West 30 St, Chelsea

West 30th starts off with a lot of abandoned stuff. There's an abandoned building right at 12th that is supposed to be torn down to build the new Jets Stadium and the not yet constructed part of the Highline. I actually hope they leave this part of the Highline alone because I like the overgrown sort of abandoned rail station look to it. It adds some flavor and history to the neighborhood. It's not really a livable sort of block, however, because of all of the vacant spaces and the fact that the Lincoln Tunnel is just at 10th.
The block between 8th and 9th has mostly old, pretty buildings from the early 20th century. They're all lovely and I like this block. But, they're just too close to Hell's Kitchen so the surrounding area is crazy loud and dirty. And, one of the apartment buildings used to be a hospital. I would not want to live in a building where that many people died. No, thank you.
The block between 7th and 8th is a really arty sort of commercial block which I dig. Businesses there include the Urban Stages Theater Group, a guitar shop, a drums shop, a recording studio owned by the Webster Hall people and some sort of holistic place that trains pyschics or something. There's also, weirdly, a ton of fur shops and a really beautiful Gothic church. What there aren't any of are bars and restaurants which is pretty in line with the rest of this area.
The next block is a bunch of fur shops, the old police station where the name The Tenderloin was coined for this part of town, and the current main headquarters for the police traffic control division across the street. This part of town isn't the nicest by any stretch but it's crazy to think that it used to have such an awful rap sheet.
The street through Chelsea pretty much runs its course after that. There's a lot of ups and downs on this street, but in my opinion, there aren't enough ups to make me want to live here. If I did live on 30th, I would probably stay around 8th ave, and I only would if I found a really cool apartment.