Neighborhood Guide EAST VILLAGE-MANHATTAN Long known as the bohemian part of the city, the East Village is now a mecca of avant-garde hipsters, skaters, young artists, Goths and NYU students living side-by-side the Italians, Poles, Latinos and Ukrainians who have lived here for generations. The East Village used to be a lot more rough and dicey back in the 80s (when Madonna dwelled here), but the 90s saw a clean-up of the neighborhood and a greater cop presence. If you're a young artist, then this is the place for you. Stuffy conservative Wall Street wanna-bes need not apply…although they are anyway, perhaps trying to live out their grungy side outside their suits. Perhaps because of such yuppies, prices have dramatically risen in the East Village since the days of Madonna, but it's still less expensive to live here than in other parts of the city. If you can find a studio for less than a grand, don't let it go until you start a family and move to Jersey. The East Village is increasingly being considered the new Greenwich Village of New York, since prices there have gone out of control and are being taken over by those dreaded yuppies and young artists with wealthy parents. St. Marks Place and Avenue A are considered the main drags here, with groovy cafes, restaurants, boutiques and a few touristy T-shirt shops lining the quaint street with some charming brownstones and walk-ups. Alphabet City (Avenues A through D) is the real gritty part of the East Village, still clinging to its old-school rap of junkies, gangs, drug dealing and the like, but even that may be starting to change. The facades here weren't cleaned-up as well as the rest of the area in the 90s, so it doesn't hold the charm of some of the better streets. But Avenues A and B are being taken in and cleaned-up; Avenues C and D are still a little dicey but sure to follow in A's and B's footsteps. Until then taking a 4 a.m. stroll alone here is not recommended. Tompkins Square Park, once a popular place for riots and general raucous behavior, is now a great place to sip your coffee from Café Pick Me Up on A and East 9th, walk your dog, strum your guitar, take the kids or pick up a game of basketball. The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is held here annually, as the jazz legend once lived at 151 Avenue B. You'll do your grocery shopping like a real New Yorker here-at the bodegas sprinkled throughout the neighborhood. But you'll never go thirsty in the East Village-in fact, we challenge you to walk more than two blocks without passing a watering hole. You'll find everything from the somewhat cliché Coyote Ugly on First Avenue (yep, the infamous joint turned tourist trap from the movie of the same name) to more low-key places like Standard. And don't miss Vineiro's on First Avenue and East 11th, one of the city's best places to get a canoli, among other yummy pastries. The place is rumored to be Mafia owned, but we're certainly not going to be the ones to claim that as fact. A drawback of living here is that whichever part of the area you choose to live in, you'll probably have to take a 10-minute stroll to get home, as the subways don't exactly dot the neighborhood. A small price to pay for being young and hip in a trendy neighborhood.
Cohen Smith Chang Licensed Real Estate Broker 12 West 37th Street 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Office: (212)277-5500 Fax: (212)377-5751