October 2008 - The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has supplied $5 million in funding for renovations to the Allen Street mall, according to the city’s Parks Department. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is a municipal partnership group created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center to help redevelop the city south of Houston Street. This past spring, the city finished the renovation of a one-block stretch of the mall between Delancey and Broome Streets as a demonstration of what could and might be done in the future with the Allen and Pike Street Malls. The refurbished block now has a brick path lined with benches, shrubs and sculptures.

October 2008 - After selling out New York's Madison Square Garden for four straight nights, pop diva Madonna appeared at the premiere of her very own film in mid October. Madonna went to her own movie premiere.

Held at the Sunshine Cinema on the Lower East Side, Madonna, the new director complained about the few empty seats in the auditorium ("I'm used to much bigger crowds than this, that's all I have to say," she said). She was here on the lower east side to show off her first film, "Filth and Wisdom." Seen in the crowd there and at the after party were Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, Marc Jacobs, Steven Klein, Ingrid Sischy, Bruce Weber and Jason Lewis of Sex and the City fame. Filed under: Madonna on the Lower East Side.