Alexandra DiPalma reporting in Altar, Mexico (photo by Samantha Sais) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Alexandra DiPalma reports from Altar, Mexico. Did...

A salty hamburger and french fries. Stock photo Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Reporter Alexandra DiPalma on the salt battle. Cigarette smokers, soda...

Hard-court bike polo players engage in a match at The Pit on the Lower East Side. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Each Sunday...

Paul Brainard stands among the “Vaga Lume" exhibition in Eleven Rivington, an art gallery in the Lower East Side. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma On a recent Saturday, the Lower East Side buzzed as crowds of people went from restaurant to boutique to gallery, taking advantage of the long-awaited taste...

The recently closed Guss' Pickles storefront. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma In the span of a few blocks of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, residents and visitors can find themselves sipping wine at a gallery opening, shopping for knockoff purses, touring historic tenement apartments, and ending up at...

Chess players in Washington Square Park. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Pavement Pieces reporter Alexandra DiPalma talks to...

The remains of the Deslouches' house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Like so many Haitian-Americans, Samira Louis and her family eagerly awaited news of relatives in Haiti in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Within hours, the Louises were saddened to learn that the sturdy house in which her father had...

Kindergarten students at the Ideal School participate in dance class. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma Julia Harquail searched tirelessly to find the perfect school for her youngest daughter, Catherine, who has Down syndrome. Having gone through the selection process with her two older children, Harquail knew...

Susan Klein and Sarah Gardner are ninth grade teachers at Marta Valle Secondary School. Photo By Alexandra DiPalma At Marta Valle Secondary School in the Lower East Side, more than 30 students and three aides are squeezed into mismatched tables and chairs during Sarah Gardner and Susan Klein’s ninth...

Queens-based band Dared the Knot performs for marathon runners on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. Photo by Alexandra DiPalma While most of the streets on the New York City Marathon route were lined with cheering spectators during the race yesterday, the route through Hasidic Williamsburg was empty. ...