#7: East Village

Photo: Michael Kirby

As the upmarketing of many New York neighborhoods—replacing bodegas with organic markets and grocery carts with strollers—goes off without a hitch, the East Village remains one of the only areas happy to adopt an “in with the old, in with the new” policy. The 70-and-over crowd passes a late summer day on chairs set under store awnings, while hipsters, punks and NYU students returning from summer break gather at the restaurants and shops (and bars—we counted 90!) along the avenues from A to Broadway. How long can the balance last?

Low-income and retirement housing ensures ethnic diversity—real-estate figures may be rising, but the humble facades of the brick walk-ups hardly scream luxury living, and the residents aren’t the kind to flaunt their bank accounts. Bikes, not Bentleys, line the sidewalks. There are 12 tattoo parlors. You’ll find 14 art galleries. And...52 chain stores.

But it hasn’t been a completely smooth transition from how it was to how it is. The ubiquitous purple NYU flags multiply every day, with further development for the university always in the works (the latest lightning rod: a 26-story dorm at 110 East 12th Street, the former site of St. Ann’s Church). The luxury studio apartments going up on the Bowery are garishly shiny; the grit there has given way to vacancies (as the skeleton of CBGB’s awning reminds us).

The southernmost end of the neighborhood may be losing its edge, but current resident Kristen Lalka, 23, insists it’s not all bad. “The East Village used to be much grittier and freer, but it was also not as safe. I guess the chain stores are part of that trade-off. I can’t say which incarnation of the Village was better, but I do worry about things getting out of hand. Three Chase banks within a five-block radius is absolutely unnecessary.”

OVERALL SCORE: 20

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Streets are tree-lined and cozy, but avenues are big—both Bowery and Cooper Square are wide and deserted. Fire escapes are often personalized by the residents, which almost counteracts all the NYU dorms. Despite the commercialism, the area still has something: Where else can you find a guy advertising both “free sandwiches” and “free Bibles”?

Next: #8: Lower East Side