SoHo

SoHo, which stands for "South of Houston Street", is a neighborhood in downtown Manhattan roughly bordered by Houston Street on the North, Lafayette Street on the east, Canal Street n the south, and West Broadway to the west. Soho is a trendy area that was once home to many artists living in the huge lofts which abound in the area. During the 1960s and 1970s these lofts were inexpensive because they were converted warehouses.s The area was once highly industrial with crime and prostitution commonplace. Starting in the 1980s the area began to change to the upscale and expensive neighborhood that it is known to be today. Those same lofts which once housed rising artists now sell for hundreds of thousands so that these artists have been priced out by Hedge Fund Traders and a good many celebrities who call this area home.

The neighborhood is known for its narrow, quaint side streets, such as Prince, Greene, and Mercer that offering plenty of character and history, along with several art galleries European shops, and trendy cafes. The shopping tends to be expensive (think Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and Tag Heuer) but there are a few stores where you may find a decent price such as H&M and Urban Outfitter both on Broadway. There is also an Apple Store on Prince Street always a fun place to test new products. Another fun place for kids (both young and adult) is KidRobot on Prince Street. KidRobot offers limited edition toys and clothing created by some of the world's most renowned artists and designers. The area is highly is hot spot of tourist activity and is packed on the weekend.

There are many fine dining establishments in the Soho neighborhood, such as Cipriani Downtown on West Broadway (expensive), Fanelli's on Prince and Broome Street Street (moderately expensive) and Pao! on Spring Street which offers Mediterranean fare. The Broome Street Bar which offers a nice community vibe is one of the few places left for the artists and writer on a limited budget.

SoHo is also home to theAngelika Film Center which is located on Houston and Mercer Streets plays a diverse mix of indie film and is the theater of choice for both filmmakers and film goers alike. Patrons may also enjoy a gourmet snack at the Angelika Cafe.

Transportation to the area is very good with the N,Q,R, W and 1 to Canal Street or 6 train to Spring Street.

SoHo is a bit on the pretentious side but that does not take away from the fact that SoHo is a new, trendy New York neighborhood done right. SoHo is, in my opinion, the best place to shop in Manhattan, and offers great food, good bars, and is close to everything else.

Living here gets very expensive. Most of the people in the area are the cool, young crowd that has managed to make enough cash to live in one of the most sought after neighborhoods in the city. Personally, I would not live here because of the never ending crowds EVERYWHERE but I would definitely live nearby. The area is easy to get to via public transportation, has both upscale and affordable shopping boutiques, nice looking buildings, and an artsy-fartsy feel to it.

For tourists, this is a great place to come shop and grab a meal but not much else. Everything in Lower Manhattan is pretty close, however, whether it is the Village, Chinatown, the Bowery, Tribeca, or Chelsea. Things here get pretty expensive though.

Dean and DeLuca is a pretty neat place to eat or buy food. Their coffee is great and I have to get a cup every time I'm there. The area has just about every boutique you can think off, I prefer the Topman and some of the chain-y stores like H&M and American Apparel.

There are two types of people consistently in Soho: wealthy young people who live in amazing lofts and eat at Soho's incredible, renowned restaurants, and tourists who come to shop up and down Broadway everyday. For those of us in the middle, Soho remains a go-to spot for shopping and perhaps nightlife.

Soho is one of the coolest neighborhoods aesthetically, thanks to this fusion it has going on of industrial and quaint. You'll find lots of cast iron architecture, warehouses and European embellishment along cobblestone streets. The apartments here are usually lofts and lots of bars and restaurants have opened in spacious warehouse-type locations. The shopping here is expensive and designer, with a few bones thrown to the middle class, like Topshop and H&M. Broadway has a few stores that are worth fighting crowds for, but usually the strip is a tourist-infested nightmare. The side streets, like Prince, Greene and Mercer, are the real gems, with off-the-beaten-track boutiques and bars. While you'll find fashion's best offerings in Soho - from Scoop to Catherine Malandrino to L'Agent Provocateur - you'll also find quirky-cool spots like KidRobot for toys and Evolution for scientific wonders and taxidermy.

The dining scene in Soho is fantastic if you've got the bucks, otherwise, not so much. But I do recommend Fanelli's on Prince and Broome Street Bar for that authentic Soho starving artist community vibe, only with delicious comfort food.

If more people could afford to live in Soho, it'd probably have a better reputation - people often write it off as pretentious. But aside from the tourist invasion, it can be a really cool place.

SoHo (which stands for south of Houston Street) is an artsy neighborhood in the southern part of Manhattan. It's hard to imagine that it was once full of brothels and factories. As long as I can remember, it has been upscale and hip, known for its huge loft apartments, narrow streets, and historic cast iron architecture. If someone says they have a "loft in Soho," Manhattanites will inevitably "ooh" and "ahh". In the 1960s and 70s, these lofts were cheap because they were converted industrial spaces. In the 80s, that began to change, and SoHo slowly became the upscale, expensive neighborhood that it is today.

Soho in 2010 is a prime shopping area with lots of small boutiques and art galleries. It's expensive, but even if you don't buy, you'll love strolling these beautiful streets filled with character and history. You can find great food and original clothing that you won't find anywhere else. It's worth it just for the window shopping. The nightlife in SoHo is pretty good, too, and the neighborhood is conveniently located near both Greenwich Village and the East Village.

As far as living here, it isn't an easy proposition, but if you have the bucks, you can probably find something fabulous. For most people, however, living in SoHo is a pipe dream.

Soho, like many New York neighborhoods, has had a thousand past lives. The most recent one involved artists living and working in the sprawling lofts created from defunct factories. Then, Soho was a cooler, more artistic place.

The Soho of today is very clean and very expensive. There are few artists living and working in, or even near, Soho. While it’s a nice neighborhood to live in if you have the cash, its’ sad that another distinct New York artistic community has been pushed aside by gentrification.

Now that it has, though, there’s more room for designer boutiques and an Apple store and places to buy an obscenely expensive tufted ottoman. If you’re looking for amazing shopping, Soho is a good place to go. There are also isolated residences that look like warehouses from the outside but feature amazing interiors. I’ve seen some of the most beautiful apartments imaginable in New York. There are some huge spaces, with high ceiling and cathedral windows. I can see why artists would have been inspired by having so much gorgeous light to work in.

Much of the neighborhood is busy during the day, with tourist and regular traffic clogging the streets. In the evening things quiet down considerably, to the point of eeriness. It’s quiet at night but maintains a sense of isolation rather than safety.

I think I am in the vast minority, but man I just really don't like Soho. There's something about it that just makes my skin crawl. It's so crowded all the time. And it's just kind of Euro-pretentious. No offense to Europeans (they're lovely), but it's a particular kind of garrish, snobby Euro that seems to flock to Soho. It's like the new money version of the Upper East Side. And, the new money attitude is so annoying and sad to me. Of course, the shopping is great and convenient -- Soho holds just about every shop you can imagine including the million story Bloomingdales. But they are always so packed as are the sidewalks.
And, honestly, there just really aren't any cool places to hang out in Soho. It's just like a giant shopping mall with crappy restaurants to me. Antique Garage is cool for hanging out for a drink but you can only go when it's warm and the food is not good. Bread's food is decent but the service has been so repeatedly bad there, I won't go back. And, the vibe of the place is so model / new money pretentious, I wouldn't care if the eggplant sent me into sublimination.
There are no decent coffee shops. Starbucks everywhere, but big deal. And, Dean and Deluca is always packed and over priced for mediocre coffee. The Mercer is even awful. I could go on and on about how awful I think this place is. And, the rent is so high to live in a tiny apartment over a J.Crew on an endlessly noisy street. I'll pass.

Trendy Soho (south of Houston Street) is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in New York City. The boundaries of Soho are loosely defined so as to include the area that lies south of West Houston Street and north of Canal Street while its eastern and western limits are described as Lafayette Street and Sixth Avenue.

Soho is home to some of the city’s shops, bars and restaurants and it accordingly packed with hordes of tourists who want to experience a bit of classic New York City magic on the cobble stone streets of Soho. This is the main reason that I wouldn’t want to live in Soho though I do adore and appreciate the area’s many cast-iron fronted buildings which house huge super expensive loft apartments which are much coveted by celebrities, artists and all the other beautiful and affluent people of New York City.

Nevertheless I do enjoy going to Soho to browse and drop serious change at its many shops that line Broadway and its surrounding streets. My trips to Soho almost always include trips to stores like Topshop, Uniglo, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Muji, Pearl River Mart , the Moma Store and if I am in a mood for some serious retail therapy then also stores like Kirna Zabete and the flagship Longchamp store. When I am tired of shopping and need a rest I tend to take a break at the area’s many stylish cafés like Dean De Luca or Café Angelique which offer good coffee and scrumptious baked goods.

Soho like many other neighborhoods in New York City is renowned for its great dining and entertainment options as well and some of my favorite haunts in the area include establishments like Kittichai at the Thompson Hotel, the bar at the Soho Grand hotel and the fabulous Mercer Kitchen located within the stylish Mercer Hotel on Prince Street.

SoHo is one of my favorite neighborhoods, because it offers the two things I love to spend my money on most: food and clothing. If you’re going shopping in the area, you can’t really go wrong, because the neighborhood offers something for everyone: Aldo for the mall girls, and Eleven for the more vintage-minded. As far as food goes, you can find an awesome (as well as trendy) selection at Balthazar, a seafood icon of SoHo.
A word to the wise, though: if you hate crowds, avoid this neighborhood during busy hours, during regular rush hours and all day on weekends. The sidewalks get pretty packed with shoppers, especially when the street vendors open up on the weekends.