East 3 St, East Village

The corner of 3rd and Bowery starts off with quite a lot of pizazz because of the Bowery Hotel. This hotel is gorgeous very old world looking. They have a fantastic courtyard where you can eat and drink. They're restaurant, Gemma, is lovely and very popular with people in bands for some reason. Liev Schrieber and Naomi Watts were eating next to me there once and I remember thinking that I would have never have guessed how attractive that guy is in real life. Next to the Bowery Hotel is a series of row houses built around the mid 19th century which seems to have been where all the news people lived. William Albert Eddy and Wilbert Tatum both lived in them. Philip Glass lived at 38 and I'm a tad obsessed with him so I always give a nerdy nod to this building when I walk by. This section of row houses are lovely, as they all are, but these ones are a bit run down. It seems kind of appropriate for the neighborhood, though.
The block between Bowery and 2nd is where the Hell's Angels headquarters are. I know they're not as crazy as they used to be, but I would not want to live in one of the buildings next to them. I guess it would be alright if you befriended them . . . but what if you didn't? It seems like a recipe for disaster. They threw a woman off the roof of their clubhouse in the '70's and actually threw up a plaque at the site to commemorate the event. Those dudes are ten shades of crazy. The block between 1st and A is a tenement project built in the '30's so if I were looking for a place to live in the city these two blocks of 3rd would not be on my look list.
The corner of 3rd and A has a Two Boots Pizza / Theatre. I can't think of many things better than a movie with Two Boots. This place is like my own personal heaven on earth. East of A, the street gets very east East Village. There are a lot of cool little vintage shops, random gardens and great divey food joints like Snack Dragon Taco Shack. It's not the most happening street in the East Village but it's not a bad street to live on. Well, transportation isn't ideal, but it has a lot of cool little spots and some great old buildings. The demographic is a really broad mix of youngsters and people that have lived in the same building for 40 years so it has a very New York kind of vibe. I would just, like I said, maybe avoid the two blocks with the Hell's Angels and projects.