Domain pays a visit to Manly and asks some tough questions.
You’ve booked your flights and are ready to experience New York City like a local. So, where do you stay?
If in doubt, your preferences at home could help you decide. Sydney and New York may be very different places, but several of our inner-city suburbs bear striking similarities to neighbourhoods in NYC.
Like Sydneysiders, New Yorkers are a tribal bunch, and each NYC neighbourhood has a distinct cultural flavour and demographic profile. Choose your vacation base wisely and your entire experience will likely be elevated.
A view of the Manhattan skyline. Photo: Mike Hewitt
The Lower East Side, NYC. Photo: Jessica Hromas
Lower East Side
If you like: Redfern
It has always been one of Manhattan’s grittiest locales, and the partial gentrification of recent years has done little to soften the Lower East Side’s rough edges. There is still a diverse mix of residents, including many public housing tenants and numerous young workers – but you’ll also find a growing number of art galleries and upscale boutiques along the infamous Bowery thoroughfare, which was once home to iconic dive bar CBGB.
There are those who say the Lower East Side, like Redfern, has grown duller as it has become cleaner. But others point to improved street safety and less drug dealing as evidence that it has become a better place to live.
Greenwich Village
If you like: Newtown
The Village, as it’s known, has long been dominated by New York University, which continues to buy up real estate in the area (much like the University of Sydney is doing in Newtown). Greenwich Village was also a haven for artists and bohemians in the mid-20th century, and much of that heritage still remains in the form of jazz clubs, bookstores and atmospheric coffee shops.
Today, the terrace houses (or brownstones) of the neighbourhood are some of the most valuable in the city, and all but a few of the poets and actors who once lived here have moved on. But the continued presences of students keeps the food affordable and the culture lively.
The Williamsburg Bridge is seen from a window of the former Domino Sugar Factory refinery building in Brooklyn. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
Williamsburg
If you like: Surry Hills
When apartment prices in downtown Manhattan rose dramatically during the 1990s, many of its poor artistic residents caught the L Train across the East River and started afresh in Williamsburg, a waterfront neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Williamsburg’s recent history echoes the story of Surry Hills: what was once a solidly working-class area has now become one of the city’s most hyped hot spots, bursting with achingly hip bars, on-trend restaurants and all manner of independent clothes boutiques.
Narrow streets and low-rise buildings give the place a village vibe, and although traces of the old Williamsburg remain (for example,. a small Hasidic Jewish population), the neighbourhood seems reborn.
Upper East Side
If you like: Woollahra and Double Bay
Elegant, old-fashioned and seriously affluent, the Upper East Side has long been the neighbourhood of choice for New York’s high-society families. Like Woollahra and Double Bay, the vibe is strongly residential, and there is little of the late-night buzz that defines many neighbourhoods further downtown. But the UES, as it’s known, still feels like an inner-city locale, close to iconic Central Park and within easy reach of Midtown (New York’s CBD).
Madison Avenue offers some of the best boutique shopping in the city, with heritage luxury brands particularly well represented. You’ll find outposts of Armani and Laduree both in Woollahra and on the UES.
Miranda Kerr out in West Village. Photo: Robert Kamau
West Village
If you like: Paddington
Greenwich Village’s westerly neighbour feels far removed from the New York bustle. Its cobblestone streets are lined with old brownstones, none of which rise more than a few stories. Over the decades, the neighbourhood has been home to a large gay population, a cohort of authors and playwrights, the protagonist of Sex and the City and, in recent years, some of the city’s biggest celebrities. (The makeup of Paddington has, of course, gone through similar changes.)
But the architecture and enclosed nature of both neighbourhoods means that, no matter how glamorous they become, the West Village and Paddington will always retain a certain low-key charm.