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Transportation, transportation, transportation. It's all about the trains. The UWS is simply better connected (at least until the Second Avenue line is finished, and heaven knows when that will be).
Also, there are really two Upper East Sides: West of Lexington and East of Lexington. The West is ultra-rich, i.e., Park and Fifth Avenues. The East is much less affluent. Prices are lower because it's not as architecturally distinguished and transportation is poor. It's actually one of the more affordable parts of Manhattan.
I think others have said it in different ways and it takes in a lot of factors but my feeling is that the UES is pretty boring.I have lived in both areas and this has been true for as long as I can remember. I find the architecture,the street life and the variety of everything much more interesting(stimulating) on the UWS. Late in the evening,holidays and summer weekends the UES feels like a ghost town.
Ok .. that's a bit of an exaggeration.
UWS was always a lot of fun even when it was grittier. Visiting and living there are 2 different things. I don't know about living there and if it still attracts the same type of people. When I was younger in college, I used to work in one the famous supermarkets, they have locations on the East and West side.
Working in the West side while having younger trendier customers, they were snobbier. Even the older customers made it a point to let you know what their job titles were, and which buildings they lived in. If they were friendly it was usually because they were shoplifting. I'm referring to the regular customers that lived in the neighborhood.
On the East side while being kind of boring, and having a more mature, affluent group of people, that appeared kind of stuffy. They were actually kinder, more courteous, and down to earth, making a point to say something positive when ever they saw you. I'm also referring to the regular customers that lived in the neighborhood.
UWS was always a lot of fun even when it was grittier. Visiting and living there are 2 different things. I don't know about living there and if it still attracts the same type of people. When I was younger in college, I used to work in one the famous supermarkets, they have locations on the East and West side.
Working in the West side while having younger trendier customers, they were snobbier. Even the older customers made it a point to let you know what their job titles were, and which buildings they lived in. If they were friendly it was usually because they were shoplifting. I'm referring to the regular customers that lived in the neighborhood.
On the East side while being kind of boring, and having a more mature, affluent group of people, that appeared kind of stuffy. They were actually kinder, more courteous, and down to earth, making a point to say something positive when ever they saw you. I'm also referring to the regular customers that lived in the neighborhood.
This is pretty accurate. There are always exceptions, but as a generalization:
The Western Upper East Side is old money and the super rich (billionaires like Bloomberg). It also has a lot of official residences for UN ambassadors and very expensive hotels.
The Upper West Side has a lot of trendy, very highly compensated, Yuppies with children. It also has a lot of "born in Manhattan" people. Both groups tend to be rather snobby.
The Eastern Upper East Side tends to have younger people starting out in investment banking or law. They have money, but not the kids and obsession with groceries that Upper West Siders have. The neighborhood also has a lot of older people who moved to the city when they were young, but who were not born here.
This reflects the social history of the island. The rich have always lived near Fifth Avenue. They wanted to be as far from the docks as possible so they congregated in the center of the island. Over the course of the 19th century they slowly moved up Fifth Avenue from Washington Square to where they are today in the 70s.
The Upper West Side has some grand buildings, but was known as a very middle-class neighborhood in the 20th century. Everyone I know who was born in Manhattan had a grandmother who lived on the UWS. Large parts of it were quite dangerous until the 1980s and later.
A lot of people who moved to the city in the 1970s and 80s went to the Upper East Side because it was comparatively safe (which was the biggest priority in those days). Lots of those people, now in their 40s and 50s, still have those apartments. There was also a lot of new construction during the 70s and 80s. I think many of those buildings are looking a little tired now.
These are the oldest housing patterns left in Manhattan. Of course, now you have rich people in Tribeca and places like the Lower East Side and the East Village are very gentrified, but they are a much more recent trend.
I'd add that the UWS had a big Jewish population and still does. The UWS got very slummy in the 1950s and '60s in the middle, in the blocks either side of Amsterdam, and as a result the city undertook big urban renewal projects in the west 90s for new housing and in the 60s to build Lincoln Center. Upper East between Lexington and Fifth was exclusive, meaning very Protestant and no Jews. Even today, the high society churches are on the east side or on Fifth Ave in the 50s. In the days of the Third Avenue elevated, east of Lex was mostly working class and Catholic, German around 86th and who knows what elsewhere-- but lots of the blocks were of the new law and old law tenement type of construction. After the el was removed, many of those were demolished for new white brick buildings for a more affluent clientele.
.....I'd add that the UWS had a big Jewish population and still does....... Upper East between Lexington and Fifth was exclusive, meaning very Protestant and no Jews......
Are you kidding ? This is New York City.No Jews on the Upper East Side ?
Why do you think they built Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue ? Just to PO the goyim ?
Are you kidding ? This is New York City.No Jews on the Upper East Side ?
Why do you think they built Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue ? Just to PO the goyim ?
You may be right about Temple Emanu-El! And maybe no Jews on the UES is too strong, but there was much discrimination, and from what I understand Jews built their mansions on Riverside Drive instead, and as coops came in (1920 or so) the pattern continued of Jews going to the west side, wealthy ones and not so wealthy.
I'd add that the UWS had a big Jewish population and still does ... Upper East between Lexington and Fifth was exclusive, meaning very Protestant and no Jews. Even today, the high society churches are on the east side or on Fifth Ave in the 50s. In the days of the Third Avenue elevated, east of Lex was mostly working class and Catholic, German around 86th and who knows what elsewhere
Yes, the UWS always had a large middle-and-upper-class Jewish population, focused on or near Riverside Drive.
The UES originally was dominated by moneyed Protestants, west of Lexington; plus (east of Lex) blue-collar Catholics -- mostly Germans and Czechs (many of whom worked for the Ruppert Brewery, which was where the Ruppert Towers now stand on Second Ave.), with a smattering of Irish and Italians.
The UES had distinct "class" splits, with rich and poor separated by Park/Lexington Aves., the brewery, and subway stations. But the UWS was more middle-class-neighborhoody, and its street grid and subways facilitated mixing.
Both UES and UWS are an ethnically/religiously mixed bag now, each has tons of synagogues and churches, and the differences are mostly lifestyle-related. The UES is corporate/yuppie and homogeneous, with more conspicuous upper-income trappings. The UWS has more variety and rough edges, and less obvious moneyedness (though it's also a moneyed area).
If you just dropped into these neighborhoods from Mars: On the UWS, you'd automatically feel as if you fit in. On the UES, you'd feel more like a "visitor."
The UWS seems like a place I would like. Is it any less expensive than other parts of Manhattan since it's more isolated or is it more expensive because its is more detached from the busy business centers of Midtown and Lower Manhattan?
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