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Frank Arroyo of Frank’s Bikes on Grand Street.
For our regular feature spotlighting the people who live and work on the Lower East Side, we talked with longtime local resident and merchant Frank Arroyo of Frank’s Bike Shop on Grand Street. (
This story was first published in the May 2013 edition of The Lo-Down’s print magazine.)
How long have you lived on the Lower East Side?
Since 1955.
Why did you move here, or if you were born here, why did you stay?
I was born in upper Manhattan. My family moved to 120 Columbia St. when I was 9 years old and then we moved into the East River co-ops about twenty years after that. I like it here, it’s convenient. My friends and family are all here. One of my sons lives here in the co-ops, too.
My last indoor dining experience of 2020 was in early March. I had crispy roast duck, watercress and assorted dumplings at Wu’s Wonton King, at the junction of Chinatown and the historic Jewish Lower East Side. Located at the foot of the Forward Building, Wu’s occupies the site of the old Garden Cafeteria, what used to be the center of New York Jewish intellectual life. Where tanks of jostling Alaskan king crabs are found today, Forward writers and Yiddish literati once kibitzed over kreplach and kugel.
Wu’s wasn’t a random dinner choice. The day before, I heard Wellington Chen, executive director of Chinatown Partnership, and James Beard Award-Winning chef Grace Young on public radio, urging New Yorkers to eat and shop in Chinatown. Chinatown was New York’s first coronavirus victim even before the first diagnosis. News of the virus from Wuhan spurred many Chinese immigrants to start social-distancing early. skipping their Lunar New Year family banquets.