2011 on the Lower East Side: Our Most Popular Stories

We’ll be using what’s left of 2011 to take a look back at the past year on the Lower East Side. First up: The Lo-Down’s most viewed stories of 2011.  See below the posts you clicked on most frequently in the last 12 months:

1. Painkiller, the Essex Street tiki bar, is sued and forced to change its name.

2. As part of a neighborhood-wide crackdown on nightlife, the 7th Precinct temporarily shutters legendary bar Max Fish.

3. Friday Night Throwdown, the underground fight night held in various locations throughout the neighborhood, inspires a possible movie.

4. A 23-year old man is shot and killed on Pitt Street.

5. Lower East Side residents unveil plans to build a fully sustainable home called the “EarthShip.”

6. A Lower East Side bar manager speaks out about the NYPD’s nightlife crackdown.

7. Raul Barrara turns himself in following the grisly murder of his girlfriend, Sarah Coit, inside her Clinton Street apartment.

8. A giant snowman outside a grocery store at Essex and Canal streets becomes the talk of the neighborhood.

9. A woman is killed inside her Stanton Street apartment.

10. The NYPD shuts down two more bars, Mason Dixon and Los Feliz.

11. Musician Ari Gold, a Lower East Side resident, if forced to the back of a bus after holding hands with his boyfriend.

12. Essex Street Market butcher Jeffrey Ruhalter closes his store, a LES fixture for four generations.

13. Two entrepreneurs discuss plans to create “The Delancey Underground.”

14. A group of Chinese-American investors plan a new residential building at Delancey and Pitt streets.

15. A Community Board 3 panel opposes Ludlow Manor’s quest for an expanded liquor license.

16. The Doughnut Plant plans an expansion on Grand Street.

17. 7th Precinct Captain David Miller defends crackdown on Lower East Side bars.

18. Artist Bonnie Lucas makes a comeback.

19. JP Bowersock goes in search of the perfect roast pig in Chinatown.

20. Season two of the Hester Street Fair opens with a bang.