All the lost boys and girls of the Lower East Side

It starts around 10 p.m. Hoards of scantily clad, 20-something-year- old, creative types take to the conglomerated cobble stone streets of the Lower East Side (LES).

Nearly every night of the week they head to the over-saturated the bars and lounges up and down Ludlow and Orchard streets like children eager to explore their surroundings.
 
Their laughter, cat calls, communal song singing, like those of an ecstatic group of toddlers reverberates through the air of what has become their urban playground.

They take the F train to Neverland; Brooklyn artists, Chinatown designers and East Village musicians alike impatiently wait in line, antsy to get inside the bar and nurse their beer bottles.

 They play in the campy, often themed bars as if they were kids in a sandbox—interacting with each other, sharing and fighting over members of the opposite sex.

Nightlife on the LES is a game to these little babes. Such as walking away with the shiniest toy, having the most fun jumping and gyrating on a new friend and who has the coolest new shoes to prove it. That person is in fact the shiniest toy and is sure to be vied for throughout the night.

It is as if they don't want to grow up. After 2 a.m., boys and girls can be seen peeing in doorways on side streets, reminiscent of life pre-potty training. They snack on packaged goods from the corner stores.

Girls cry on each other's shoulders if they don't get the ‘toy' they want or if that ‘toy' is giving them problems. They go home and sleep like babies.

"I feel like the LES is ‘over-hyped' it's just a place where juvenile, bored artists go when their sick of wreaking havoc in Williamsburg," University senior Martin Lopez said. 
He added, "I don't really care for the LES anymore. I went to Gallery Bar on Orchard last weekend.

It was fun, but it's not a place that I'd keep going back to.

"It's impossible to get to since the F train runs so slow late at night, and I'm just not into the immature people that hang out at places like Happy Endings [on Chrystie] and Darkroom on [Ludlow], start drama and wear ridiculous outfits while doing so."

Others relish in the excitement that ruminates through the streets on the LES.

"My roommate never leaves the LES, even though we live in the Financial District. She's always at Pianos or Maxfish and never comes home without a great story about her night out.

"I think she goes there so often because she feels at ease with like minded people—they all just want to have a good time and dance," sophomore Lindsay Meyeroff said.

University alumni Chad Steed agreed, "I don't drink but I still have a great time when I go out on the LES. I think that's because the LES is the only place where you are guaranteed to have fun, even being sober. The girls are beautiful and everyone is out to enjoy themselves."

Whether the people who frequent the hot spots downtown need to grow up or not, the fact remains that the booming night life that's evolved over the past couple of years isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

The cheap drinks, the ever-present camaraderie and the promise of stimulating experiences on the LES are too alluring to want to grow up and leave it behind.