New York: The L.E.S Hatches Chickens By Jay Riggio

New York. It’s a wonderful place full of pretty ladies, flavorful foods, people who call themselves artists, commerce, clutter, pizza, bagels and more culture than a baby satchel overflowing with philosophy students. It’s this city that holds endless handfuls of promise in practically every direction one chooses to take. Over the more recent years, this place known as the Big Apple has changed drastically.

And no one area of the city so perfectly exemplifies the transformation than Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In the early 90s the Lower East Side was a shithole. It was run by gangs, whores, drug dealers, junkies, squatters and Marissa Tomei’s titties. Just kidding. Tomei’s titties weren’t there. But seriously though, the place was straight up gnarly. But someplace within all that grime and crime-stricken streets, there was something truly magical. There was a rugged realness that couldn’t be faked. And unfortunately, just like most good things that have existed throughout history, this charming part of the city went and changed on us all. It was nobody’s fault except for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He had the tranny whore’s arrested, the homeless put in shelters or put to sleep and forced out the seedy sex shops that were depleting the real estate with the rubberized smell of buttplugs and dildos. Today the area is overrun with young people who have disposable incomes, yuppies, unaffordable rent, designer boutiques, bridge and tunnel crowds and $4 cups of coffee. It’s safe, trendy, happy and at the end of the weary day, helplessly uninspired. But just because the place lacks much of what once made it great, it doesn’t mean that it sucks complete balls. It’s actually ok. Hell, I’d even call it pretty good still, because throughout all the major and minor transformations of the scene, there remains one constant that can’t be, and come to think of it, could never be changed. Ever. Yep, that shit is skateboarding. Through the years, the Downtown Manhattan skate scene has flourished with names that have come, gone and even stayed. Name’s like Harold Hunter, Todd Jordan, Lauren Mollica, Tino Razo, Brian Brown, Jason Dill, Anthony Correa, Jaime Reyes, Zered Bassett, Dustin Charleton, Billy Rohan and others have all at one time or another called the Lower East Side there own. But over the last 5 years or so, there’s been a new breed of rippers on the rise that have been making themselves known throughout the streets of downtown Manhattan, with constant skating and a shitload of skills to boot. New jacks like Yaje Popson, Brett Nelson, Kyle Iles, Dan Forkin, Luis Tolentino, Lurker Lou, Kevin Tierney, Jake Johnson, Danny Falla, Taiji Ameen, Keith Denly and Luke Malaney are quickly coming up and are not only the newest generation of skaters to help push the New York scene, these little fucks will be going down in the history books as the dudes who picked up that torch and kept shit moving into the currently unforeseen future of skateboarding. Backs need to be watched, ‘cause these kids are hungry.