Boundary Lines Being Drawn...
Strauss: For many New Yorkers and tourists, Avenue A is a boundary line, east of which they will not cross. Beyond Avenue A, the streets get darker, the commercial offerings more sporadic.
McKinley: Those crowds, however, have seemed less eager to cross Delancey Street, a wide red-light-be-damned boulevard that feeds a constant stream of heavy traffic across the Williamsburg Bridge.

... But the Cool Kids Know Better
Strauss: East of Avenue A, the night life is more spread out. Thrill-seekers don't wander; they head to a destination. A few are well-known tourist meccas, and others are local dives.
McKinley: By the time my compatriots and I stumbled to Lolita, it was almost 1 a.m. and the crossing-Delancey set was out in force. The basement bar was packed, while upstairs two women were D.J.'ing rock 'n' roll and old-school hip-hop.

God Bless Ye Olde Melting Pot
Strauss: It may be one of the most ethnically, economically and culturally mixed areas in the world. German, Irish, Ukrainian and Jewish immigrants continue to live there, alongside yuppies and squatters, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, students and punks, addicts and artists.
McKinley: It was home to hundreds of thousands of Irish, Italian, German and Jewish immigrants fleeing famine, political oppression and economic desolation. Later came waves of Latino and Chinese settlers... Now, as the East Village overflows, the neighborhood is once again flooded by newcomers...

Obligatory Progress is Good! Quote
Strauss: "I used to go to the store with a .38 in my belt,'' said Russell Harvey, a 42-year-old employee of Janovic Plaza who was born on Avenue D. ''Now you don't need anything anymore. The neighborhood has changed tremendously, for the better.''
McKinley: "There's a sense of finding something down here, of discovering a spot," [Happy Ending owner Clyde] Rennie said, slinging beer in his bar's basement. "And I think that's part of its appeal."

Obligatory Is Progress Good? Quote
Strauss: Sarah Ferguson, who has written about the area for The Village Voice since the late 80's, said: ''I feel like the neighborhood has lost its soul. There's no center. There's not the same sense of community and neighborhood. We're in the midst of a huge shift."
McKinley: "This area is interesting because what gives it its character is the grittiness," [the Lolita bouncer] said. "That's what makes people want to come. But the more who come, the less grit and less character. So it's tough."

Area's Seminal ATM Moment
Strauss: A community bank, the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union, appeared on Avenue B and Third Street, offering the first cash machine east of Avenue A. It was inevitable.
McKinley: The next stop was 169 Bar... The bar attracts a varied clientele; a pool table in the back is usually busy, as is a video-game machine in the front. (The bar also has an ATM — inside.)

Secret After-Hours Spot
Strauss: There are after-hours clubs both established (Save the Robots on Avenue B, near Third Street) and obscure (Buono Sera, on Fourth Street near Avenue C).
McKinley: True adventurers might also be able to find the mysterious Milk and Honey, a semi-private lounge that also opened several years ago just below Delancey on Eldridge Street.

The Sad Evolution of the Hipster
Strauss: Of course, leather, piercings, used-clothes and tattoos do not a hipster make.
McKinley: Both places attract the type of good-looking young crowd that likes to eat with Mary J. Blige or Outkast playing in the background and vodka drinks playing in the foreground.

Random Claim
Strauss: Unless you know where the street Szold Place is, you cannot truly claim to have explored the East Village.
McKinley: Indeed, one of the joys of the neighborhood is its "Oh, wow" effect, the sensation of suddenly finding a new spot in the last place you'd expect.

Desperate Claim (N.B. perfect circularity)
Strauss: If anything is going to keep Avenue B from becoming the new Avenue A, it will be the community's self-awareness. As J. C., a bartender at S.T. said: ''I don't think they want to be Avenue A here. They want something that is Avenue B.''
McKinley: And while I don't want to make it seem too hip for fear of encouraging any more of the teeming masses to come down below Delancey Street, I must say that the neighborhood's unique mix of old and new seems far more interesting than those $5 lattes on Avenue B.

Word Count (n/inc sidebars)
Strauss: 2,406 words
McKinley: 2,335 words