: I've taken the liberty of removing the following, and creating a new section about borders, which includes info on current and historical borders: 

 ::While the exact boundaries of the neighborhood are open to debate, it today refers to the area of Manhattan south of East 14th Street; north of Fulton Street and Franklin Street; east of Pearl Street and Broadway; and west of the East River.Kenneth T. Jackson: The Encyclopedia of New York City: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995; P. 696.  

 : The problem with the above was that it directly contradicted information elsewhere in the article, and given that the encyclopedia cited was published in 1995, it seemed inappropriate to use as a source for today's boundaries. 

 : Also, the following sources all list E. Houston St, not E. 14th St as the northern border: 
 :*Village Voice 
 :*nycvisit.com ("New York City's official tourism website") 
 :*New York Times 
 :*New York magazine 
 :*About.com 

 : And the Lower East Side BID operates south of Houston, though it further restricts its operations to Orchard and surrounding blocks.