Neighborhood Revival

What do the Financial, Garment and Meatpacking District have in common? In addition to the fact that they are all located in Manhattan, these neighborhoods all have names that are indicative of the neighborhood’s history. The Financial District is home to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange; the Garment District caters to all aspects of the fashion industry; and the Meatpacking District at its height had close to 250 slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants. Unlike FiDi however, the Meatpacking and Garment District have been struggling to preserve their identity as the rising cost of rent drives out many long-time tenants. And in an effort to rally up support for the neighborhood preservation project, the Meatpacking District Improvement Association (MIPA) recently published a mini-documentary about the history and transformation of the neighborhood.

As the inventory of schooling options on the Upper West Side, Midtown West and Lower Manhattan continues to dwindle, more and more middle and upper-middle-class families are making the move to Harlem.

People visiting New York City as tourists or as transplants searching for Manhattan apartments for sale tend to visit many iconic NYC destinations that a more jaded local wouldn't necessarily consider his or her go-to place to spend the day. A few landmarks come to mind: The top of the Empire State Building. The Brooklyn Bridge during rush hour. And the most famous symbol of New York City, Midtown Manhattan's Times Square. But in yet another indication of Manhattan's changeable ways, Times Square is on the up-and-up, and has the numbers to prove it. Times Square's growing reputation as a popular commercial and residential neighborhood has turned the district into an economic powerhouse, with Times Square now accounting for a large chunk of New York City's economy.

Community Board 7 voted in favor of a rezoning proposal in the Upper West Side on Tuesday that would place a size limit on new stores moving into certain strips of Columbus, Amsterdam, and Broadway Avenues between 72nd Street and 110th Street.

It seems like New Yorkers are already enthralled with the idea of an underground park in Manhattan. Dan Barasch and James Ramsey, co-founders of the Delancey Underground project, created a page on Kickstarter to begin fundraising for the potential park, and in little over two weeks they’ve received over $128,000 in donations from more than 2,200 people, 3 of which donated more than $10,000. Not only did the co-founders easily clear their goal of raising $100K, they generated interest from all over the world simply by opening up donations, something which bodes very well for the future of this innovative park.

The future looks bright for Governors Island. Late last year the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved plans to invest $300 million into the first phase of overhauling the 172-acre island’s infrastructure and open spaces, renovations that will hopefully transform the island from an afterthought into one of New York City’s premier public parks and tourist destinations. Furthermore, if the renovations are successful, Governors Island may even become a popular Manhattan neighborhood among buyers and renters looking for new apartments.

West Chelsea is accustomed to young people, but this trendy Manhattan neighborhood is now witnessing a youth invasion of a different sort. West Chelsea has become home to many young families as a new generation of parents moves in. Many of these newcomers want to live in downtown Manhattan apartments but can’t afford them in more expensive neighborhoods, so they are opting to move into West Chelsea apartments instead. Consequently, this industrial neighborhood long associated with singles and artists is starting to resemble the Financial District in the respect that it is now a popular destination for families, and a new private school will further solidify West Chelsea’s status as family-friendly. The Avenues World School, a for-profit institution located on 10th Avenue and 25th Street, is scheduled to open in the fall, a big sign that West Chelsea’s demographic shift is just getting started.

Last Tuesday night, January 3^rd, beginning around 11:00 PM, a fire broke out in a commercial building in Inwood on 4945 Broadway off 207^th Street. Residents and nearby store workers came outside in the freezing cold to watch the fire blaze. According to a bartender at Piper’s Kilt, a bar across the street from the building, the FDNY arrived roughly ten minutes after the fire began. It took 138 firefighters almost 4 hours to put the fire out. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Like many of the culturally and historically rich Uptown neighborhoods, Harlem has often been overlooked by New Yorkers and visitors alike. For those who are looking for a more economical alternative to Manhattan living and willing to negotiate their daily commute, Harlem is a neighborhood that is just as plentiful with life as it is with affordable housing options. One section of Harlem between 145th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue near Convent Avenue in particular has been garnering quite a bit of attention. The New York Daily News even noted it as “one of the fast-growing neighborhoods and potentially explosive housing micro-markets in all of New York City.”

Many brokers dream of discovering the “Next Great Manhattan Neighborhood” that will strike their firm rich and put them on a path towards an early retirement and an indefinite vacation. However, the reality is that in a place as historically overdeveloped as New York City, the sudden emergence of these “hotspots” are often no more than a repacking of existing neighborhoods slapped with a nifty, new name. For sub-neighborhoods such as “NoMad (North of Madison Park)” in the Flatiron District or the “Silicon Alley” that extends from SoHo to TriBeCa, that rebranding effort came naturally and effortlessly. For others, it would require a critical eye and an optimistic disposition.