NEIGHBORHOOD PROFILE: "Someone's in the Kitchen with Satan!"
HELL'S KITCHEN
North of West 34th Street to West 57th Street
West of 8th Avenue to the Hudson River
If your idea of public artwork is chalk outlines of bodies on cracked sidewalks, then you might be disappointed by what you find—or don't find—in the notorious NYC neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. A seething cauldron of thievery, murder, and sleaze from the Civil War until the 1980s—when Giuliani effectively defanged the Irish and Latino gangs responsible for much of the violence—Hell’s Kitchen’s nom de guerre is so well-earned that many New Yorkers are unaware that the neighborhood’s official name is Clinton, dashing many real estate brokers’ hopes that the less colorful, more marketable moniker will ever stick.
Not that anything will ever stick—or unstick—to Hell’s Kitchen that could aversely affect it’s marketability to a wide range of different apartment hunters.
South of West 49th Street, there are lots of studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments in four- and five-floor walk-up tenement buildings and brownstones, and small elevator buildings that appeal to young folks who work in near-by midtown offices or the Theater District and who keep the many neighborhood restaurants, cafes, and bars lively at night.
These low-rise buildings are also home to many third- and fourth-generation blue-collar families who tend to do their inter-neighborhood socializing from their stoops while keeping a watchful eye on their children playing on the sidewalks below. Lack of park space and public schools that perform below the New York State averages for reading and math mean few new families are attracted to Hell’s Kitchen.
North of West 49th Street, newly constructed mid-rise and high-rise residential and mixed-use buildings are sprouting up like glass and steel weeds. These buildings offer studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom luxury condos and rental apartments that are typically dripping with gooey, sweet amenities. Expensive, oui, but with so much space available, developers and management companies make quick with the throw-ins and other pot-sweeteners.
Well at least the name still sounds bad-ass.
North of West 34th Street to West 57th Street
West of 8th Avenue to the Hudson River
If your idea of public artwork is chalk outlines of bodies on cracked sidewalks, then you might be disappointed by what you find—or don't find—in the notorious NYC neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. A seething cauldron of thievery, murder, and sleaze from the Civil War until the 1980s—when Giuliani effectively defanged the Irish and Latino gangs responsible for much of the violence—Hell’s Kitchen’s nom de guerre is so well-earned that many New Yorkers are unaware that the neighborhood’s official name is Clinton, dashing many real estate brokers’ hopes that the less colorful, more marketable moniker will ever stick.
Not that anything will ever stick—or unstick—to Hell’s Kitchen that could aversely affect it’s marketability to a wide range of different apartment hunters.
South of West 49th Street, there are lots of studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments in four- and five-floor walk-up tenement buildings and brownstones, and small elevator buildings that appeal to young folks who work in near-by midtown offices or the Theater District and who keep the many neighborhood restaurants, cafes, and bars lively at night.
These low-rise buildings are also home to many third- and fourth-generation blue-collar families who tend to do their inter-neighborhood socializing from their stoops while keeping a watchful eye on their children playing on the sidewalks below. Lack of park space and public schools that perform below the New York State averages for reading and math mean few new families are attracted to Hell’s Kitchen.
North of West 49th Street, newly constructed mid-rise and high-rise residential and mixed-use buildings are sprouting up like glass and steel weeds. These buildings offer studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom luxury condos and rental apartments that are typically dripping with gooey, sweet amenities. Expensive, oui, but with so much space available, developers and management companies make quick with the throw-ins and other pot-sweeteners.
Well at least the name still sounds bad-ass.
Labels: CULTURE, NEIGHBORHOODS
posted by Yannie at
9:59 AM
1 Comments
