Beauty and Variety vs. Crowds and Costs

LIVING in the West Village has its tradeoffs, just like living anywhere else. On the minus side, there are the tourist buses inching through the neighborhood each day, the near-farcical property prices, the creep of luxury stores up Bleecker Street, the 3 a.m. spillover from bars.

 

But on the plus side?

 

“This block that I live on is one of the most beautiful in the city, actually,” said Albert Bennett, who has been a resident of the same house on Morton Street for 55 years. “It’s the best place in the world to live.”

 

For Mr. Bennett and thousands of others who populate the West Village’s oddly angled street grid, there is a lot to love in the restored 1800s town houses, the ironclad community spirit and the multiplicity of choice in shopping and dining. So much to love, in fact, that residents overlook certain things, as did Howard and Jessica Jamner last year when they spent their first night at One Jackson Square, a new building on Greenwich Avenue. That night happened to be Halloween.

 

“It’s 2 in the morning and we’re looking outside, and it’s utter gridlock,” said Mr. Jamner, who along with his wife is retired. “There’s 20,000 people just in our view outside the building. Jessica turns to me and goes, ‘Do you think it’s going to be like this every night?’ ”

 

It isn’t, of course. Most nights, a stroll down Waverly Place or Charles Street is more serene architectural tour than raucous bar crawl. But the option for either is always there, and the variety of choices in the neighborhood is just what attracted Ben Rubinstein and Cheryl Goldwasser, a couple in their 20s who got engaged on the Christopher Street Pier last November.

 

The housing stock, even at an upper-middle-income level, can be “distressing” in its spareness, Mr. Rubinstein said. The couple rent a 500-square-foot one-bedroom on Christopher Street for $2,700 a month — though they got one free month this year — their second in the neighborhood. And film crews may stop them on the sidewalk to keep them from walking through scenes in production. But the restaurants, the quiet walks, the creative buzz and the waterfront pathways a few blocks away overwhelmingly make up for any drawbacks.

 

“The fact is, you take the tradeoffs,” Mr. Rubinstein said. “It comes with the territory. I’d rather live in an interesting place.”

 

WHAT YOU’LL FIND

 

As evidenced by requests for directions from camera-toting tourists, Manhattan’s straightforward grid of avenues and streets meets defeat in the West Village. But newcomers should rest assured that a place where West Fourth and West 10th Streets intersect eventually begins to make sense.

 

“One does learn, somehow,” said Mr. Bennett, the Morton Street resident, who also heads his block association. “It’s osmosis.”

 

Adding up the tracts between the Far West Village, on the other side of Hudson Street, and the Avenue of the Americas, 2000 census data found that it has 24,110 residents (though that number will probably change after this year’s count). It is a population packed mostly into a varied collection of 19th-century town houses, though apartment buildings do occasionally show up, especially at the neighborhood’s edges.

 

Hudson Street, Seventh Avenue and Avenue of the Americas are all commercial strips, though there is commerce on those curving interior streets as well. Bleecker Street moves from Murray’s Cheese and Faicco’s Pork Store, near Avenue of the Americas, to Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren heading north toward Hudson, a transition that irks those who desire more local businesses. West Fourth Street has its own shops, as do Carmine and many others.

 

Nearly all of the northern half of the neighborhood, and much of the southern, is governed by the regulations of the Greenwich Village Historic District, one of the city’s first, dating to the 1960s. Today, an extension to the district is being considered; the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission said a vote should occur this summer. Residents are watching closely.

 

“It is zealously defended,” said David Gruber, the president of the Carmine Street Block Association, speaking of the neighborhood’s historic character. “It’s the legacy we have to pass on to the next generation.”

 

This protection means new construction is mostly unheard of, yet the One Jackson Square building, named for the small park it overlooks, recently welcomed its first residents. And near the neighborhood’s southern border, a new development called the Townhomes of Downing Street is under construction.

 

One issue that brought residents together in protest recently is St. Vincent’s Hospital, which closed its doors on April 30. An urgent-care facility is to open on its site, but residents say the subtraction of the hospital and all of its services represents a major loss for the neighborhood.

 

WHAT YOU’LL PAY

 

The story of property in the West Village is one of inventory, or the lack thereof. From a recent analysis of the market, Mike Lubin, a vice president of Brown Harris Stevens, found that there were just two apartments of two bedrooms or more in full-service buildings for under $3 million, and only eight town houses under $7 million.

 

“You always hear about little inventory,” Mr. Lubin said, “but when you assign a real number to it, it’s shocking. I can’t tell you how many times we have buyers and there’s literally nothing to show them.”

 

The resulting effect on prices is evident. Town houses in good condition typically fall within the range of $2,000 to $2,800 per square foot, said Jill Bane, a director of sales at Leslie J. Garfield & Company, pointing out that this was still lower than the $3,500 levels in 2007 and 2008, before the financial crisis.

 

“It’s not sky-high like it was in 2007,” said Alex Nicholas, a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group, “but there are certainly strong numbers.”

 

Ms. Bane sold a house on Bank Street in December for $8.995 million; the house had 5,960 square feet of space and was in need of renovation, she said. Mr. Nicholas sold the Edna St. Vincent Millay house on Bedford Street, known as “the narrowest house in New York” for its nine-and-a-half-foot width, this past winter for $2.175 million. The square footage was about 1,200, he said.

 

The neighborhood has fewer condominiums than co-ops, Mr. Lubin said, adding that with many cost $1,000 to $2,000 a square foot, depending on size and degree of renovation.

 

Since One Jackson Square entered the market in summer 2007, 25 of 30 units have sold, said David Penick, a vice president of Hines, the company that developed the property. Sales have ranged from $1.7 million, for a one-bedroom with 1,200 square feet, to $8 million for a full-floor apartment with a large terrace and 2,700 square feet .

 

One-bedroom rentals in the neighborhood typically cost $2,500 to $3,500 a month, Mr. Lubin said. Two-bedrooms start around $3,000, but the climb can be steep from there.

 

THE SCHOOLS

 

The West Village is stocked with schools, both public and private. At Public School 41 on West 11th Street last year, 98.1 percent of students met standards in math, 95.4 percent in English.

 

Some students are zoned to attend Junior High School 104, the Simon Baruch School, on East 21st. Last year, 86.2 percent of students met standards in math, 76.8 percent in English.

 

Last year at City-as-School, a public high school on Clarkson Street, SAT averages were 491 in reading, 471 in math and 465 in writing, versus 435, 432 and 439 statewide.

 

Private schools include the City and Country School on West 13th, and St. Luke’s School on Hudson.

 

WHAT TO DO

 

Aside from untold numbers of shopping and dining options, there are plenty of neighborly activities like the Charles Street Spring Planting, which just took place last weekend; residents are advised to look to bulletin boards for others. For recreation-seekers without memberships to the area’s multiple gyms, the Hudson River and its well-traveled waterside trails are a short walk away.

 

THE COMMUTE

 

Residents are never far from a subway that can quickly get them to Midtown or the financial district. They can choose from any of the lines along 14th Street, including the A, C, E and L at Eighth Avenue, the 1, 2 and 3 at Seventh Avenue, and the F, V and L (and the PATH train) at Avenue of the Americas. The 1 train also stops at Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue; the B, D, F, V, A, C and E all stop at West Fourth Street and Avenue of the Americas. Finally, the 1 train has a stop at Houston and Varick Streets.

 

THE HISTORY

 

Once a marsh, then farmland, the West Village and environs really only took off as a neighborhood when disease beset the city in the early 19th century. Those who came in search of a place free of cholera and yellow fever decided to build houses and open stores.

 

Please click here to read the article on nytimes.com

 

Copyright © 2010 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.  Photos should be credited as follows: Chester Higgins Jr. /The New York Times.