East 21st St, Gramercy Park

There's a place between 5th and 6th called Shaffer City that has an oyster happy hour. Unfortunately, the two times I went there for oysters, the service was so bad / slow that we ended up leaving. Maybe someone else has had a better experience, but I have yet to go back.
There are mostly a lot of giant apartment buildings with little stores and restaurants but none of them are all that noteworthy in my book. The apartments east of Park Ave look pretty standard, but those are pretty wowsers on the inside. One of the apartments on 21st and Gramercy is in my top five most beautiful apartments I have seen in the city. The neighborhood isn't as quaint as the West Village but it's old and beautiful. If you can't live in one of the brownstones in this hood (and, how many people can?) then one of these apartments would do just fine.
Gramercy Park Hotel is on the corner of 21 and Lex. It was a big hotel for the stars in the 20's and then sort of got taken over by the Rock and Roll set. It's pretty chintzy but people still like going there. Directly across the street is Gramercy Park. It's a gated park that is only accessible to the surrounding tenants (they all have their own key). There's a big statue of Edwin Booth in the park which I find somewhat humourous. It was built in order to attract the wealthy back into living downtown. It has always been a private park that was promised to be the only exclusive green for the elite whom lived around it. It has maintained that draw to this day.
The rest of the street is really old and beautiful buildings until you run into Peter Cooper Village. The apartments are huge but for the price, I don't know why on earth you would want to live there.

The Flatiron District is a nice little slice of land surrounded by other nice little strips of land. Though not quite as nice as nearby Gramercy, it’s a great neighborhood to live in. The area is safe and clean with a young atmosphere. There are some nice examples of older New York architecture, including the Flatiron Building itself.

There are some great apartments in the Flatiron District, though the nicer ones are pretty pricey. Nearby NYU lends the neighborhood a number of young people strolling about during the day. There are many people drawn to the area for the huge farmer’s market in Union Square. The area also has many business workers in during the day, especially on the northern end surrounding Madison Square Park.

But the main reason to visit this area (besides exchanging your cable box at Time Warner) is the shopping. There are all the big box stores you’d find in a suburban setting, including the Gap, Banana Republic, H&M, Pier One, Esprit, Victoria’s Secret, Sephora, Bath and Body Works and the list…goes…on. It’s great shopping for the middle-budget person who doesn’t want to trudge all over the city to find what they need. And during the holiday shopping season, it’s also a wonderful alternative to the busier, tourist-clogged shopping district just up 5th Ave.