West 110 St, Upper West Side

What’s nice about W 110th st is that it’s near a 1 train subway stop. The M6, M104, and M4 bus lines also stop here. This street is busier and slightly larger than the other streets nearby. This street is more detached from Columbia University than streets slightly to the north of it, but there is one Columbia undergraduate dorm on the street. There are some nice businesses near W 110th st and Broadway, including Chipotle which has the best burritos and the drug store Rite Aid, which sometimes has cheaper stuff than the ubiquitous New York, Duane Reade which is also located nearby.

At Broadway and 110th, there are a lot of stores that real people need. On the southeast corner there is a Gristedes supermarket that is clean & has a good selection. On the southwest corner there is a drug store. Just two blocks up there is a Citibank, the Heights (a bar/grill), and just north of 110 on broadway is a fruit/vegetable stand. Along 110, there are just well maintained apartments and it is relatively safe to walk down the street. A good thing to note, is that late at night, cabs are plenty here because of the fact that the cabbies use 110 as a cross-over street. At Amsterdam & 110 there is a good pizza place V&T and across the street from that is St. John the Divine & at the other corner of 110 & amsterdam is a Jewish synagoge.

Easily access at the Cathedral Parkway stop of the 1 train, you'll be let off right in the heart of the Columbia University Campus. You'll find all of the conveniences of any neighborhood and some good housing options. This is a good street for young adults and singles, as well as young couples, though it's difficult to find anything that doesn't have something to do with Columbia around here.

West 110th Street, as recently as just 5 years ago, had a lot of comfy feelings to it; there was a great family-owned market that has since closed, a marvelous Chinese (proper Chinese, not discount) restaurant on the corner of Broadway, smaller stores (there was a wonderful bagel place next to the Chinese restaurant). Since Columbia University has been developing so much real estate, there are new skyscrapers, many, many stores have closed and a lot of the feeling of it is gone or irrevocably changed. It does cross a lot of great streets, including Broadway and Amsterdam, but I think it's becoming somewhat homogenized.