Cooper Sq, Bowery

Cooper Square only runs through one tiny block of the Bowery (from 4th to 5th) and the neighborhood definitely starts to take on a new tone at Cooper. There are some really beautiful old buildings right here. But, you can't really live in Cooper Square. It's taken over by school and commerce. But, you can definitely enjoy walking through. Right at 4th and Bowery / Cooper is where 14,000 homeless people were counted living in the late 1940's. That's just to an idea of what this area was like for a very long time. The book The Alienist does a great job of painting the horrific back drop that was this neighborhood up until fairly recently. In line with the Alienist, there's a building at 32 Cooper that used to be a big hall where trannies would congregate in the 19th century. One of them was murdered in the opening of that fantastic New York book. People nicknamed the building Paresis Hall after the final stage of Syphilis. This was not a neighborhood for a gentleman, that's for sure. And, now rich people live all around it. Just to stamp in the new rich vibe, The Cooper Union Hotel went up a few years ago right at 5th. It's modern, sleek, trendy and very shi shi. My dad has stayed here a few times and it carries along the vibe of the new Bowery very well.