East 17 St, Gramercy Park

E 17th starts at 5th Avenue in the Flatiron District. It's not a trendy or cool part of town by any stretch of the imagination; but, I've always liked this part of town. I wouldn't want to live here but it's great for things to do.
Chop't is a salad place on 17th at Broadway that I'm pretty much obsessed with. The salads are huge and all of the ingredients are organic, sustainable and cruelty free. It's a great to-go lunch spot if you want to take it to sit in Union Square or Washington Square Park. Union Square is always packed and it's awful for when you're in a hurry. There's a lot of tourists and riff-raff milling about but they have a great greenmarket and it's very New York to me. The Petco building just north of it was Andy Warhol's factory which I think is kind of funny. The final home of Tammany Hall is right at the corner of 17th and Park Ave. It's now the NY Film Academy but I feel like you can still feel the corruption if you walk inside. All of the old school buildings just east and across the street were inhabited and frequented by writers of the time of Washington Irving, O. Henry and Oscar Wilde (these people included). 283 17th is the address of the main character in the book The Alienist (very very New York book). All of this area leading up to Beth Israel was a huge writer enclave that is now mostly little restaurants and residences.
Beth Israel is just east of 2nd Ave. Now that St. Vincent's is gone, it's pretty much the only hospital downtown which is fine because it was the nicer one. Leading up to the East River is a place called Stuy Town. It used to be affordable housing (and it looks like Caprini Green - it's creepy from the outside). Now it's gigantic luxury condos which considering how enormous they are for NY standards are pretty reasonably priced. I guess this has to do with the fact that they're intermingled with the affordable housing units they can't vacate and the crappy neighborhood.
All, in all, I like 17th. It doesn't cover any particularly nice parts of downtown, but there's plenty to see and do.

Hotel 17 on this street is not the swankiest, trendiest place – but it does offer a quaint kind of Village area charm (though it’s a bit north of the East Village). Single bedrooms here are surprisingly inexpensive (especially for Manhattan), and this street is just a short cab ride (or walk, if you’re feeling warm enough) away to all the nightlife anyone could ever handle.

East 17th street is wonderful. A good friend of mine recently purchased an apartment here and she always raves about its accessibility to everything. Though the street itself is mainly residential, the neighborhood as a whole is filled with great restaurants and nightlife options minutes away throughout the Lower East Side and Alphabet City. I liked the amount of young people on the street and how fun the neighborhood was. It’s also really close to the park, a wonderful place for brunch and a quiet place to read a book on a Sunday afternoon.

East 17th street is close to the following metro station: L, 14th st , and is accessible to many buses. Foot traffic is heavy and it is a good neighborhood for all ages.

I like between 3rd ave and Irving. Irving is a fantastically quaint and quiet shelter from the hustle and bustle (but also transport convenience) of Union Square.