lucyschmo

You know everything they say about the gentrification of New York? The Lower East Side is a prime example. When I was growing up it was mostly older, mostly Jewish. The fact that the subway is a little bit hard to access (for many parts of the neighborhood, only the F train, which is annoyingly infrequent, is convenient) kept it affordable for a long time, and probably keeps it down in price a little bit (though if they ever build the 2nd avenue subway line that will change). In the past 10 years most of the old, discount stores have closed, replaced by chic, ultra-expensive shops and boutiques. There is very little cheap anything in this area anymore. Like everywhere else in the city, it's become a very expensive place to live. There is also a lot of renovating of old buildings into luxury apartments. This is contrasted with a few truly hideous newer buildings, the tallest in the area, that look bizarre against the old buildings and lend a cheap air to the area. As in much of Manhattan, primarily luxury residences are being built. The one high point of all this has been the food - you can get truly excellent food in this neighborhood now (in restaurants), though the closest fancy supermarket is still at Union Square. The people are mostly yuppies. This means that the neighborhood is filled with high-income young couples with very young children. The parts that aren't are occupied by hipsters (young single people who tend to like to party). The overall result is that unless you fit into one of those two groups, I would not recommend this neighborhood, but if you do and you have the money it might be a better-value location than much of the rest of Manhattan.