Talibah Newman - New York Real Estate Agent

HarlemA Mecca for African-American culture and life for more than a century, Harlem started out as Nieuw Haarlem, a prosperous Dutch farming settlement. By the turn of the 20th century, black New Yorkers started moving uptown into Harlem's apartment buildings and town houses. The neighborhood prospered and by the 1920s, Harlem had become the most famous black community in the United States, perhaps in the whole world. The Harlem Renaissance, generally regarded as occuring between 1919 and 1929, was Harlem's golden era, when local writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, and Ralph Ellison achieved literary recognition. The Depression hit hard here, but happily, today the neighborhood is well on the way to new glory days: Young people and families are moving into the newly restored brownstone and limestone buildings, and the combination of architectural treasures, crackling vitality (even Bill Clinton chose Harlem for his post-presidential office!), great music and culture, and honest-to-goodness, lip-smacking soul food make Harlem a must-see destination. Harlem is safe to explore on your own but there are a number of tour companies that will happily show you around.



ChinatownSouth of Canal Street lies bustling Chinatown, which has over the years expanded into the Lower East Side and Little Italy. The largest Asian community in North America can be found among the narrow streets between Worth and Hester and East Broadway and West Broadway; its main street is Canal Street. Within these boundaries, you'll find traditional Chinese herbal-medicine shops, acupuncturists, food markets filled with amazing varieties of fish and exotic vegetables, funky pagoda-style buildings, stores selling all manner of items from beautiful jewelry and silk robes to hair accessories and plumbing parts, and hundreds of restaurants serving every imaginable type of Chinese cuisine, from dim sum to fried noodles to extravagant Cantonese, Hunan, Mandarin, or Szechuan banquets. The many signs in Chinese, the music pouring into the streets from open windows, the delicious smells from the restaurants, noodle shops and tea houses packed side by side, and the sound of the language swirling around you make it easy to feel like you've flown half way around the world in the short time it took to get downtown. Although the neighborhood is known for its excellent Chinese cuisine, perhaps one of its more secret highlights is the Eastern States Buddhist Temple on Mott Street. Step inside - your spirit will be refreshed and your eyes will be delighted by the sight of 100 golden Buddhas shimmering in the candlelight. Frequent festivals and parades (especially during the January and February Chinese New Year celebrations, when paper puppet dragons, firecrackers, and beating drums rule the streets!), as well as the galleries and curio shops create a glorious celebration of Chinese culture.

East VillageDuring the 19th century, millionaires like the Astors and Vanderbilts had homes in East Village, but the waves of Irish, German, Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian immigrants who flooded into New York City in the 1900s soon displaced the elite, who moved uptown.

Since then, the area has been home to the Beat generation of the 1950s, hippies in the 1960s, and punks in the late 1970s and 1980s. Today it's still a young person's neighborhood, with its experimental music clubs and theaters and cutting-edge fashion. New York University is in the area, so there's no shortage of clientele here. Foodies take note: this neighborhood reputedly contains the most varied assortment of ethnic restaurants in New York City, from the crush of Indian eateries on the south side of East Sixth Street (sometimes called "Little Bombay") to McSorley's Old Ale House, a pub that seems unchanged since it first opened in 1854. Nearby, in what was once the home of the Astor Library, the restored Public Theater has been the opening venue for many now-famous plays.

For more trend-setting street life, head east toward Alphabet City (named for avenues A, B, C, and D)- still a little rough around the edges but with many reasonably priced, fun, and gamut-running places to eat, drink, and shop…and, if you're really getting into the scene, some very cool tattoo parlors.

A haven from the pressure of classes at New York University, students regularly gather around the Alamo at Astor Place. The Alamo is a 15-ft (4.5m) steel cube designed by Bernard Rosenthal that revolves when pushed. Cooper Union, a school that holds many interesting public lectures and exhibits, was established in 1859 just in time for Abraham Lincoln to make a campaign speech in its auditorium. Today, Blue Man Group performs its popular Tubes Off-Broadway audience-participation performance art extravaganza at the Astor Place Theater.



Greenwich Village Downtown charm is personified in lots of low-rise townhouses, thumbnail size gardens, secret courtyards, and a wacky serpentine layout of streets. Washington Square Park and the rows of townhouses around it with charming alleys behind them are all frozen in time. The park, with its arch famous from much movie exposure, is the heart of the Village. This 9 ½ -acre park at the foot of Fifth Avenue is an oasis and circus combined, where skate boarders, jugglers, stand-up comics, sitters, strollers, sweethearts, chess players, fortune tellers, and daydreamers converge and commune. Washington Mews and Mac Dougal Alley are quiet cobblestone lanes right off the square. Legendary streets such as McDougal, Astor Place, and Bleecker (famous Beat and hippie hangouts) are lined with super-hip boutiques, delis displaying esoteric beers from around the globe, and cafes and restaurants of all stripes. It makes sense that New York University is in the Village, an area that has been home to some of the world's most famous writers and artists including Henry James, Edith Wharton, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Eugene O'Neill, Norman Rockwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Beat writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. At night, Greenwich Village comes alive with sounds from late-night coffeehouses, cafés, experimental theaters, and music clubs. Bars and restaurants ad infinitum serve everything from cranberry martinis and celestial sushi to pita-wrapped shwarma. Searching for the soul of the Beat generation? At fabled coffeehouses like Caffe Reggio and Café Figaro, you can order a double espresso or cappuccino and pretend for a few minutes that you're Allen Ginsberg, Jack Keruouac, or William Burroughs. The Village is home to a large community of gays and lesbians. Across 7th Avenue is Christopher Street, site of a historic clash (in front of the Stonewall bar) in 1969 between city police and gay men, marking the beginning of the gay rights movement.

The Lower East SideThis is New York's landmark historic Jewish neighborhood, which was once the world's largest Jewish community. It was here that the New York garment industry began. Today it is one of New York's favorite bargain beats, where serious shoppers find fantastic bargains (especially along Orchard Street on a Sunday afternoon), cutting-edge new designers, and hot bars and music venues - and possibly the best place to get a great pastrami sandwich, pickles out of a barrel, and the world's best bialys. Try Katz's Delicatessen (205 East Houston St.), the oldest and largest real NY deli, founded in 1888.

Bounded by Houston Street, Canal Street, and the FDR Drive, the neighborhood's center is Orchard Street. Once a Jewish wholesale enclave, this street is a true multicultural blend, with trendy boutiques, French cafés, and velvet-roped nightspots sprinkled among dry-goods discounters, Spanish bodegas, and mom-and-pop shops selling everything from T-shirts to designer fashions to menorahs. Orchard is lined with small shops purveying clothing and shoes at great prices. Grand, Orchard, and Delancey Streets are treasure troves for linens, towels, and other housewares, and the traditional Sunday street vendors (Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, is observed by many shopkeepers as a day of rest) offer great opportunities to hone your bargaining skills! At Shapiro's Winery visitors can taste one of their 32 flavors of wine, and at Streit's bakery, matzoh mavens can sample the freshly baked unleavened bread as it rolls off the conveyor belts behind the counter.

MidtownMidtown is the center of many visitors' trips to New York City. The beautifully restored Grand Central Terminal is paces away from the Chrysler Building, the United Nations complex, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Trump Tower. There's the fascinating Morgan Library and the awesome New York Public Library, both of which have changing exhibitions. Behind the public library is the lovely Bryant Park, which hosts free movies and music events in summer. And what says New York better than Fifth Avenue stores? Midtown also includes the new, revitalized Times Square and the Theater District, where world-famous Broadway productions wow audiences nightly. Have a drink at a forty-foot guitar-shaped bar and gaze at memorabilia from your favorite rock stars at the Hard Rock Cafe. Explore pop culture and history in Madame Tussaud's where over 200 celebrities provide you with the interactive experience of a lifetime. The Museum of Modern Art, a midtown attraction now back in a larger renovated space, showcases the best in contemporary art. For more museums, check out the Museum of Television and Radio the Intrepid Sea Air Craft Museum, the American Craft Museum. Music aficionados can visit Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. Make sure to stop by NYC's Official Visitor's Center (810 Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets) to speak with travel counselors and pick up free brochures and discount coupons. The Diamond District is on 47th Street but if you'd rather invest in art, explore the galleries along 57th Street.

Union Square, Flatiron District, Gramercy Park

Union Square Park, the staging ground for numerous historic rallies, demonstrations and gatherings hosts a popular Green Market that brings fresh produce to the city’s inhabitants. During the holiday season, the southern end of the Park becomes the Union Square Holiday Market. One of the best places in the City to people-watch year round; you can review the never-ending parade of people AND surf the net! Bring your computer to Union Square and log onto the Internet (for free!) through the wireless node.

In this neighborhood are some of the city's trendiest restaurants lining Park Avenue South up to 23rd Street. Madison Square, the site of the original Madison Square Garden, is dominated by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower and the Flatiron Building (20-stories and triangular). It was once the end of "ladies mile," the city's most fashionable shopping district along Broadway and Sixth Avenue; this area still has great shopping. To its east is Gramercy Park, a small, fenced park acessible only to residents of its surrounding townhouses. Theodore Roosevelt was born in this neighborhood.

New York’s fourth busiest subway stop makes this 24-hour community easily accessible by the N, R, 4, 5, 6, and L lines.

Upper West Side

Broadway, brownstones, books, and some of the city's best bagels... the Upper West Side extends north from Columbus Circle at 59th Street up to 110th Street, and is bordered by Central Park West and Riverside Park. The Upper West Side is separated from the Upper East Side by Central Park. This is the traditional stronghold of the city's intellectual, creative, and moneyed community, but the atmosphere is not as upper crust as the Upper East Side.

Elegant, pre-war buildings along the boulevards of Broadway, West End Avenue, Riverside Drive, and Central Park West meet shady, quiet streets lined with brownstones. Much of the area is protected by landmark status, and the neighborhood's restored townhouses and high-priced co-op apartments are coveted by actors, young professionals, and young families.

The Upper West Side boasts an impressive list of "firsts": The oldest Baptist congregation in the U.S. (founded 1753; First Baptist Church, Broadway and 79th St.); the oldest Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in New York (established 1654; Congregation Shearith Israel, Central Park West and 70th St.); the world's largest bible collection (American Bible Society, with 37,000 items); the first fireproof building in NYC (122 West 78th St., built by Rafael Guastavino in 1883); the oldest school in the U.S. (Collegiate School, West End Avenue and 77th St.; founded 1628); and the world's largest carillon (the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon, in Riverside Church, and the largest tuned bell, the "Bourdon").

Upper East Side

From the edge of Central Park at 59th Street to the top of Museum Mile at El Museo Del Barrio at 105th Street, this is the city's Gold Coast. The neighborhood air is perfumed with the scent of old money, conservative values, and glamorous sophistication, with Champagne corks popping and high society puttin' on the Ritz.

On the corner of Lexington and 59th Street is Bloomingdale's - one of the NYC shopping icons, a beloved sanctuary for stylish consumers. Experience unique shopping at Dylan's Candy Bar (1011 Third Avenue, 646-735-0078) with more than 5,000 candies, M&Ms, gift baskets, scented spa items, chocolate bar soaps, bubble gum bath fizz, novelty candies, lollipops and more. On Madison Avenue , window shopping can be intoxicating: so many tempting boutiques, so many famous names to flaunt on everything from socks to shoes to satin sheets to chocolates. Searching for unique hard to find gifts for the home? Gracious Home (1220, 1217, 1201 Third Avenue, 212-517-6300, www.gracioushome.com) showcases a wide array of luxury items including dazzling French crystal finials and more.

Between Lexington and Madison Avenues, Park Avenue is an oasis of calm with wide streets meant for strolling, lovely architecture, and a median strip that sprouts tulips in season and sculptures at other times of the year. Railroad tracks ran in this median before World War I. This grand street stretching down to midtown is one of our city's most coveted residential addresses.



SoHo and TriBeCa Within only a quarter of a square mile, SoHo has an estimated 250 art galleries, four museums, nearly 200 restaurants, and 100 stores. The blocks south of Houston (pronounced HOW-ston) and north of Canal streets are home to the city's largest concentration of the cast-iron fronted buildings, built as warehouses and manufacturing spaces, but converted to living spaces, called "lofts," for artists and sculptors who appreciated the larger spaces. These huge, 19th-century architectural gems (Victorian Gothic, Italianiate, and neo-Grecian among them) are prized by preservationists and the well-heeled bohemians of SoHo who call the neighborhood home. The New York Fire Museum on Spring Street displays a nostalgic and inspirational collection of hand-pulled and horse-drawn apparatus, engines, sliding poles, uniforms and fireboat equipment from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. promotes an appreciation and understanding of the world's most popular art form through exhibits, lectures, and special events that showcase cartoonists’ and animators’ work, while documenting their artistic, historical, and cultural impact. Canal Jeans Company sells authenic Levi's, cutting-edge shoes, and sportswear at discount prices; The Scholastic Store sells Scholastic brands including Clifford the Big Red Dog and Harry Potter - in an interactive, multimedia environment; and the Franklin 54 Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery exhibiting established and emerging artists. If you work up an appetite after all the shopping, head to the Cub Room or Zoe for dinner, and afterwards to S.O.B.'s (Sounds of Brazil) for a little samba, or the SoHo Grand Hotel for a drink in an international and sophosticated environment.