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By the early 20th century, more than 2,000 pushcarts operated on the streets of the Lower East Side. An integral part of immigrant life in New York, the pushcart market simultaneously provided needed work for peddlers and a cheap and familiar place for local residents to shop. Yet some believed that the "old-world" character of the pushcart markets thwarted efforts to modernize the Lower East Side. Attempting to reduce the number of pushcarts on city streets, in 1916 the municipality began to limit the number of licenses issued. Nevertheless, many peddlers continued to operate unlicensed pushcarts, sometimes with consequences. In 1924, Max Schev and Benjamin Benson, residents of the tenement at 97 Orchard Street, were fined $5 for peddling without a license. Following his election as mayor in 1934, Fiorello La Guardia took up the issue of pushcart peddling and worked to have indoor municipal markets constructed. On January 10, 1940 the Essex Street Market opened with space for 530 vendors, far too few for the estimated 1,300 peddlers then ekeing out a living on the streets of the Lower East Side. 10,000 New York is still home to many street vendors: there are approximately 10,000 in the city, many of whom are immigrants. The role of street vending in New York remains a contentious issue. Vendors face limited access to licenses and the scorn of some elected officials. In 1994, Mayor Rudpolph Giuliani instituted a program to remove unlicensed street vendors from the city’s streets. Along with writing books and curating the furnishings of the historic apartments of 97 Orchard Street, Pamela Keech is a Lower East Side shopkeeper. She is the new director of the Museum's antiques and collectibles shop, Home Economics. The store is filled with products that reflect Pamela’s keen eye for vintage goods and contemporary items with a retro sensibility: collectible glassware and china, fanciful lamps, hats, jewelry and handmade linens to name a few. Some of Home Economics' great items are now available on our online shop, including: Jane Austen Equestrian Collection: Dishes featuring handsome drawings of riders, hounds and bygone equestrian scenes. These cute plates are made of melamine for easy cleaning and range from 8 to 12 inches. Architectural Words: Retro metal wall hangings that jazz up any room. Home Comforts: The ultimate guide to homemaking. Author Cheryl Mendelson offers indispensible information on everything from setting up your first home to doing laundry. The past few years have seen the closing of some of the Lower East Side’s classic shops and eateries. Next year will mark the passing of another area classic. Gertel’s Bakery recently announced plans to close its retail space on Hester Street. Opened over 85 years ago to serve a booming Jewish clientele, Gertel’s is now the neighborhood’s last kosher bakery. If you are a fan of the bakery’s babka and rugelach, take heart: Gertel’s will continue its Brooklyn-based wholesale business. As for the Hester Street storefront, a developer has reportedly bought the spot and plans to build an 8-story condominium. Despite the recent spate of closings, it’s still possible to shop at some of the unique stores that earned the Lower East Side its reputation as the “birthplace of the bargain.” Pamela Keech, The Tenement’s curator of furnishings, highlights Orchard Corset Discount Center and the area’s other great bargain shops in her new book, The Curious Shopper’s Guide to New York City. Pamela calls Orchard Corset “the best place to be fitted (for a bra). The bewildering jumble of boxes on the floor-to-ceiling shelves is no puzzle for the surpremely professional female staff who…take all the time necessary to ensure that fit and style are perfect for the individual figure, from size 32-56, A-J cups.” If you want to glean the secrets of Manhattan’s amazing, but often intimidating, shopping districts, The Curious Shopper’s Guide is available on our online shop. And if you need a fitting or are just plain curious, Orchard Corset is located at 157 Orchard Street. On Wednesday, October 18 The Tenement will host a reception for Pamela Keech's new book, The Curious Shopper's Guide. Please join us at Home Economics (90 Orchard Street at Broome) at 6pm. Please rsvp to asilberman@tenement.org if you’d like to attend. Observing the Lower East Side pushcart markets, Jacob Riis, author of How The Other Half Lives, remarked: "There is scarcely anything else that can be hawked from a wagon that is not to be found, and at ridiculously low prices."