kinfae

Bordering Battery Park City, this street runs from Bowling Green down to South Ferry. It's a high point for tourists-the double decker buses leave from a spot midway between, and hot-dog vendors and ice-cream sellers are plentiful here-as, during the day, are those guys hawking t-shirts and gold watches.

Still, there's a lot of beauty to be gleaned here. From the nearby veteran's memorial to the Museum of the American Indian, you barely have to walk anywhere to see things, and at night, once the mobile tourist traps go away, it's a gorgeous place to walk. Park benches line the street, and you can sit in the twilight and cool night air there, or go a little further and look over at the water. South Ferry continues running all night, as do the multiple subways that stop within a block or two.

Like many other older sections of New York, many of the apartments here were made at a time when less spacious living was preferred. But in New York, such a thing can be easily tolerated, on a street midway between park and high-city living. Across the street is Riverside Park, a place for families, young skaters, bicyclists, dog lovers, and others. One street over, restaurants, comedy clubs, and stores of all types abound. This is an area that all ages will adore-the twenty-something set as well as others. From the movie rental places with thousands of independent titles to the Thai restaurants, amazing pizza joints, and more, this is one of the most convenient places to live. A subway is mere blocks away, and the nearby college provides a constant influx of youth, while not flooding the streets with drunken debauchery-frat behavior being confined to inside their own spaces.

This street would be absolutely a dream to live on, if you could get an apartment, especially for young families. Park Slope, once not the greatest neighborhood, over the last thirty years has become a safe place for youung, trendy parents to come raise their kids. The playground across the street is highly populated, and for those single moms out there, single dads come there all the time as it is so close. Come on a weekend or just after 5-6PM in summer before the light fades, and there are an awful lot of men with kids not wearing rings. Or if you want to find playdates for your kids, this is the place. There aren't a lot of attractions on the street, other than the nearby Pavilion movie theatre, and the traffic is atrocious, but given the proximity of the F train, who cares?

For its place as a main thoroughfare, it's also pretty clean, and the cars don't really speed down Prospect Park West as they do many other areas of Brooklyn. There seems to be some sort of neighborhood beautification committee, I see signs for it all the time.

The street itself is pretty quiet. It's a lot of brownstones, most of them chopped up into tiny apartments and ruled over by draconian landlords. Like most other brownstones in the newly trendy Park Slope, it's very expensive. Landlords create rules from anything from when guests can be over to how much air conditioning can be used. Parking is incredibly scarce. A good friend of mine lives there, and I often have to drive around for as much as half an hour to find even an illegal space. It takes less time for me to walk seventeen blocks to see her than to drive and find parking. There are some really great shops around, especially for bagels. All you have to do is walk up an avenue or two to find delicious restaurants as well as the nearby food co-op and whole-foods-type store. Incredible! Also, for those who don't drive, the train is not very far.

Aymar is a very quiet street to live on, with gorgeous houses for the price. Just across from Clove Lake Park, it absolutely cannot be beat for environment and access to nature. With the WWII memorial skating rink nearby for early morning skating and multiple playgrounds, families will love it. There is great access to parking and the neighbors are friendly too. Once a man helped to cut down trees in her yard for my mother, just because. It is really inexpensive for New York, and offers a chance for yards, gardens, etc.

The only problem is that a lot of the houses on the street are old, and have clay pipes. The trees on the block are enormous, and their roots attack the pipes. Numerous people have had problems with it, and the city won't pay for the repairs. Before you buy, check out what kind of pipes they have.

This is in fact a bad neighborhood. Close to the Stapleton Projects, the somewhat nicer homes here cannot disguise the fact. The schools here are atrocious, and teachers are afraid even of the elementary school ones. However, there are a lot of accessible services. For those who want to get to work at the ferry and run out of the house late, gypsy vans stop at the corners by the bus stops, and will take you to work at breakneck pace for only a few dollars. There is a dry cleaners, a home improvement store, and several grocery-type stores. There is a shooting every now and then, but if you really can't afford a better place, then this is perhaps the first step up out of poverty. Some row houses are being created that are still inexpensive due to the neighborhood. Buying now and sticking it out twenty years or so might bring improvement.

This street is mere blocks from some of the rowdier streets, yet it manages to survive with its dignity intact. With beautiful yet affordable houses, plenty of street parking, and garages and nice yards, one wonders how this has survived in Staten Island without being snatched up. Well, there is a hill, but who notices those things when you're enjoying all the area has to offer? While it doesn't have a lot of nightlife around it, it's just walking distance from the Staten Island ferry, which is how any Staten Islander gets where they want to be going for the night anyway. There's also a cool thrift shop less than a block away, and though the school nearby (PS16) isn't great, it /is/ close. As is a small park, and the hill with all of its nice houses. Several fast food joints and a Western Beef supermarket are also within walking distance.

This street is a menace to decent living. While cost is low, it is low for a reason. The street is one of the most often speeded on, and many neighbors had accidents that actually crashed into their houses. One took out our steps. It is almost constantly dirty, and very unsafe through both a bad crowd walking through all of the time and low police presence. Several gang shootings occurred mere blocks away. While some of the houses are beginning to look nice, the neighborhood makes it wasted effort. It is the sort of neighborhood a young woman carries Mace in when she walks alone and tries not to let anyone see her jingle the door to get in.

Neighbors rarely know each other, even after living there for ten years. While there is food within walking distance, the only decent place is a Spanish joint, and you cannot eat that every day. Also, the bars there are terrifying.

If you're lucky enough to get into one of these beautiful brownstones, you will never regret it. While it's a little expensive to get one, unless you luck into a deal, the proximity of Prospect Park and the Circle means you won't be crying over it. The movie theatre on the corner has started to jump, and you can no longer get tickets there five minutes before the show, but at least now there'll be a good crowd-and for such a small-from-the-outside place, there are always a lot of shows playing. The corner groceries also are friendly, with character-little kittens peek out from under the dry goods and also assure you that the place is clean. While parking is certainly at a premium, you can always find it by going one or two blocks over, and the subway is right on the corner of the circle, as is a late-night muffin shop. You can't beat this!

Chambers Street is most notable for the schools that are here-both Stuyvesant High School, and the college next door. West Side Highway lets the cars fly by, but don't be afraid if you have small children-the enormous bridge created for the high-schoolers to get to their trains isn't limited on access. You too can use it to get to the park on the other side. This street definitely targets their audience-small bookstores and places to buy candy and school supplies war with pizza joints and fast food restaurants. A wall on the other side of the bridge is home to stoners and rarely visited by police. I'm not sure who would want to live there, or even if there is residential housing. Maybe college students!

After around 5-6PM on weekdays the street does quiet down some though, once the students have gone. But it's a cacophony while school is entering, midday, and while it's letting out.