Varick St, Tribeca

Eh . . . Varick. I consider it one of the major Tribeca streets even though it's actually pretty small. I guess that's because it's awfully busy for a street with such unattractive buildings and absolutely no art or nightlife to speak of. There are some nice things on this street . . but not enough.
There's a little park right at Varick and Laight called Hudson Square. It has been a park since the mid-19th century under different owners and it's a nice little patch of mellow green in the midst of massive buildings, traffic and people. It's one of the few quiet spots in the area so I recommend people take advantage of it if they're in the area. There's a darling little cinema across the street that is really only used for art house screenings and the Tribeca Film Festival nowadays. It's a shame because the place is so cute, I wish it would just be a legitimate theatre. But, then again, I wish a lot of things were different in this neighborhood. I also wish the Equinox in the West Village would have just stayed a movie theatre, but I digress . . . .
Varick down at Beach has a bunch of ugly buildings and one of them while still ugly is kind of cool looking when you know it's a police station. It's right on the corner and it's actually NYPD Precinct 1. I don't know what kind of honor actually comes from being number 1, but I feel like there must be some. The guys here handle everything south of the Brooklyn Bridge -- that's a pretty big chunk of land for such a little island.
The block after Moore is really cool, in my opinion. All of the buildings are old, brick guys and the block takes on an old timey feel right here. The NYFD has a unit right on the corner and this is the actual building that was used for the exterior shots for Ghostbusters. So, now people call it the Ghostbusters Fire Department. I feel like if I were a firefighter, I would totally want to be a Ghostbuster one. The end of the block has two really cool, brick condo buildings from the end of the 19th century. I love the look of the outside of the buildings but I have a feeling that the units have a Tribeca price tag but a tenement looking inside so I don't think I'd want to actually live in either one.
There's another park on the opposite corner of the street which is great because there aren't a ton of green areas in the neighborhood. Having said that, two parks aren't enough to make me want to live on Varick. It's kind of ugly and uneventful. And, there's a lot of traffic and trash as far as this neighborhood goes. Varick is ok, but I wouldn't live here.