BrooklynTree

This neighborhood juts out into Flushing Bay and is a working class/ middle class area. This is a pretty residential area that is in no way a tourist destination. The neighborhood has experienced some development recently, as is inevitable for all New York neighborhoods as the population swells, and the neighborhood has begun hosting summertime street fairs and other community-friendly events. Developers love this area because they can acquire cheap property and flip it or make rental profits.

This neighborhood sits next to the Clearview Golf Course, which is something that I absolutely cannot appreciate, though I’m sure there are many who can. This is a pretty expensive place to buy a home (as is usually the case with neighborhoods on golf courses), but since the neighborhood also has a bit of waterfront property one can expect to have to shell out a bit of extra cash for real estate. There aren’t very many interesting eateries out here, not that you would travel miles to see anyway – unless you consider Applebees to be such a place. (And if you do, you can be sure to find one a bit closer to your hotel, anyway.)

This neighborhood borders on the JFK airport, so there is obviously a bit of an issue with noise from air traffic (which can be annoying). On the upside, there is a huge park that borders the neighborhood (and what can I say, after years of concrete I’ve become a sucker for the anything green). This park is only a plus for residents who are forced to be subjected to the noise pollution from jetliners, rather than an enticing place to visit for tourists. Don’t get me wrong, the park is beautiful – it’s just very far from the places one should visit as a tourist in NYC.

Broad Channel is a neighborhood out in the middle of Jamaica Bay, a feat cool in itself. However, waterfront property isn’t as high of a demand in New York City as that of say the Upper East Side (unless of course we are talking about a river view from Manhattan), so what you find here is a residential neighborhood set completely apart from the rest of the city. It seems a really bland place to live, and the sort of place a teenager would dream of escaping (so close to the city, and yet so far!). Of New York City it’s really true that the further you get from Manhattan the further you get from the city’s stereotype.

Tourists don’t come to New York City to view natural seascapes out on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, but plenty of New Yorkers feel the need for seascapes after spending the winter months in their concrete jungle. This is a good place to visit to relieve yourself from the stress of the city, though I wouldn’t recommend living way out here if you need to make a daily commute to any of the city’s business districts on a daily basis.
The neighborhood is home to a surf shop, and a beach bar – which seem strange bedfellows to the city of New York for a tourist, but are a welcome change if you’ve been in the city too long.

This area doesn’t even look like it is part of the rest of the city. It looks like a suburb you would find in New Jersey, or anyone of the ones on Long Island – which this neighborhood borders on. The neighborhood is so small that it shares a zip with the one nextdoor, Glen Oaks, so that all of the residents here receive mail that is addressed to them in Glen Oaks, which gives you an idea of the quaintness of this suburb-like neighborhood. This is no place where you will ever find a red blooded tourist worth his salt, but it is a nice place to live in New York if you want to be away from New York – if you get my drift.

It isn’t often that you get to say “there really isn’t much to say about this New York neighborhood,” but, unfortunately, this is one of those times. Bayswater is, obviously, on the water down near Long Island and the neighboring Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway (which, I’m pretty sure, is where the train ends). Don’t worry, though, the A stops through this neighborhood on its way to the end of the line. This is, however, the only line that goes all the way out here, and this is quite a commute for anyone who needs to get into Manhattan on a regular basis.

Though it may bear the same name as the high school that Zack Morris attended, this neighborhood is way way out there – certainly no place that any living tourist has ever ventured (save those going to the city to visit grandmothers who live out here). The neighborhood is therefore super residential, though it does (obviously) have some waterfront property. If you like the fact that it is so far from the city while still actually being a part of the city, then take extra comfort in the fact that this is one of the safest neighborhoods in Queens – indeed, the numbers concerning crime are pretty impressive.

This Queens neighborhood is so far from the rest of the city that it may as well be on Long Island (which it almost is). And guess what? There’s nothing here. Well, nothing anyone would be dying to visit. I hear there used to be plenty of things to do here – summer cottages and boardwalks and whatnot, but all of these are no more (and it seems if some had their way, Coney Island would be going the same route). This is a residential spot, and some of the houses here can be pretty pricy, as this is after all waterfront or near-waterfront property.

Williamsburg rents are on the rise, but a glimpse into Craigslist will convince you that there are still relatively affordable places in this neighborhood. However, you may want to be advised that although this is a very fun place to live (if you are say, 25 years old), many streets on this neighborhood are beleaguered with noisy drunk long after the bars close. That being said, this still may be just your scene – I know I certainly enjoyed living here. Everything is at your fingertips: shopping, eateries, record stores, bars, music venues.
Of these places, I’d recommend Union Pool (a pretty cool music venue that showcases a lot of local bands), and Dumont Burger (it’s small and low key, and they have some good beers on tap and serve delicious giant burgers).

I’ve heard a lot in the past about how Red Hook is supposed to be the new Williamsburg – or rather, what Williamsburg used to be before all of the businesses arrived with their trendy shops, bars, record stores, and restaurants: an enclave of artists living where ever the rent is cheap. I don’t know how true this is – but this neighborhood features a mixture of classes. Many working class people find themselves living beside luxury car owners here. Condo projects and shopping centers are in the works for Red Hook, so its days as any kind of bohemia are numbered.

If you’re willing to make the commute (and many people are simply just forced to commute), this neighborhood is relatively close the twenty-something hot spots in Brooklyn. This is actually as far away from Manhattan as I’d be willing to go if I were looking for a new apartment. The park itself (of the same name) is really beautiful when there is grass on the ground and leaves on the trees – every neighborhood really needs a spot where residents can get away from all of the concrete, and Prospect Park has one of the better options as far as that goes.

This tiny historic district is actually inside of the neighborhood of Flatbush. This is one of those spots that developers are salivating over, as it hasn’t been built on in a while, stimulating the usual reactions of local New Yorkers (some think development is a great idea, while others want to maintain the neighborhood they have now).
Besides plans to erect a Manhattan-esque luxury condo smack in the middle of the area, the neighborhood also features the sort of things you’d expect from an area mostly populated by Caribbean Americans – mainly the assortment of Caribbean style restaurants. This area is low-key and unpretentious.

There is a variation of residents here – people of a mixture of ethnicities live in the rowhouses on these tree-lined streets. The actual neighborhood is relatively small, and you can have your pick of 1890s brownstones or shiny new luxury apartments if you can afford the rents. Though Prospect Heights borders on some not-so-nice spots, there are actually some pretty cool places to go here, like Flatbush Farm. Local farms supply this restaurant with organic ingredients, which is always reassuring, and even if the restaurant has the word ‘farm’ in the title, this space is actually chic and chill. Oh, and the food is great, too!

Park Slope is a great place to live for young people who want to be close to the bars and parties that go on in Williamsburg, but at the same time don’t want to constantly be in the party (i.e, have to listen to screaming drunks tottering down the sidewalks every night).
It’s a really quiet neighborhood, and the rents are relatively affordable for a young professional – and all of the apartments I’ve visited here have been nice and well kept by various landlords. I actually know a lot of people who won’t live in any other neighborhood. There are bars and places to eat around here too, though they are the trendy spots you’ll see in culture-commodity centers like Willliamsburg.

Mill Basin Kosher Deli gets a surprising amount of reviews for a deli in New York – there are so many of them, after all. Many people make the claim that it is one of the best delis around, and some go so far as to say it’s the best deli food they’ve ever eaten.
However, this neighborhood is about as far as you can get from civilization in Brooklyn (civilization being, say, the Lower East Side or even just Park Slope). It’s way out there, so chances are that you won’t be in the vicinity of Mill Basin Kosher Deli unless you are planning on moving way out here to this residential spot – and if you are make sure you visit!

This middle-of-Brooklyn neighborhood is a surprising taste of the suburbs (well, not that surprising, as it seems the farther you get from the nucleus of Manhattan, the more likely you are to live in a house rather than an apartment). There isn’t much out here by way of tourism – so if you’re a tourist, don’t even bother. If you’re a potential resident, though, then you can take your pick of some pretty big living spaces, and this neighborhood may be suburb-ish, but it isn’t a dead zone, like many of the outer-borough neighborhoods tend to be. The neighborhood is charming and has its own train stops – what more can a resident ask for, really, except to be a bit closer to the city.

The population here is less than number of student that attended my state college, and the area is relatively calm, cool, and collected – as New York neighborhoods go. There is a pretty spacious park in the vicinity (the aptly named Marine Park), and in New York parks are to be treasured, and this one is relatively large and worth a look if you’re in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is populated by local delis and hardware stores – businesses that would be associated with residents rather than tourists. If you’re looking to be in the midst of the action, this is not your neighborhood – no trains even stop here, so you’d be finding yourself walking from neighboring ‘hoods everyday if you don’t have a car (and why would you want one in this city?).

If you’re a tourist chances are the only reason you would be in this neighborhood is to pass through it on your way to Coney Island. However – if you are a resident, then there are a few pretty good restaurants to be had in the area. One of these is the kosher eatery, the appropriately named Kosher Hut of Brooklyn. Also in the neighborhood is Fiorentino’s Ristorante, which gets mixed reviews from the locals – but the critics keep insisting that it’s pretty good stuff.
There is some prime real estate way out here, though – if you’re looking for a fancy home that is relatively far from city life (but closer than New Jersey), and you can shell out the cash, then this is your spot.

This neighborhood seems more like a quaint little town than a neighborhood in the big city. It is located on the water, obviously, but that is the neighborhood’s best quality. If you head over to the shore you can see what resembles, or passes for, a nature scene in the city. There is fishing to be had here too, apparently, if that’s what you’re into. I myself like to stay dry and warm and go shopping before eating out – so if you’re anything like me, then this is not the place for you. If you’re looking for a ritzy beach scene, you won’t find that here either.

This neighborhood is in the area between Red Hook and Park Slope, and is a pretty big industrial area. If people live here, it is usually because they are residents of one of the housing projects, of which there are two. I can’t imagine why either tourist or New York native would wander into this area – and I’d be willing to be that many New Yorkers don’t even know this neighborhood exists. There are always rumors that this area will be developed into…something, but so far no progress can be seen. Right now this area consists mainly of a polluted canal and other industrial wastes.

This neighborhood is different from many others in the city in that it is very racially diverse, even in the face of recent gentrification worries. The area is a historic district of the city, and it has long been a place where music and art flourished (though it is not exactly a trend-setting neighborhood – for such a place see Williamsburg). There are some bars in the area that are generally lounge/pub sort of places that cater to their neighborhood crowds. This is a nice place to live if you are looking for a mixed place, though I wouldn’t recommend it to the younger crowd.

I have to admit I’m pretty confused as to how this neighborhood actually has residents – unless they all have cars. In order to even get here without a car you have to catch a bus from a train station – and who wants to do that after a long day at the office. Not me, which is why I will never live here and am unlikely to be a frequent visitor. It’s true, though, that residents here love their neighborhood – they say there’s hardly any crime, which is probably because it’s tough for criminals to even get there.

Low income residential neighborhoods like this one aren’t exactly known for bringing in the tourists – or bringing in much of anything, for that matter. This neighborhood is way out by the airport, almost at the end of the train line, so it would be quite a trip into the city for anyone without a car. It’s generally a place for commuters into the city (who, obviously, are advised to get a car). The area has quite a few public housing projects – which just goes to show you that the people who live in these sorts of residencies get the short end of the stick (meaning they get stuck way out in the boonies, forced to commute for miles to make any money).

This is a super residential neighborhood way down on the Gravesend Bay, in the southwest corner of Brooklyn. Some of the neighborhood’s original homes are still there today – cottage-like buildings with peaked roofs. I’m not sure if that’s something anyone would venture so far from civilization to go see, though. I wouldn’t recommend this neighborhood to any of my friends who were planning to visit the city, so I won’t recommend it to you, either. But if you are looking for tree-lined streets and want to invest in a fancy historic home, you should go down there and check it out.

It may seem strange that New York City has so many downtowns, but this one is just what you’d expect from any area labeled with a “downtown,” it’s Brooklyn’s business district. It’s not as all-encompassing as the Financial District, located in Manhattan’s downtown, but it features some interesting examples of architecture, like the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tour and the MetroTech Center office park. This area isn’t exactly teeming with tourists, though, and probably for good reason – no one is going to care to see a picture of you in front of the Chase bank building at the office park!

For some strange reason, this random neighborhood in the middle of Brooklyn is very, very vegan friendly. Being a vegan, I can pretty much vouch for New York as generally pretty supportive of vegans – but there seems to be a plethora of them here. However – this isn’t exactly a neighborhood that you’d want to be a tourist in after daylight hours, or possibly even at all. That being said, the neighborhood is full of Caribbean vegan places, though they tend to be very small and usually feature bullet-proof windows. My recommendation would be for D’Ital –though you should get your food and make a run for it.

Sea Gate is a fancy-smancy Brooklyn neighborhood on the waterfront – it’s gated, so don’t go unless you know someone or you’re looking into real estate. That being said, it’s actually a lovely neighborhood, but nothing anyone who’s been to any waterfront gated community hasn’t really seen before. It actually is a little weird to see a New York neighborhood that features sand.
Coney Island used to be the Disney World of NYC – before Astroland closed. There are still a few tourist attractions open, though, like Wonder Wheel (the ferris wheel) , the Cyclone (the wooden roller coaster), and the sideshow. It’s still an interesting place to see (as well as do), even if a bit of its history was put to rest recently.

South Brooklyn has its share of middle class neighborhoods, and this one is certainly not much different. This area is bordered by some industrial piers on the Upper New York Bay – which makes for an interesting site if you’re into cranes, but not exactly something anyone would write home to mother about. The residents here have a bit more money than their southernmost Red Hook neighbors (which by the way is where all the artists are currently moving in for the cheapest possible rents). Actually, many people in this area are confused as to whether they are actually in Red Hook or not.

At first glance, Bushwick appears to be a pretty confused place. Perhaps this is because it is smack in the middle of the ongoing gentrification process, what with neighboring Williamsburg becoming too expensive to house the artists and young people that once thrived there (and, okay, still pretty much do). Some of my guy friends were really loathe to let me wander around by myself at night in this neighborhood, even if more and more 20-something girls are moving into the area and they do just that every day. There are some pretty cool things to be found here – like random record stores, and a Life Café on Flushing Ave. (You may recall the other Life Café, which is in the East Village, being mentioned in the Broadway musical Rent.)

This area sits in the little inlet between Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights, and it’s home to an industrial park that houses just about any business you can think of. The Navy sold this yard to the city of New York during the sixties, so don’t expect to see a bunch of hot sea men hanging around.
Unless you find yourself working here, I can’t really think of any other reason why anyone would be here. Oh! You can visit the old Navy quarters or Commanders’ quarters, if you are feeling unusually bored. If you’re interested in seeing the remains of cranes or parked Circle Line boats, these can also be viewed here.

Brooklyn Heights is the neighborhood you hit as you come off of the Brooklyn Bridge (which heads out of the downtown Manhattan/Financial District area). This is a pretty cool neighborhood to visit if you are looking for some Brooklyn charm that doesn’t really involve hipsters and their sharply angled haircuts.
A walk down the Promenade that borders the East River gives a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline (and it’s from an angle that isn’t often seen in pictures). The neighborhood’s original red brick townhouses are another gorgeous sight – this neighborhood is really worth a look if you finish up your tourist itinerary early and feel like seeing something off the beaten track.

This neighborhood is home to more Eastern European restaurants and even more Russian restaurants than you can count. But you’d have to really be craving the Russian food to journey way out here to get it – more likely you’ll have come to Coney Island to check out the amusement park, and if so feel free to venture to Café Glechik in Brighton Beach for some pretty good Eastern European fare. The main attraction at this restaurant is their dumplings – they are pretty (locally) famous.
This neighborhood is ethnically diverse, even if it was once termed “Little Odessa” because of its plethora of Ukraine immigrants. It’s not even close to Midtown, so if you are planning on traveling to the city for work or with any kind of frequency, look for a neighborhood a little closer to the island.

This small residential area near Canarsie that doesn’t offer much besides real estate, and it doesn’t even offer the best of that. As a general rule, the further you get away from Manhattan, the further you get from anything enticing to a tourist (meaning no attractions, restaurants, shops are way out here). The neighborhood therefore caters only to the people it expects to be there – its residents. The area could probably use some renovation. Not really recommended for anyone who wants to go into Manhattan on a daily basis – the strain of travel might be too much for anyone.

Besonhurst is so far from the city (“the city” being how Manhattan is often referred to) that tourists are pretty unlikely to ever be in the vicinity, unless they pass through it on their way to Coney Island. You may have heard of it as being Brooklyn’s Little Italy, and a famous car bomb intended for John Gotti once exploded there. The one tourist attraction that the neighborhood does boast is the Santa Rosalia Festival, which is also called the Feast by residents. It takes place at the end of each summer, usually either late in August or early in September.

This is one of those Manhattan neighborhoods that seems to be slowly melting into its surroundings – a phenomenon that is not unusual in New York. The neighborhood is full of shiny new apartment buildings that were never tenements and so won’t make you feel claustrophobic, and Yorkville is generally peopled with the non-artist young professionals who can afford such places, though there is a bit of a mixed population.
Yorkville is historically a German neighborhood, but all of that real estate development put its identity in the mud. However, if you are looking for a quiet stoop to smoke your cigarettes on, or just a nice quiet, tree-lined street, this is a good place to start.

This is Midtown Manhattan – tall buildings and (relatively) clean streets with bustling traffic. Midtown is certainly not completely overrun by tourists, especially in a neighborhood like Turtle Bay, which is a bit off to the side and close to the East River and FDR Dr. This neighborhood resembles its neighbor, Sutton Place, in that it features picturesque (and expensive) historical townhouses. If you’re just wandering, you won’t find a whole lot of trend-setting action, but you might feel like you’re in the New York you’ve always seen in movies with happy endings. The usual pubs and delis exist here, but as far as recommended eateries for your vacation – seek them elsewhere.

The Triangle Below Canal Street is a pretty cool little slice of Manhattan; it’s close enough to the World Trade Center to have suffered some financial hits after the planes hit, but it certainly maintains its picturesque charm. It’s a fairly residential neighborhood – and it’s close to all the wonders of the twenty-something sect (it’s not far from the Village or the Lower East Side). It’s also close to the downtown area, so if you work downtown but want to be close to the party, then this is a great neighborhood for you.
This is also where you can (obviously) catch the Tribeca Film Festival, one of this country’s biggest film fests.

This neighborhood is pretty close to the FDR, so expect to hear traffic buzzing along just about all of the time if you move in to an apartment above sea level. However, it’s a pretty lovely neighborhood if you can shell out the cash for it. The neighborhood also features all the comforts of Midtown, but it’s far enough from the tourists that you won’t feel like crying yourself to sleep at night. This neighborhood is where Marilyn Monroe lived with husband du jour Author Miller, and it resembles what you would expect from a place that has been graced with such old Hollywood glamour – richly tree-lined streets and fancy townhouses galore.

SoHo is one of my favorite neighborhoods, because it offers the two things I love to spend my money on most: food and clothing. If you’re going shopping in the area, you can’t really go wrong, because the neighborhood offers something for everyone: Aldo for the mall girls, and Eleven for the more vintage-minded. As far as food goes, you can find an awesome (as well as trendy) selection at Balthazar, a seafood icon of SoHo.
A word to the wise, though: if you hate crowds, avoid this neighborhood during busy hours, during regular rush hours and all day on weekends. The sidewalks get pretty packed with shoppers, especially when the street vendors open up on the weekends.

If you’re a tourist, I’d imagine that the only possible scenario in which you’d find yourself here is if you accidentally took the train in the wrong direction (you have to be careful when getting on those trains – make sure you know which borough is where, as they are often used to gauge the trains’ directions. This island is pretty weird because it’s about two miles long, and 800 feet wide at its widest. It’s a residential island that basically sits underneath the Queensboro Bridge, which is interesting to see from the N train, but less interesting to see from the actual island, seeing as how you’d be stuck there with nothing to do.

This is a pretty cool neighborhood – it basically picks up the shopping where SoHo leaves off (though the shops up here may be leaning a bit more to the NYU crowd and a bit less toward the more affluent SoHo sect). Lafayette Street in NoHo was once one of the most fashionable streets in town, though it’s pretty hard to tell now. There is a Crunch on this street, though, where I used to haul my athletic shoes after work – they have an awesome facility, though I don’t know if I would pay those prices again before checking out other gyms in the area.

There are plenty of hotels in this neighborhood, if you happen to be looking for a place to stay that is close to the Empire State Building or Rockefeller Plaza. This neighborhood is relatively residential, and seems to offer only the basics to its residents. That is, if you are looking for plenty of places to indulge yourself by eating or shopping, you won’t find too much to do in Murray Hill. However, if you just walk south a bit you will find that the neighborhood begins to cater to tourists more and more as you get closer to the tourist attractions mentioned above.

One of my friends has a theory that all cities make a point of designating certain parts of their property as tourist attractions, and in this way the tourists stay out of everyone’s hair. I’m not sure how true this is, but if there was any neighborhood in Manhattan that attracted the most tourists, it would certainly be Midtown. Midtown is the tourist’s dream – particularly the Broadway theatre-going tourist. International tourists can get their fill of American chain restaurants (because certainly any U.S. citizen must be bored of eating at Hard Rock Café or Chilis), and admire the sparkling glass that lights up the sidewalks of Times Square. During my entire New York residency, I think I have graced this neighborhood with my presence all of two or three times. If you want to go see the Broadway show In the Heights, by all means check out Midtown. But if you’re looking for something that resembles real New York culture (besides a Broadway show), then run far away from Midtown.

This is generally not a name you hear much anymore – I had to look into myself, because, well, I’d never heard it. It turns out that Madison Square was formerly the name of the northern end of the Flatiron District (did you learn something new, too?).
It is also the name of an actual park, and it was formerly the site of the original Madison Square Garden, though that building is no longer there, and the current Madison Square Garden is located elsewhere. The park itself was renovated about seven years ago, and it’s a beautiful place to sit and view the neighboring architecture, which includes the Flatiron Builinds and the Met Life Tower.

The Lower East Side is the site of my very first New York apartment (as long as you’re not counting an NYU dorm), and so the neighborhood will always have a place in my heart, long after it stops being trendy and it turns into whatever formerly trendy neighborhoods become. If you are looking for a place to shop for vegan shoes (Moo Shoes), a hotel completely made of glass so that the neighborhood can watch you shower (The Hotel on Rivington), or just some really awesome live music featuring a local Brooklyn band, you can it all in the Lower East Side.
The neighborhood has gotten crazy expensive as it becomes the ultimate trendily gentrified section of Manhattan, causing all the artists to relocate to cheaper neighborhoods (Bushwick), but hanging out here is still just as inexpensive (or as expensive, depending on your POV) as the rest of New York’s hipster hot spots.

This area is less like a neighborhood and more like a cluster of buildings that house various artistic performances and schools – Julliard School, Lincoln Center Theatre, New York City Ballet, Film Society of Lincoln Center; the list goes on. This is exactly the type of place that an arts-appreciative tourist would find themselves, whether or not it’s been recommended to them as a must-see or not.
The compilation of facilities here is actually a 16.3 acre collage collectively known as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. None of these facilities lacks the modern comforts or grand atmosphere that you would expect of such esteemed theatres, but if you had to chose just one to marvel at, I would suggest the Metropolitan Opera House.

The hideous Kips Bay Towers may be this neighborhood’s most prominent landmark. The buildings seem to sum up the area: overbearing, square, boring. Don’t even bother yourself with this place – most New Yorkers don’t, either.
If you’ve wandered off your main tourist course and you also happen to be looking for a moderately expensive French meal, then you happen to have come correct – you can check out Les Halles in the neighborhood. The décor has a bit to be desired but you are not exactly in the fashion district, so just concentrate on the food and you’ll be okay.

Greenwich Village is a great place to wander if you happen to be young and have a little money you want to get rid of. There are plenty of bars to hit up, and though they aren’t the trendy hipster bars you’ll find just a bit south of the East Village, they are still alright places to get sloshed (like, say, Mars bar).
For daylight shoppings, you absolutely must check out St. Marks Place – the street vendors offer inexpensive versions of style, and the street is pretty well stocked with t-shirt shops and places where you can get inexpensive skinny jeans. It may not be a place where you can stock up on high fashion, but it’s great for the hipster-wannabe on a budget.

I always get lost wandering around this side of the Village, because it’s not on the same grid as the East Village – once you hit Sixth Ave, the streets have names that aren’t numbers and I lose all sense of where I am. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing – getting lost in the West Village can only be entertaining (unless you have somewhere else you desperately need to be). There are endless shops and bars and restaurants here, and the neighborhood is nothing but charismatic. This is where the outside of the Friends building was shot – which I have seen even if the connection didn’t mean much to me.

I once worked with a spoiled (and arrogant) young guy who moved into this neighborhood because his dad was an architect and he wanted to sit around and admire the local neighborhood buildings. Oh, did I mention his dad was also paying his rent? If you have a similar trust fund and a lack of ambition, this is a good neighborhood to sit around and admire, as there is much to admire. Much like the Upper East Side, these streets offer the kind of old New York charm that is mostly supplied from movies. The part of the neighborhood around the actual park (that is, around Gramercy Park) is very quiet around the clock. This is certainly a rare quality in any neighborhood in this city, and should not be taken lightly.

When I was a young newly inducted New Yorker, one of my roommates was a budding young assistant designer who worked in this neighborhood, and she said she often saw needles littering the sidewalks here. Not that the street isn’t safe – it isn’t the South Bronx or anything, but it’s not exactly the Upper East Side either.
This city is the one and only fashion capitol of the United States, and this neighborhood is where the art form is churned out. Of the clothing manufactured in the U.S., a huge percentage of it comes out of this neighborhood. However, it’s not so popular as it once was to manufacture clothes in the U.S. (as labor is cheaper elsewhere), and many of these factories are being converted into apartments. (And if I had my pick of New York apartments, I’d most likely go for the converted factory space – the size of these apartments usually exceed the New York standard shoebox apartments.)

If you are a tourist, you will probably find yourself here – for some reason whenever I wandered through the Financial District, the streets were always filled with tourists (during the daylight hours, at least) who were snapping pictures all around. This area is a deadzone during the evenings, at least compared with the rest of the city. Though there are many people who live down here, the area still seems to cater mostly to the financial businesses and their employees.

For a tourist there is obviously much to see here, the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange being the main attractions. The streets of this neighborhood are surprisingly clean (for this city, anyway), and though the tourists and business people flock here and clog up the sidewalks during the 9 to 5 hours, you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a crowd here later in the evening.

East Harlem borders on the affluent Upper East Side, but the two neighborhoods are worlds away from each other – not just because of the differences in residents’ incomes, but in the architecture of the apartment buildings (and housing projects), and outward appearance of shops and restaurants as well.
It’s no secret that neighborhoods that have their share of poverty also have their share of crime, and though the crime rates around here have dropped incredibly in the past decade or so, this neighborhood is not as safe as its neighbor the Upper East Side.
If you are a tourist looking for the scenes of Woody Allen films, you won’t find them here. But you will find a certain charm in these worn-out streets, and you will certainly find some pretty good comida latina at places like Don Pedro’s or Camaradas El Barrio (though don’t expect too much in the way of supermarkets).

The Civic Center neighborhood is relatively tiny, and chances are that if you pass through it you will hardly know that you did (unless you were already aware of it). The little patch of concrete in downtown Manhattan doesn’t offer much to do unless you are a church-going sort. There is a plethora of coffee houses (probably to cater to the great demand they receive from the local business men who show up in the area to go to work). The restaurants in the area also cater to business men/women on their lunch breaks, and are generally stop-and-shop delis.

Chelsea is a hodge-podge of culture, but the neighborhood is perhaps best known for the incredible number of art galleries that line its streets. One of the more interesting art spaces in the neighborhood is the Graffi Research Lab, which, obviously, is dedicated to the writers of graffiti (a seriously underrated art form).
Chelsea has enough action to keep a restless tourist busy for weeks, especially those tourists of a theatre persuasion as they can visit the epic People’s Improv Theater, which offers original comedy shows every night. Also in this location is the Hotel Chelsea – famous to my generation as the place where Sid killed Nancy, and to others as the hotel where Dylan Thomas died. This hotel has been the subject of many artistic endeavors, most likely because it has housed so many artists in the past.

I feel like I almost don’t even need to encourage everyone and their mother to head over to Central Park at least once, because it seems like everyone does so regardless of whether they’ve been told they must.
Central Park is the ultimate desert oasis – it offers a break from the wall-to-wall concrete and traffic overflow contained in the rest of the city. The Park is populated with everyone from the homeless to the business elite on their lunch breaks. Young people can be seen sipping lattes and sporting ankle boots, and there are often outdoor weddings held in and around the boathouse. If you’re into biking, jogging, or just want to row a boat around a tiny lake overpopulated with row boats, you can do all of these things here.
Central Park is truly gorgeous, and being located in the midst of all that concrete only makes it seem that much better.

Just about any neighborhood you hit in the Upper East Side is beautiful to behold and generally offers the stereotypical “Old New York” kind of charisma, and Carnegie Hill is no exception. If for some reason you’re looking for a nice long walk where you won’t find too many trendy restaurants or shops, this is a good place to start. If you’re an incredibly wealthy doctor or lawyer or trust fund baby looking for the perfect place to retire, you’ve found it here.
Generally the buildings in this neighborhood are pretty old, which is part of the neighborhood’s extensive charm. Though the neighborhood’s affluence is apparent, it does border on East Harlem, which is a neighborhood that is the opposite of affluent. This kind of juxtaposition of very rich residents and very poor in a city is relatively rare, and offers an interesting (depending on your point of view, I suppose) kind of tension.

The Bowery is a great area if you happen to be less than thirty years old and can’t decide what you love more: the East Village or the Lower East Side. (The neighborhood also borders Little Italy, a neighborhood best left to tourists.) This neighborhood is right in the center of the twenty-something action, and offers such historic (well, historic if you love music and appreciate the former bohemia that was the East Village) sites as the Bowery Poetry Club (which offers open mic nights, a poetry slam, and regularly featured writers) and the former space where CBGB used to stand (and, if you didn’t know, CBGB is often credited as the place where punk was born via the Ramones).

A little tree clustered enclave of downtown Manhattan, Battery Park City is really worth a trip for anyone (be you a tourist, bored city resident, or really adventurous Hoboken dweller) who has never been before. An actual park, joggers and walkers can travel the sidewalk that lines the very tip of the island, and offers a beautiful view of the waterfront and the city beyond the park’s treetops.

If you’re searching for a hotel and have plenty of money to spend, consider checking out the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park, especially if you want to be close to the ferries that route such tourist spots as the Statue of Liberty.