co., as well as the power punk outfit Missy Sport, while also curating the Underground at the Abrons music series on the Lower East Side.
Bridget Bosworth is our Lo-Down Kids Contributor. She lives with her husband and son on the Lower East Side.
Tobi Elkin is a writer, editor and interviewer who lives on the Lower East Side and is a regular reader of The Lo-Down. Her diverse interests include arts and entertainment, film, food and cultural critique. She can be reached at tobi.elkin@gmail.com.
JP Bowersock (JP’s Food Adventures) is a professional musician and music producer who has toured the world repeatedly, eating at top restaurants and hole-in-the-wall joints. He is a serious home cook with over two decades’ experience cooking for family, friends and fellow rock and rollers. Mr Bowersock keeps a toe in the wine business as well, consulting for the wine lists of several neighborhood establishments, including Clandestino, 35 Canal St. When not on tour or in the recording studio he’s scouring the neighborhood for frugal food finds.
Royal Young is a New York-based writer who contributes literary coverage to Interview Magazine and the new web site Holy Diver. Young recently completed “Fame Shark,” his memoir. After six years living in exile (in Brooklyn), this Lower East Side native is back in his natural habitat, rediscovering the old neighborhood.
Erin Egan-Rodriguez lives on the LES with her husband and three kids. She has many interests that include writing about local restaurants, arts, real estate and community affairs. She works as a real estate agent and is completing her Bachelors in Business. She can be reached at erintrodriguez@yahoo.com.
Production & Consulting Services
Lo-Down Productions LLC offers a wide range of media services, including website design, video production and media consulting. We produce small and large scale video projects, including advertisements, image spots, promotional videos, instructional tapes and web series’. For more information, email us at info@thelodownny.com or call 646-861-1805.
Comment Policy
Comments on The Lo-Down are moderated. While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We do not edit comments- they are either approved or not approved. A few things that will very likely result in your post being rejected: personal attacks, obscenity, commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence and SHOUTING. Also, comments that make unsubstantiated allegations about another person or an organization or business, will very likely not be approved.
Third Party Links
Our website contains links to other sites and resources on the Internet controlled by third parties. These links are provided solely as a convenience to our visitors and do not constitute an endorsement of any third party resources or content. We reserve the right to terminate links with any third parties or other websites that are inappropriate or inconsistent with our website. The Lo-Down makes no representations about the content, functionality or practices of such third party sites and resources.
