Summer 2008 - This summer the Tenement Museum will debut its first exhibit which showcases the difficult struggles of the Irish immigrant experience in the mid 1800s in New York City's lower east side. Previous museum exhibits have been devoted to Italian, German and Jewish experiences with tenement living. The lower east side was predominantly German-speaking in the 19th century. The new exhibit will focus on the lives of Bridget and Joseph Moore who lived at 97 Orchard Street in Apartment 14. The couple—who struggled to pay the $8 rent on the modest fourth-floor apartment. Visitors to the museum will be treated to period melodies ethnomusicologist Mick Moloney recorded for the tour include “No Irish Need Apply” from 1865, and “Thousands Are Sailing,” a traditional Gaelic lamentation for friends and relatives who departed for America.

July 2008 - The new Thompson LES Hotel missed its July 15 deadline to open on Allen Street on the Lower East Side. Around the corner from Stanton Street, the hotel promises a rooftop pool with an Andy Warhol mural in mosaic on the pool floor. Andy would have been so proud. Will we finally get to see Moby in swim trunks hanging out here on the roof?