New York Guide
The West Village
When the Village Voice, the venerable listings/comment/investigative magazine, began chronicling Greenwich Village nightlife in 1955, "the Village" had a dissident, artistic, vibrant voice. And though it's still one of the more progressive neighborhoods in the city, Greenwich Village (now commonly called the West Village) has attained a moneyed status over the last four decades and is definitely the place for those who have Arrived. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the Voice moved its offices to Cooper Square in the East Village in 1991.)
Celebrities seem to snap up properties right and left, and the historic enclave is booming with development. These famous residents – the likes of Nicole Kidman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, and Cameron Diaz, for example – have come for the same reasons that the intelligentsia did a century ago: quaint sidestreets, charming brownstones, and brick townhouses unrivaled elsewhere in Manhattan. It's quiet and residential, but with a busy streetlife that keeps humming later into the night than in many other parts of the city. Restaurants, cafés, bars, and boutiques clutter most every corner, and Washington Square is a hub of superbly aimless activity throughout the year.
Bounded by 14th Street to the north, Houston Street to the south, the Hudson River to the west, and Broadway to the east, the West Village is easily reached by the #1 train to Christopher Street or the #A, #C, #E, #F, or #V to West 4th Street.