LOWER EAST SIDE BAR BRAWL

Assemblyman Sheldon Silver will preside over a public hearing this Friday, May 5, where Lower East Side residents are encouraged to come in and air their grievances over the neighborhood's swarming nightlife population. Likely to attend are community groups like Ludlow-Orchard Community Organization (L.O.C.O) and the Lower East Side Alliance, purveyors of the Web site Toomanybars.org. The groups and their supporters urge the State Liquor Authority to tighten up its enforcement of the 500-foot rule, which requires a business applying for a liquor license to be subjected to a special hearing if it's within 500 feet of three other licensed businesses. It's not that nightlife opponents are "anti-all-bars-everywhere," as L.O.C.O.'s Web page articulates; they're just miffed to see bars replace "all of the really cool small local businesses" that defined Lower East Side culture. The proud history of the LES is something these people know a lot about, many of whom have lived in the neighborhood for almost seven whole years. They want a return to roots, when the 'hood's character was forged; say, 1996.