Cherry St, Lower East Side

Cherry Street starts (or ends) at the two bridges area. There isn't much around here save the bridges, a housing project and a public school. It looks really desolate and it is at night. Nothing like a dock looking area by a bridge with a tenement complex to really make you run at a full sprint through the neighborhood after dark, eh?
The block at Catherine gets a little more lively with a playground and a moderate income housing structure. The Rosenbergs lived at this place (The Knickerbocker) when they were arrested for alleged spying. And, the original Brooks Brothers store was right at this corner. They came about by making Civil War uniforms and moved locations when they started making preppy gear a few decades later. The next block over has a park and a softball field making this one of the most green yet depressing areas in Manhattan. There is so much park around here and no signs of life outside of the people in them. The few buildings in this area are old and scary and there aren't any bars or restaurants to speak of.
Once you pass Manhattan bridge, you get . . more tenements. Seriously, they're everywhere on this street. There are a couple of unsubsidized apartments buildings on Cherry, but why would you want to pay Manhattan rent to live in the middle of the projects? The housing projects stretch all the way past Clinton so the entirety of Cherry is projects and parks. It's not the kind of street you want to live on or go to unless you have to. And, it's pretty far away from public transportation, bars, restaurants, normal stores, etc. You definitely have outdoor fun right at your fingertips on Cherry, but like all parks in New York -- and, especially down here -- they're all no man's lands after dark.

Pike Street is a great place to be. It has schools and stores. It is one terrific area where everything is conveniently placed. With a couple of schools in the area, there are plenty of kids. However, you can still find plenty of people walking around. With Rutgers Park nearby, you can find practically anything going on this street.

Pike Street starts down by the East River and the FDR Drive, where it is called Pike Slip, and continues westward. It is adjacent to the Manhattan Bridge, which carries constant traffic to and from Brooklyn, so it is extremely noisy. There are high rise apartments lining much of Pike Street, with some small, older tenement buildings. This part of Manhattan is not the nicest, but it is affordable because of the apartment projects that have some of the more reasonable rents in the city. There are some small stores and a major drugstore chain that are within walking distance, but you will need to to to midtown to find real retail therapy. There are some good little mom-and-pop ethnic restaurants in the area, but you'll want to go to Little Italy or Chinatown for better meals.

If you've ever seen a Woody Allen movie, you have probably seen New York's Cherry Street. An upscale neighborhood from the 1920's, today it's mostly full of older tenement buildings and co-op apartments. I've often stayed with friends here, and I think it's one of Manhattan's nicest and quietest areas.

Cherry Street has some lovely midtown-style parks and many smaller schools and day-cares, which makes it one of very few neighborhoods I know in Manhattan where you can see children running and playing every day.