Selling The Lower EastTracks the shifting views of the Lower East Side from ghetto to desirable urban niche. The Lower East Side of Manhattan is rich in stories of poor immigrants who flocked there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; of beatniks, hippies, and artists who peopled it mid century; and of the real estate developers and politicians who have always shaped what is now termed the "East Village." Today, the musical Rent plays on Broadway to a