East 31 St, Murray Hill

East 31st in Murray Hill is painfully close to midtown and it really resembles it too much for my liking. There are no neighborhood bars or restaurants and there's no neighborhood energy. It's loud and crowded during the day and dead at night. It's one of my least favorite areas in the city.
There's a couple of buildings on the block at Park that are Chinese-American Cultural Centers with the New York office for Jews for Jesus directly across the street. So, what I'm saying is that this must be an interesting block when everyone's meetings get out. There's also a health food store and an office building with a Cosi on the ground floor. As far as fast food chains go, Cosi is one of my favorites. The food isn't too bad for you and not too shabby either. Plus, they have wifi so I go in there for lunch sometimes and end up staying for hours. There are always tables available which I can't say about most coffee shops in this city that have wifi. There's also a hotel on this block which I hear isn't bad considering it's really cheap for a New York hotel. It's just kind of a sucktown neighborhood to be in if you're visiting New York but I live here so I'm kind of a snob about that, I guess.
The block at Lexington is just as big building as the rest of the neighborhood. It's also just as boring. There are a couple of little hotels, a textiles building and some little takeout spots at the bottom of office buildings. Nothing all that appealing and the noise level is pretty serious around here. The neighborhood is over at 5th but the street stays just about as painful all the way through. I wouldn't live here. There's nothing to do.