Manhattan/East Village

The East Village, east of the Village on Manhattan, was traditionally considered part of the Lower East Side, and constitutes the portion north of Houston St., south of 14th St., and east of Broadway. Although increasingly gentrified, with former crack dens that are now modern apartments so hip you can't afford them, it remains an ethnically diverse area of students, young professionals, immigrants, and older longtime residents. This colorful neighborhood is full of eateries as diverse as its population, and there's always something happening on St. Marks Place, 24/7.

East of 1st Av., encompassing the area from Av. A to the East River, is a sub-neighborhood often called Alphabet City or Loisaida (Spanglish for "Lower East Side"); Av. C's alternate name is "Loisaida Avenue." Parts of Alphabet City still have a Hispano-Caribbean feel, especially on Avs. D and C, but since most of Alphabet City is similar to the rest of the East Village now (diverse, gentrified, stylish), the separate designations are less used than was the case 2-3 decades ago. The area between Broadway and 3rd Av./Bowery, on the other hand, is sometimes called NoHo, for "North of Houston St." by analogy to SoHo to its south.

Early days
The neighborhood now called the East Village was part of the hunting and gathering lands of local Native American tribes for thousands of years before the white man arrived. What's probably the oldest street in the neighborhood is now called Stuyvesant Street (with a listing in "See" below). Before it was a path during the time when Peter Stuyvesant, the only governor of New Netherland, owned a farm there (starting in 1651), it was a Native American trail. Stuyvesant continued to live in the area after New Netherland was ceded to the British, and his body was buried at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (q.v.).

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, some lovely multi-story buildings were built for wealthy pillars of New York society in the neighborhood. Many such buildings still stand, including the 1804 Hamilton Fish House at 21 Stuyvesant St.

Waves of immigration
Following the failure of the 1848 democratic revolution in Germany, thousands of Germans immigrated to New York City and set up shop in what's now the East Village, the Lower East Side and Chinatown, and the entire area was known as Kleindeutschland ("Little Germany") until the early 20th century, when disaster struck. In the incident that caused the worst lost of life in New York of any single disaster prior to 2001, a ship called the General Slocum, which was ferrying Lutheran parishioners including most of the leading local German-American citizens to Long Island for a picnic in 1904, caught fire in the East River, killing over 1,000 people and essentially decapitating the community, many of whose remnants went uptown to Yorkville. If you look carefully, especially on St Marks Place, you can see relics of those days, including the Deutsch-Amerikanische Schützengesellschaft (German-American Shooting Club) near 3rd Av. and the German (now Korean) Evangelical Lutheran Church just east of 2nd Av., as well as the Ottendorfer Library on 2nd Av. between St Marks Place and 9th St. — and the Sixth Street Community Synagogue on 6th St. between 1st and 2nd Avs., which was once the St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church that had rented the ill-fated ship. In the same period, refugees from the Irish Potato Famine arrived in the U.S., and some of them set up shop in the East Village as well, including John McSorley, who is said to have opened McSorley's Old Ale House in 1854.

Starting around the 1880s and continuing apace until the immigration laws were tightened in the 1920s, the neighborhood, as part of the Lower East Side, hosted a large number of Eastern European immigrants, including Polish Catholics, Ukrainian adherents of Eastern Rite Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and Yiddish-speaking Jews, and also many Italians. Second Avenue on the Lower East Side — as it was then universally known — became synonymous with Yiddish theater, with Jews streaming into the area from other parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and beyond to hear the biggest stars from the U.S., Poland, Romania and other areas with active Yiddish theaters sing musicals in their language. Many of those theaters still exist, though they've been repurposed as movie theaters (as on 12th St. and 2nd Av.), English-language theaters (as in the case of the Orpheum Theatre on 2nd Av. between 7th and St Marks Place) or for other more prosaic functions. Unfortunately, Yiddish theater died an unnatural death in the Nazi extermination camps, combined with younger generations of American Jews ceasing to speak the language. However, there are still a large number of very active Polish and Ukrainian Christians in the neighborhood, replenished by new immigration in more recent decades, and their churches can be seen, though most of the inexpensive Polish and Ukrainian restaurants and shops that used to be a mainstay have been forced to close their doors one after the other, due to gentrification.

From bohemia to riches
Starting in the 1950s, the East Village was a very bohemian neighborhood that bebop saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker (his residence, on Av. B across from Tompkins Square Park, is memorialized with a plaque), Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and many other members of the counterculture called home. It was also, starting in the 1960s, a focus of alternative rock, electronic music, and multimedia and performance art. Sadly, during and since the 1990s, an increasing number of venues for live music were forced to stop the performances or close their doors outright, including the world-famous CBGB; however, there is still quite a lot of live performance in the neighborhood, including at the grand 1880s-vintage Webster Hall, now host to many rock performances; a strip of theaters on E. 4 St. between the Bowery and 2nd Av.; and the Bowery Electric and other venues on the Bowery.

Another important change for the neighborhood was a wave of immigration by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, starting around the 1960s, which was felt particularly strongly in Alphabet City/Loisaida. Like the rest of the neighborhood, that area of the East Village has gentrified considerably in the last couple of decades, but it still has some Latin feel, especially further east.

The neighborhood fell on hard times along with the rest of the city in the 1970s and 80s, when the East Village was a very gritty high-crime area, full of crumbling buildings, empty lots and homeless people, plagued by crack and heroin, and ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Many abandoned buildings were occupied by squatters, Tompkins Square Park was the site of encampments of homeless people, and empty lots were cleared of rubble and turned into community gardens, some of which still exist, but the crime remained a problem for a long time. The year 1988 marks a turning point for the neighborhood. The police surrounded and attacked the homeless people camped out in Tompkins Square Park, their supporters and some people who were simply watching. Many people in the neighborhood believed this was due to pressure from the first wave of gentrifiers — wealthy people who moved into a poor neighborhood and then found it inconvenient to have to witness the poor conditions that predated their arrival.

Fast forward to 2022, and you'll find some homeless people on the street (in fact, a greatly increased number since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020), but the neighborhood, like the rest of New York, is way lower in crime — but it is also too expensive for many people to live in. Although quite a lot of relatively high-rise luxury construction has taken place, much of the area is now part of one or another "historic district", thus preserving at least a good chunk of its substantial remaining architectural heritage from the wrecking ball. However, the vaunted edginess of the neighborhood is now mostly a memory, and especially on weekends, the East Village is instead overrun by well-to-do, slow-moving young people, many of whom drink to excess and can't hold their liquor. If you'd like a quieter experience of a neighborhood that for better and worse is no longer very edgy but still has charm, a visit on a weekday and walks on side streets other than St Marks between 2nd and 3rd Avs. may appeal to you more than barhopping on a Saturday night.

By subway
The best subway line for getting into the heart of the East Village is the 6 train, which stops at Astor Place, just one short block from St. Marks Place. You can also get out at Bleecker Street for more southerly East Village locations between Houston and 4th Streets.

The R and W trains run under Broadway along the western edge of the neighborhood, stopping at 8th Street/NYU station near Astor Place.

The L train is a rare crosstown train that runs along 14th Street, the northern edge of the East Village. The 3rd Avenue and especially the 1st Avenue stations can save you some steps if you're headed for more northerly or easterly destinations. The L can also take you to Greenwich Village or Brooklyn's Williamsburg, for a tour of bohemias of the comparatively recent and more distant past.

There are also trains that run along the southern edge of the neighborhood, under Houston Street - take the B, D, F, or M to the Broadway-Lafayette station. The F also runs to the 2nd Avenue station.

There are many trains that stop at Union Square, which is just past the northwest corner of the East Village - but it's something of a hike to the center of the neighborhood. Take the 4, 5, 6, N, Q, R, W or the L.

By bus
Numerous MTA bus routes serve the neighborhood. Of particular note, however, are the crosstown buses. The M8 travels east on 8th St., then turns north on Av. A and travels on 10th St. the rest of the way. The M8 travels west on 10th St. and then starting on Av. A, on 9th St. The M14 14th St. crosstown is also notable because after going crosstown on 14th St. from the west side, the M14A bus turns down Av. A, whereas the M14D turns down Av. C and travels down Av. D starting at 10th St. You can also try your luck with the M21 Houston St. crosstown, though it doesn't run very frequently most of the time and like most other crosstown buses in Manhattan, it can also get caught in slow traffic. The 14th St. crosstown also used to get backed up on 14th St., but there are now bus lanes on that street and the M14 is a select bus, for which you must purchase a ticket from a machine at any stop before you board.

By bicycle
This is absolutely the best way to catch all of the East Village action. If you are coming from uptown on the West Side, take the West Side Green Path down to 14th Street. Cross east on 12th, or any street with a bike lane that runs east! If you are coming down from the East Side, there is an East Side bike path that is interrupted by the United Nations. Simply cross over to Second Ave. and ride south until you cross 14th St.

If you don't have your own bike, one option is the very popular CitiBike bike sharing service ($6/half hour), which has numerous locations throughout the neighborhood.

By car
Parking in the East Village can be difficult. If you plan to park on the street, be patient and opportunistic, and take care to observe posted parking regulations and avoid parking in front of houses of worship and funeral homes, lest your car should be ticketed or towed. There are also some parking garages in the neighborhood, if you don't mind paying.

On foot
If you are within walking distance of the East Village in decent weather, walking to the neighborhood is the most interesting way to go, and certainly the best way to get around.

By taxi
There are usually many taxis in the East Village. It is easiest to flag down a cab on avenues, rather than side streets, but if you are on a side street, look for cabs, anyway, while you walk toward an avenue. Be warned that at peak times and in bad weather, it can be hard to find empty cabs.

See




Do

 * The and the adjoining Joe's Pub at 425 Lafayette St, are part of the lifeblood of the East Village. You can see shows, events, art, and Shakespeare, and hear some excellent performers of jazz, world music and so on at Joe's Pub.
 * The and the adjoining Joe's Pub at 425 Lafayette St, are part of the lifeblood of the East Village. You can see shows, events, art, and Shakespeare, and hear some excellent performers of jazz, world music and so on at Joe's Pub.

Buy
Many souvenirs, articles of clothing, and new and used records are on sale on St. Marks Place between 2nd and 3rd Avs. in storefronts that open onto the street and indoor stores.



Eat
There are hundreds of eateries in the East Village, which is among the best neighborhoods in Manhattan for sampling a variety of different cuisines and has lots of good values at a wide spectrum of price points. That said, with the rise in real estate prices, there has been a proliferation of upscale restaurants, with several budget restaurants having closed in the last couple of years, and prices have gone up palpably almost everywhere. In this neighborhood, nowadays, a meal that costs $30-65 or so per person before tip is mid-range. The "splurge" category starts no lower than the $70s.

Respect
The East Village is a residential neighborhood. Visitors are of course welcome. But please do not block the sidewalk, entrances to residences, or intersections where people may want to cross the street on green or red lights, and do not make a lot of noise outside at 3 in the morning. Remember that local residents have places to get to quickly day and night, and though New York is called the "City That Never Sleeps" (a name that's particularly apt in the East Village), most residents above a certain age do need some shut-eye before 5AM, even on St Marks Place.

Connect
There is a Starbucks on Astor Place right near the exit from the downtown 6 subway (closes at 11PM), with other East Village locations at 3rd St. and 1st Av. (closes at 7:30PM) and 13th St. and 1st Av. (closes at 8PM). Starbucks gives customers free Wi-Fi, and many people spend hours working or surfing there. Van Leeuwen ice cream shop, 48½ E. 7th St. (just east of 2nd Av.), which also serves coffee, et al., provides free Wi-Fi, too. There are also some New York Public Library branches, such as the Ottendorfer Branch (see "See" above) and the Tompkins Square branch on 10th St. between Aves. A and B, where patrons can use the library's terminals to surf the web for 30 minutes, free.

Go next

 * The Lower East Side, just across Houston St. from the East Village, though perhaps even more crushed with young clubbers, is in many respects a continuation of the East Village, or vice versa.
 * A bit further south but still at most a moderate-distance walk away (15-30 minutes) for a reasonably able-bodied person is Chinatown.
 * To the west is the West Village.
 * To the southwest (Lafayette St. and further west, south of Houston) is SoHo.
 * To the north are Gramercy Park and Murray Hill, including the small but vibrant and interesting sub-neighborhood of "Curry Hill."
 * Williamsburg, Brooklyn is as little as one stop away on the L train, and is an interesting counterpart to the East Village, as a happening neighborhood with excellent eateries and a very active night life.