🌱 LES Small Business Saved By Social Media + Public Compost Bins

Happy Saturday, Lower East Side-Chinatown! I am your host, Patrick Murray, bringing you 3 fresh headlines as we head into the weekend.

First, today's weather:

Partly cloudy and cold with a high of 20 and a low of 11.

Here are the top stories today in Lower East Side-Chinatown:

1. A Lower East Side small business owner says that his business was saved by social media. Hit hard by the pandemic, Henry Yao was preparing to tell his landlord that he could no longer afford the $6,000 monthly rent for his store, the 300 square-foot Army & Navy Bags. That is when a customer stepped in and reached out to prominent social media blogger New York Nico, whose large presence brought a large wave of new customers to the store. (Spectrum News NY1)
2. Local favorite eatery Gaia Italian Cafe is preparing for a February return. Owner and namesake of the eatery, Gaia Bagnasacco signed a lease for the ground floor at 119 Essex St., after shuttering her previous establishment on East Houston. (Bowery Boogie)
3. An initiative launched by the Downtown Alliance, NYC Department of Sanitation, and Brookfield Properties hopes to make composting easy and accessible to New Yorkers. 10 public composting bins have been placed south of Chambers Street in an attempt to make depositing food scraps and other compostable items far easier. The bins can be opened via Bluetooth on your smartphone with the mobile app eGate Digi. (amNY)

Today in Lower East Side-Chinatown:

• Barkada Market 2022, come shop and support local Filipino businesses. (11 a.m.)
• NYC Winter Jazzfest at The Bowery Ballroom. (6 p.m.)
• "Red Psalm" screening at The Metrograph. (6:15 p.m.)

From my notebook:

• 4-month-old Veronica just arrived at Animal Haven from Antigua and is available for adoption. (Facebook)
• Come show your support for Dress Shoppe II before it closes at the end of the month. (Facebook)
• A great shot of Lower Manhattan from 1958. (Facebook)

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Now you're in the loop and ready to head out the door on this Saturday! I'll catch up with you bright and early tomorrow with a new update.

— Patrick Murray