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New York City

Places : Mid-Atlantic Region : New York : New York City

Introduction

To get a genuine insider's view of Manhattan, walk, as often as possible, along the city's narrow, densely packed streets and watch the city unfold. You'll see food purveyors unloading trucks in Chinatown, seamstresses rolling racks of clothes along streets in the Garment District, artists putting up installations in Chelsea galleries, and chefs sifting through produce at the city's green markets. Some areas, like Midtown and Lower Manhattan, resemble a Blade Runner set, with tiny, specialized shops squeezed between neoclassical or Gothic-Revival buildings and sleek glass-faced high-rises. Residential neighborhoods uptown consist of leafy wide streets accented by glittery designer boutiques and high-end grocers, doormen fronting entranceways, and ritzy carriage houses replete with private driveways.

Unusually, Manhattan's character shifts every few blocks. Pocket parks, small swaths of greenery, pop up every dozen blocks, and street vendors populate the sidewalks. Downtown, the vibe is more relaxed, with dusty thrift shops and used book stores, swanky-chic cocktail lounges that inhabit the storefronts of soot-smudged warehouses, and, in the West Village and Tribeca, cobblestone streets lined with antiques and wine stores, and cafés spilling out, in good weather, onto the street. Neighborhoods define the character of this sometimes unwieldy but always engrossing town. Some, like the Lower East Side, are defined by a landmark like the Eldridge Street Synagogue and the conservative and Hasidic Jews who live and work there. Others, like artsy-chic Soho, barely resemble their original form -- Soho was once seedy and filled with sweatshops, then reinvigorated and gentrified.

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