Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Seventh Avenue line (1, 2, 3) is the area's main subway
artery, while the West 4th Street station (where the A, C, or E
lines meet the B, D, F or V lines) serves as its central hub.
The Village is probably the most chameleon-like of Manhat-
tan's neighborhoods. Some of the highest-priced real estate in the
city runs along lower Fifth Avenue, which dead-ends at
Washing-
ton Square Park.
Serpentine
Bleecker Street
stretches through
most of the neighborhood and is emblematic of the area's histori-
cal bent. The anything-goes attitude in the Village has fostered a
large gay community, which is still in evidence around
Christo-
pher Street
and Sheridan Square (including the landmarked
Stonewall Bar). The streets west of Seventh Avenue, known as the
West Village,
boast a more relaxed vibe and some charming his-
toric brownstones. Three colleges—New York University, Parsons
School of Design, and the New School for Social Research—keep
the area thinking young.
Streets are often crowded with weekend warriors and teenagers,
especially on Bleecker, West 4th, 8th, and surrounding streets, and
have been known to become sketchy west of Seventh Avenue in
the very late hours, especially on weekends.
Midtown
Chelsea & the Meatpacking District Chelsea
has come on
strong in recent years as a hip address, especially for the gay com-
munity. A low-rise composite of town houses, tenements, lofts,
and factories (with new high-rises popping up on seemingly every
block), the neighborhood comprises roughly the area west of Sixth
Avenue from 14th to 30th streets. (Sixth Ave. itself below 23rd St.
is actually considered part of the Flatiron District; see below.) Its
main arteries are Seventh and Eighth avenues, and it's primarily
served by the C or E and 1 subway lines.
The
Chelsea Piers
sports complex to the far west and a host of
shops (both unique boutiques and big names such as Williams-
Sonoma), well-priced bistros, and thriving bars along the main
drags have contributed to the area's rebirth. One of the most influ-
ential trends in Chelsea has been the establishment of far
West
Chelsea
(from Ninth Ave. west) and the adjacent
Meatpacking
District
(south of West Chelsea, roughly from 17th St. to Little
W. 12th St.) as the style-setting neighborhoods for the 21st cen-
tury. What SoHo was in the 1960s, this industrial west world
(dubbed “the Lower West Side” by
New York
magazine) is today.
New restaurants, cutting-edge shops, and hot bars pop up daily in
the Meat-Packing District, while the area from West 22nd to West
29th streets between Tenth and Eleventh avenues is home to New
