North 4th St, Williamsburg

N 4th is a pretty prime street in Williamsburg. It is close to the L train (which is at 7th), and in the midst of all of the Bedford Ave bar and restaurant scene. Depending on how far you live from Bedford, you can get a relatively quiet apartment that is still extremely close to all of the hullaballoo. The only thing that stinks about living on 4th is that because the area is so popular, you will be living in either a very run down apartment or a ridiculously overpriced condo. A lot of apartments are railroad in this area; and,those are not ideal to say the least.
The up side about N 4th is that there are some really cool bars on the street but it's not overrun with noise that, say, N 7th is. Ok, so a bar with a mechanical bull isn't exactly cool, per se, but it's definitely one of the only ones in NY and it's in Willyburg which I think is hilarious. I can't imagine any moody hipsters getting up to ride the bull. But, then again, they're always surprising me. It's called Viva Toro and it's at Berry. It's worth a look because any kind of person riding a bull is pretty hilarious. There's a lot of bird named bars on North 4th as well. Ok, well there's only the Night Owl and the Old Rooster. They're both semi-divey and pretty cool. There's nothing really popular that's on the street, but those are just the kinds of bars I like so the street is ok by me. Plus, it's just a hop skip and a jump to the really busy parts so it's a win-win if you can just manage to find an affordable apartment that isn't a dump. This is trickier than it sounds, though.

North Fourth Street cuts through a lot of the main avenues of Williamsburg (like Bedford), so there are parts of it that are none too quiet – though the neighborhood can be pretty quiet during the work week. I lived nearby and was never overwhelmed by any party noise, however. This street is pretty residential, though it does offer scattered novelties (like any street in the neighborhood), like Wonk Furniture (which is a cool place if you can drag yourself away from IKEA).