Manhattan
Manhattan, heart of New York listed below are its most important districts:

  Wall Street and the Financial District
Wall Street, holds tradition and history along with investment banks which coexist with a prominent identifying feature of a landscape such as Trinity Church. Battery Park captures peoples attention. 

  Harlem
A section of New York City in northern Manhattan bordering on the Harlem and East rivers. Peter Stuyvesant established the Dutch settlement of Nieuw Haarlem here in 1658. A rapid influx of African Americans beginning c. 1910 made it one of the largest Black communities in the United States. In the 1920s a flowering of African-American art and literature was known as the Harlem Renaissance. After World War II many Hispanics settled in East (or Spanish) Harlem.



  Greenwich Village

The Village (as New Yorkers call it) is one of the city's most popular neighborhoods, and a symbol throughout the world for all things outlandish and bohemian. The area's reputation as a creative enclave can be traced back to at least the early 1900s, when artists and writers moved in, followed by jazz musicians who played at famous (still functioning) clubs like the Blue Note and Village Vanguard. By the '40s the neighborhood was known as a gathering place for gays. The coffeehouses on Bleecker St hark back to New York's beatnik '50s and hippie '60s. Bob Dylan reputedly smoked his first joint in the Village, Jimi Hendrix lived here and the Rolling Stones recorded here. Greenwich Village is still a vibrant and varied area, packed with historic sites, cafes, shops, gay bars, and Washington Square Park, purportedly the most crowded recreational space in the world. New York University students gather in Washington Square Park and a diverse array of shops, bars and music clubs exist along Bleecker Street.


  East Village
Long a poor, multi-ethnic neighborhood, for the last 20 years artists, students and yuppies have gone a long way towards gentrifying the neighborhood. Today, the artistic spirit that initially brought about change remains evident. Urban gardens and art exhibits sit beside cafes, craft shops and vegetarian restaurants.

  Soho & Tribeca
SoHo (from 'south of Houston') is the city's leading area for art galleries, clothing stores and boutiques selling oh-so-precious curios. The area is a paradigm of inadvertent urban renewal, having transmogrified from the city's leading commercial district post-Civil War, to a tuned-in artists colony in the 1950s, to the impossibly expensive gorgeousness of today. Its beautifully restored cast-iron buildings are some of the best examples of this style in the world. Some cutting edge cats (self-styled, of course) say it's all over for SoHo - too self-conscious, too trendy, too pricey - but the galleries are undeniably good and no-one's forcing you to buy autographed tea-cosies from hustler-designers with wares to sell.

  Lower East Side
The latest neighborhood to receive the Soho treatment, it is hard to believe that this area once housed some of the city's worst slums. Today, rents are rising and yuppies have arrived. The historic Orchard Street Shopping District operates among hip bars and nightclubs.

  Chinatown
The beauty of the market and the restaurants, make you not want to leave, the bargains on any article you are looking for is one of the best features of this place.

  Little Italy
The best of the Italian cuisine, hundreds of restaurants with the original touch of Italy. The Feast of San Gennaro still welcomes its throngs, but the neighborhood is fast being surrounded by nearby Chinatown.

  Gramercy and Flatiron
The majestic Flatiron Building lords over this beautiful, eclectic district marked by loft spaces to the west and pre-war residences to the east. More than a century after their construction, the apartment buildings and townhouses around Gramercy Park remain coveted addresses.

Chelsea
Once a working class community, it recently became a posh address. As rents in Greenwich Village rose, the vibrant gay community moved upwards to occupy Chelsea's many brownstones and loft spaces. Others followed, and today it reflects New York's ethnic and cultural diversity.

  Meat Packing District
Chelsea's energy was bound to spill downward into this former industrial wasteland. Now, some of the city's hottest destinations occupy spaces once reserved for slaughtered meat. First, Hogs & Heifers made redneck chic. Then, alternative nightspots like Mother and the Cooler opened.

  Midtown
As the name implies, Midtown is smack in the middle of everything. Nobody is really sure where Midtown begins (most would say somewhere in the 30s), but most agree it stops around Central Park. Publishing houses, financial firms, import/export companies and fashion houses all do business here. Trump Tower entices shoppers, along with all those glorious stores along Fifth Avenue. Ice skaters twirl at Rockefeller Center and the spectacular St. Patrick's Cathedral offers serenity and spirituality.

  Times Square & Hell's Kitchen
Many New Yorkers miss the almost-gone seediness of Times Square, as Disney Store has replaced sex shops and strip clubs. However, most people begrudgingly admit that it is better this way. Visitors adore everything from souvenir shops to enormous billboards and Broadway musicals. A few blocks west lies Hell's Kitchen, a community filled with eclectic restaurants, bars and shops.

  Upper East Side
Park, Fifth and Madison have always been posh avenues. Whether in the gilded mansions of yesterday or the area's hi-rise modern apartments, old money and high society have long made their home here. Consequently, shops to serve them line Madison Avenue, while Baby Gap coexists with art galleries and antique shops. Further east, new money has overtaken the old Yorkville slum.

  Upper West Side
When the co-ops of the East Side were freer to restrict residents, the Upper West Side became home to new money. Then, as "modernist" Eastsiders tore down their pre-war palaces, Upper West Side residents kept their old buildings. Thirty years later, renters value the neighborhood's attractive real estate. Meanwhile, bars and restaurants catering to Long Island and New Jersey folk (a.k.a. the Bridge and Tunnels crowd) continue to sprout like weeds along Columbus and Amsterdam avenues.


  Brooklyn
A borough in southeast New York on western Long Island. Dutch colonists first settled the area in 1636 and 1637 and in 1645 established the hamlet of Breuckelen near the present-day site of Borough Hall. Renamed Brooklyn by the English, the expanded community became part of Greater New York City in 1898. Population: 2,300,664.This massive borough stretches from festive Coney Island to elegant Brooklyn Heights. But wherever Brooklynites hail from, they remain a largely proud lot. They can boast of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden the gorgeous bridge that bears the borough's name, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and a growing restaurant scene. Some are even proud of their accent.


  Queens
From Flushing to Astoria, Queens is experiencing a quiet renaissance, as refugees from Manhattan's high rents continue to discover what this working-class borough offers its residents. Inexpensive ethnic restaurants pepper the borough. Queens is also home to the Kaufman Astoria Studio and the American Museum of the Moving Image.


  The Bronx
A borough of New York City in southeast New York on the mainland north of Manhattan. The Bronx was first settled by Jonas Bronck (died c. 1643), a Dane in the service of the Dutch West India Company, and became part of Greater New York in 1898. Population: 1,203,789.  This borough boasts the Yankees, one of the nation's finest zoos and an extraordinary Botanical Garden. Alas, poverty continues to exist, but recently such areas as the South Bronx have benefited from the current economic boom.


  Staten Island
A borough of New York City coextensive with Staten Island in New York Bay in southeast New York southwest of Manhattan Island. First visited by Henry Hudson in 1609, the island was permanently settled in the mid-1600s and became part of New York City in 1898. The borough name was officially changed in April 1975, although the island still constitutes the county of Richmond. Population: 378,977