-
-
Ad Space
(728 x 90)
Published on 7/25/08
Published on 7/24/08
Video
Greenwich Village isn’t just reminiscent of vintage New York—it’s sitting right on top of it. This is where Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan invented New York cool, and it’s the area Jane Jacobs cited as a shining example of an urban community done right. It’s also where, decades later, the sheen of the counterculture has been replaced by a pair of Urban Outfitters. What would Jacobs make of it now?
The Village has sometimes coasted on the reputation of its glory days while its tony West and grungy East wings rose and fell. But nostalgia aside, change is not necessarily bad. “I am a capitalist, and so therefore the aggrandizement of the neighborhood is all for the good,” says Edward Donovan as he walks his dog down La Guardia Place. Yet as he speaks, an iPodded young man whizzes past on a motorized scooter—shiny, high-tech, corporate. “But there are drawbacks to many people like him,” Donovan adds dryly.
Sure, there are iPods aplenty, but robots haven’t won the battle yet. Fearless men still play chess in Washington Square Park, and the Man is still told where to stick it at Unoppressive Nonimperialist Bargain Books. The sticky dive bars and plastic-lingerie-selling sex shops prove that seedy isn’t dead. Preservationists keep the remaining cobblestone streets fully cobbled, but constant activity prevents the Village from becoming a museum. And we counted 180 independently run stores, countered by seven Starbucks, 19 chain banks and 24 fast-food joints. So far, the indie spirit still wins.
What Jacobs loved about the ’hood—dense streets, mixed-use buildings—endures, though with a different kind of community. Rich folks harboring a touch of bohemian delusion settle into the expensive buildings around Fifth Avenue, alongside college students who keep the area young and dirty. As long as the bars stay busy and shouty till 5am, the crumbling apartments above them will remain host to young Turks, oddballs and artists. “It took me 26 years to afford a good place in the Village,” says author and longtime resident Sue Shapiro. “Just as I could, everyone started saying the epicenter is now Brooklyn. Wrong! It’s still the Village.” With faithful like these, who needs Park Slope?
OVERALL SCORE: 16
 |  |  |  |  |  |
8 | 7 | 7 | -7 | -7 | 8 |
The nabe gets high scores for the short streets (the western edge of Greenwich Village, around Sheridan Square, is a tangled mess, and thank God) and abundance of people (even if there are a lot of tourists and NYU students). But on Sixth Avenue, chain stores drag down the count. Thank the “only in New York” factor for bumping it back up: Between the “chess district” on Thompson Street and the fact that everyone’s a little distasteful of midtown (shared animosity is very New York), the ’hood just makes this list.
