Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The west side around penn station, the port authority, Hell’s Kitchen & Chelsea has a lot more shady characters, homeless, drug addicts, weirdos etc. than over by areas like Madison and Lexington Avenue. Why does the east side managed to stay so sanitized and free of that element while the west side remains kind of gritty?
Midtown West is bland + grimy, I don't like that area at all except for the Far West side. My uncle used to live on 34th and 11th and I don't mind that area, it feels more like regular New York as opposed to a neverending strea of tourists and commuters
The west side around penn station, the port authority, Hell’s Kitchen & Chelsea has a lot more shady characters, homeless, drug addicts, weirdos etc. than over by areas like Madison and Lexington Avenue. Why does the east side managed to stay so sanitized and free of that element while the west side remains kind of gritty?
Madison, 5th and Park has some of the most expensive real estate not just in NYC but in the country. 5th Avenue is neither east nor west technically though, but after 5th Avenue in terms of real estate prices, it is Park and Madison Avenues. You have a lot of old money there and Park has lots of financial institutions. My office is nearby Park and I often go to networking events on Park Avenue, and have for years. It just wouldn't be tolerated. 6th Avenue is sort of the buffer and also has lots of financial institutions that are clients and 6th is relatively good. After that 7th can be iffy in parts.
Remember that for decades West 42nd street, Times Square, and the 7th and 8th Avenue corridors down pen station where hooker/porn/drug central. Subsequently, a lot of that area has been redeveloped, but pockets of seediness remain. Some of it is because it became traditional for the low life class to hang out there, and the NYPD hasn't been able to permanently chase them away. And there was always the Irish gang element in Hell's Kitchen.
None of this happened on the east side.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HellUpInHarlem
office buildings galore. which makes it drab. Midtown west it’s more concentrated to 6th ave and Broadway
West Side of Manhattan from really Tribeca/Soho area right up through Chelsea and Far West Side (Hell's Kitchen), was industrial, commercial, and had tons of shipping. The latter more so after city closed all east river docks and moved everything onto west side.
As such you were naturally going to get in some areas more grit. Before the elevated RR (the High Line) trains ran right down Eleventh Avenue (aka the Avenue of Death).
Yes, people lived there, and also yes you had pockets of nice middle and above class housing. But overall west side below Lincoln Square was always seen as a bit too commercial and louche for many.
Also as the city moved north every generation or so mid-town west became center of tourism (hotels etc...), entertainment (theater district, arts, etc..). When city began to slide down hill all those former legit many of those old movie and legit theaters turned to porn. You also had prostitution (which was really at one time all over the city) become centered in mid-town west.
Mid-town east was a different matter.
Where once were tanneries and other industry slowly gave way to housing for middle and upper classes.
Watch some old television series or films such as "The Naked City" to see what mid-town east looked like late as the 1950's or so. Still plenty of old tenements and row houses still standing. They were eventually demolished and land redeveloped for office towers or other housing.
Large parts of the east side right up through the 50's were slums that got cleared out.
Check out film "The Glass Wall" which was filmed on location in NYC during early 1950's. It is set on east side in the 40's/50's and shows the United Nations under construction and what the area looked like as urban renewal was changing things over there.
Finally one huge reason mid-town west developed as it did was socio-economic and racial. Area was just too close to Hell's Kitchen which was a slum and ghetto filled with persons many better (ok, white) New Yorkers didn't want anything to do with. Irish, blacks, Latino... Then there was the crime.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
