1. Lower Manhattan and Battery Park City
2. Tribeca
3. Soho
4. West and Central Village
5. East Village
6. Lower East Side
7. Nolita and Noho
8. Gramercy Park and Murray Hill
9. Chelsea
10. Midtown East and Sutton Place
11. Midtown West and Hell's Kitchen
12. Upper East Side
13. Upper West Side
14. Morningside Heights
15. Harlem
16. Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights
17. Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill
18. Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens
19. Red Hook
20. Dumbo
21. Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
22. Park Slope
23. Beyond the Slope
24. Williamsburg and Greenpoint
25. Astoria and Long Island City
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Financial District
As quiet, safe, and conveniently located as Tribeca, but without much neighborhood life; it can feel abandoned at night.
Boundaries
Chambers St. to southern tip of Manhattan, East River to Broadway.
Subway Stations
4,5 to Bowling Green | 4,5 to Wall St. | R,W to Rector | 1 to Rector | R,W to City Hall | 2,3 to Park Pl. | 4,5,6 to Brooklyn Bridge | 4,5 to Fulton | A,C to Broadway | 2,3 to Fulton | J,M,Z to Fulton | J,M,Z to Broad St. | 2,3 to Wall St. | R,W to Whitehall St.
Tribeca
By many criteria, Tribeca could be considered the best place to live in the city. It enjoys minuscule crime levels, great schools, tons of transit, well-planned waterfront access, and light-filled loft-type apartments in painstakingly rehabbed industrial buildings. But having already overtaken the Upper East Side as the city’s richest precinct, it is prohibitively expensive, and any traces of racial and income diversity are long gone.
Boundaries
Vesey St. to Canal St., Broadway to Hudson River
Subway Stations
1 to Canal St.
A,C,E to Canal St. | 1 to Franklin St. | N,Q,R,W to Canal St. | 1,2 to Chambers St. | A,C to Chambers St. | R,W to City Hall | 2,3 to Park Pl. | E to World Trade Center
Soho
Great bars, restaurants, and retail. Bustling during the day, relatively quiet at night, expensive all the time.
Boundaries
Canal St. to Houston St., Lafayette St. to Hudson River
Subway Stations
6 to Canal St. | N,Q,R,W to Canal St. | A,C,E to Canal St. | 1 to Canal St. | 6 to Spring St. | R,W to Prince St. | B,D,F,V to Broadway-Lafayette | C,E to Spring St. | 1 to Houston St.
Greenwich Village
Entertainment options galore, but very expensive—many residents live in subsidized student housing.
Boundaries
Houston St. to 14th St., Fourth Ave. to Sixth Ave.
Subway Stations
B,D,F,V to Broadway-Lafayette | 6 to Bleecker St. | 6 to Astor Pl. | R,W to NYU | L,N,Q,R,W to Union Square | A,B,C,D,E,V to W. 4th St. | F,L,V to Sixth Ave.-14th St.
East Village
The neighborhood with the highest concentration of bars in the city (if not the world) scores off the charts in all the expected areas: retail diversity, restaurant density, proximity to nightlife, and desirability to the creative classes, with only schools and affordability truly lacking. With a typical two-bedroom running at about $3,300 per month, it’s expensive. But thanks to nearby NYU, the East Village has more income and ethnic diversity than most of its neighbors.
Boundaries
Houston St. to 14th St., East River to Fourth Ave.
Subway Stations
F, V to Second Ave. | L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5, 6 to Union Sq. | L to First Ave. | L to Third Ave.
Lower East Side
Suppose we told you about a neighborhood with some of the city’s best nightlife, along with outstanding restaurants and shops. It’s conveniently located in Lower Manhattan. It’s vital and energetic, gentrifying but reasonably diverse. And a two-bedroom apartment costs around $2,300 a month. Yes, the Lower East Side has some prominent warts: Its housing stock is fairly run-down. It’s noisy. And not everyone wants to live where they go out. But few other neighborhoods offer such a complete New York City experience at this price point.
Boundaries
Canal St. to Houston St., East River to Bowery
Subway Stations
F to East Broadway | F,J,M,Z to Essex-Delancey | B,D to Grand St. | J,M to Bowery| F,V to Second Ave.
Nolita
Virtues and vices are similar to Soho; very expensive and too crowded for green space.
Boundaries
Canal St. to Houston St., Bowery to Lafayette St.
Subway Stations
B,D,F,V to Broadway-Lafayette | 6 to Spring St. | J,M to Bowery | 6 to Canal St. | J,M,Z to Canal St.
Gramercy and Flatiron
Madison Square Park. Photo: Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao
The league-average hood is mostly bereft of bars and restaurants despite being rebranded as the more fashionable “NoMad”.
Boundaries
14th St. to 34th St., East River to Broadway.
Subway Station
L to First Ave. | L to Third Ave. | 4,5,6,N,Q,R,W,L to Union Square | 6 to 23rd St.| R,W, to 23rd St. | R,W to 28th St. | 6 to 28th St. | B,D,F,N,Q,R,W,V to 34th St.-Herald Sq.| 6 to 33rd St.
Chelsea
Charming in some places (especially its 400-gallery art colony) and less so in others, including some pockets with high crime.
Boundaries
14th St. to 29th St., Broadway to Hudson River.
Subway Stations
N,Q,R,W to Union Sq. | F,L,V to Sixth Ave. | 1,2,3 to 14th St. | A,C,E,L to Eighth Ave.-14th St. | 1 to 18th St. | 1 to 23rd St. | F,V to 23rd St. | R,W to 23rd St. | C,E to 23rd St. | 1 to 28th St. | R,W to 28th St.
Midtown West
More cultural cachet than Midtown East, but much grittier, with modestly high crime rates (especially around Port Authority) and a high incidence of air, asbestos, and noise complaints.
Boundaries
29th St. to 59th St., Madison Ave. to Hudson River
Subway Stations
7 to Fifth Ave.
7,Q,R,S,N,W to Times Square | 1,2,3 to Times Square | A,C,E to Times Square-Port Authority | B,D,F,V to 42nd St.-Bryant Park | B,D,F,N,Q,R,W,V to Hearld Sq. | 1,2,3 to 34th St.-Penn Station | A,C,E to 34th St.-Penn Station | E,V to Fifth Ave.-53rd St. | B,D,F,V to Rockefeller Center | N,R,W to 49th St. | 1 to 50th St. | C,E to 50th St. | B,D,E to Seventh Ave. | F to 57th St. | N,Q,R,W to 57th St. | 1,A,B,C,D to Columbus Circle
Upper East Side
Famously safe, charming, green, and beautiful, but other neighborhoods offer those same virtues while also being cheaper and more densely packed with entertainment.
Boundaries
59th St. to 96th St., East River to Fifth Ave.
Sunway Stations
4,5,6 to 59th St.-Lexington Ave. | R,W to 59th St.-Lexington Ave. | N,R,W to Fifth Ave.-59th St. | F to 63rd St.-Lexington Ave. | 6 to 68th St. | 6 to 77th St. | 4,5,6 to 86th St | 6 to 96th St.
Upper West Side
Some of the most desirable property in the city is on Central Park West, but Amsterdam Avenue is a morass of mid-rises and much of the neighborhood lacks street life.
Boundaries
59th St. (excluding Columbus Circle) to 110th St., Central Park West to Hudson River
Subway Stations
1 to 66th St.-Lincoln Center | 1,2,3 to 72nd St. | B, C to 72nd St. | 1 to 79th St. | B, C to 81st St. | 1 to 86th St. | B, C to 86th St. | 1,2,3 to 96th St. | B,C to 96th St. | B,C to 103rd St. | 1 to 103rd St. | B,C to 103rd St. | 1 to 110th St. | B,C to 110th St.
Morningside Heights
Diverse neighborhood, better for grocery shopping than nightlife; higher prices relative to its location, probably because of the captive audience of Columbia professors.
Boundaries
110th St. to 155th St., St. Nicholas Ave. to the Hudson River
Subway Stations
1 to 110th St. | B,C to 110th St. | 2,3 to 110th St.-Central Park North | 1 to 116th St.-Columbia University | B,C to 116th St. | 1 to 125th St. | A,B,C,D to 125th St. | B,C to 135th St. | 1 to 137th St.-City College | 1 to 145th St. | A,B,C,D to 145th St. | C to 155th St.
Harlem
Despite radical changes in recent years, crime is still relatively high and the public schools could still use improvement.
Boundaries
Central Harlem: 110th St. to Harlem River, 5th Ave. to St. Nicholas Ave.
East Harlem: 96th St. to Harlem River, East River to 5th Ave.
Subway Stations
6 to 96th St. | 2,3 to 110th St. | 6 to 110th St. | 2,3 to 116th St. | 6 to 116th St. | A,B,C,D to 125th St. | 2,3 to 125th St. | 4,5,6 to 125th St. | 2,3 to 135th St. | B,C to 135th St. | A,B,C,D to 145th St. | 3 to 145th St. | 3 to 148th St.-Lenox Term | C to 155th St. | B,D to 155th St.
Washington Heights
For better or worse, it has mostly escaped the forces of gentrification; it’s much safer than reputed, with a falling crime rate.
Boundaries
155th St. to Dyckman St., Harlem River to Hudson River
Subway Stations
A to Dyckman St. | 1 to Dyckman St. | A to 190th St. | 1 to 191st St. | A to 181st St. | 1 to 181st St. | A to 175th St. | A,C to 168th St. | C to 163rd St. | 1 to 157th St. | C to 155th St. | B,D to 155th St.
Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill
The Heights has never really been an outer-borough neighborhood. But since the Court Street and Atlantic Avenue commercial nexus went from urban no-man’s-land to mini-mall (replete with deep-pocketed chains like Barnes & Noble, Ben & Jerry’s, CVS, and a Regal multiplex), families are even less inclined to move away from the neighborhood. While most are thrilled with the commercial facelift, skyrocketing rents have edged out a few neighborhood institutions — like Peter's Ice Cream, which closed last year after a 77 percent rent increase. Farther down in Cobble Hill, old men still keep watch from their lawn chairs over a vibrant mix of fish stores, butchers, bakeries, and delis. Still, scarcity of product has fed the sellers’ market, and prices are approaching uptown Manhattan levels. — JOEY HOFFMAN
Carroll Gardens and Gowanus
Tree-lined streets, beautiful brownstones with front and back gardens, a diverse array of restaurants and bars, good local delis and Italian markets: Carroll Gardens’s charms are well catalogued. Its sister neighborhood, Gowanus, splayed along the Superfunded banks of the Gowanus Canal, is desirable primarily for its proximity to said charms.
Boundaries
15th St. to Union St., Fourth Ave. to Interstate 278 (BQE)
Subway Stations
F to Fourth Ave.-9th St. | M,R to 9th St.-Fourth Ave. | F,G to Smith-9th St. | F,G to Carroll St. | M,R to Union St.
Red Hook
A few blocks’ worth of well-regarded restaurants and bars (not to mention Ikea and Fairway) are offset by a large and impoverished housing project and terrible transit.
Boundaries
Red Hook peninsula between Buttermilk Channel, Gowanus Bay, and Gowanus Canal to Hamilton Ave.
DUMBO
Two half-neighborhoods with glaring weaknesses that look better when combined. Dumbo supplies the art galleries and waterfront access but is expensive; Downtown Brooklyn provides the stadium-seating multiplex and public-transit hub, but is high in crime and bereft of nightlife. This area has the city's highest rate of creative capital: People in the arts constitute about 20 percent of its workforce.
Boundaries
Dumbo: Sands St. to East River, Brooklyn Bridge (through to the Brooklyn Navy Yard) to Manhattan Bridge
Downtown Brooklyn: Wyckoff St./Warren St. to Sands St., Flatbush Ave. to Court St./Cadman Plaza
Subway Stations
F to York St. | F,G to Bergen St. | 4 to Borough Hall | M,R to Court St.-Borough Hall | 2,3 to Borough Hall | A,C,F to Jay St.-Borough Hall | A,C to High St. | M,R to Lawrence St.-MetroTech | 2,3 to Hoyt St. | A,C,G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn | B,M,Q,R to DeKalb | 2,3,4,5 to Nevins | 2,3,4,5,B,Q to Atlantic | D,M,N,R to Pacific | 2,3 to Bergen
Fort Greene and Clinton Hill
A dynamic and well-rounded Brooklyn neighborhood. Once predominantly black, it now touches just about every corner of the race-income matrix, including a large black middle and upper-middle class. Much of the neighborhood is in a historic district, and its homes, especially in Clinton Hill, are often majestic. The Pratt Institute gives it some gravity as an artistic center. Its crime and public-school rankings remain below average, however, which is why it’s still cheaper to live here than next door in Boerum Hill or Park Slope.
Boundaries
Atlantic Ave. to Nassau Ave./Flushing Ave., Pratt Institute/Classon Ave. to Flatbush Ave.
Subway Stations
2,3,4,5,B,Q to Atlantic Ave. | 2,3,4,5 to Nevins St. | B,M,Q,R to DeKalb Ave. | G to Fulton St. | C to Lafayette Ave. | C to Clinton-Washington Ave. | G to Clinton-Washington Ave. | G to Classon Ave.
Park Slope
No neighborhood is the butt of more stroller jokes or the recipient of more anti-gentrification scorn. But any way you slice it, Park Slope is the very definition of a well-rounded neighborhood. It falls just slightly below average in two: affordability (the average two-bedroom rental is $2,275) and diversity. In all other areas, it’s somewhere between above grade and superlative: It’s blessed with excellent public schools, low crime, vast stretches of green space, scores of restaurants and bars, a diverse retail sector, and a population of more artists and creatives than even its reputation for comfortable bohemianism might suggest (more, in fact, than younger, trendier Williamsburg). It might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect neighborhood, but statistically speaking (by a hair), there’s nowhere better.
Boundaries
15th St. to Flatbush Ave., Prospect Park West to Fourth Ave.
Subway Stations
D,M,N,R to Pacific St. | 2,3,4,5,B,Q to Atlantic Ave. | 2,3 to Bergen St. | B,Q to Seventh Ave. | 2,3 to Grand Army Plaza | M,R to Union St. | M,R to 9th St. | F to Fourth Ave./9th St. | F to Seventh Ave. | F to 15th St./Prospect Park
Prospect Heights
Though it is invariably thought of as up-and-coming (perhaps because of all the bars and restaurants popping up in recent years), Prospect Heights is in fact a fairly well-established and diverse middle-class outpost. It offers excellent train access to Manhattan, a bounty of green space thanks to Prospect Park, and reasonable rental prices (an average two-bedroom costs $1,675). But the quality of housing varies significantly from block to block, with well-kept brownstones and new developments juxtaposed with properties in a state of disrepair.
Boundaries
Eastern Pkwy. to Atlantic Ave., Franklin Ave. to Flatbush Ave.
Subway Stations
2,3,4,5,B,Q to Atlantic Ave. | 2,3 to Bergen St. | B, Q to Seventh Ave. | 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza | 2,3 to Eastern Pkwy.-Brooklyn Museum | S to Botanic Garden | 2,3,4,5 to Franklin Ave. | S to Park Pl.
Williamsburg
Few other enclaves inspire the kind of love-it-or-loathe-it partisanship that this one does. But the thing to remember is that Williamsburg is actually a rather large neighborhood, both in population (it’s home to about 125,000 people, about the same as Harlem) and geography. Near the L-train stops, it offers a fantastically hip (or annoying, depending on your disposition) array of bars, restaurants, and shopping, and some sparkling new developments. The eastern and southern borders are more affordable but less safe, and lag in retail density and access to green space.
Boundaries
Flushing Ave. to North 14th St./Nassau Ave./McGuinness Blvd./Meeker Ave., Bushwick Ave. to Kent Ave.
Subway Stations
G to Flushing Ave. | G to Broadway | G to Metropolitan-Lorimer | J,M,Z to Marcy Ave. | J,M to Hewes St. | J,M to Lorimer St. | J,M to Flushing Ave. | L to Bedford Ave. | L to Lorimer St. | L to Graham Ave. | L to Grand St. | L to Montrose Ave. | L to Morgan Ave.
Astoria
Most Manhattanites know Astoria only for its beer gardens, but this large—about 170,000 people—and eclectic neighborhood has much more to offer, including reasonably priced housing, strong ethnic clusters that have weathered the first waves of gentrification, good shopping at both local markets and big-box retailers, and pedestrian-friendly streets. The downside is a lack of foliage and park access, as well as a commute that is reasonable to midtown but cumbersome to lower Manhattan.
Boundaries
36th Ave. to Twentieth Ave./Con Ed Power Plant/19th Ave., Ditmars Blvd./BQE/Northern Blvd. to East River
Subway Stations
N,W to 36th Ave. | R,V to 46th St. | R,V to Northern Blvd. | R,V to Steinway | N,W to Broadway | N,W to 30th Ave. | N,W to Astoria Blvd. | N,W to Astoria-Ditmars
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