Alphabet City, formerly considered a slum, is now a trendy part of the East Village in lower Manhattan, New York City. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bordered by Houston Street to the south and 14th Street to the north. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Stuyvesant Town housing project. Alphabet City is considered by many to be the first Manhattan neighborhood, post-1960s, to be gentrified beyond recognition. Looking south from 6th Street down Second Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares through the East Village. ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ... Houston Street is a large thoroughfare running east - west through the downtown area of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, one block south of 1st Street. ... Tompkins Square Park is a 10. ... The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a New York City performance venue, best known for slam poetry, but also presenting theater, stand-up comedy, Latin jazz, hip-hop performance, and screenplay readings, the café is a non-profit organization. ... Stuyvesant Town as well as the adjacent Peter Cooper Village is a large residential development on the East Side of Manhattan. ... Public housing describes a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. ... This once impoverished part of Jersey Citys historic downtown is quickly becoming gentrified. ...

Avenue C was designated Loisaida Avenue in recognition of Puerto Rican heritage of the neighborhood

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Early history

Like many other neighborhoods on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Alphabet City has been home to a succession of different immigrant groups over the years. In the 1840s and 1850s, much of present day Alphabet City was known as "Kleindeutschland" or “Little Germany”. By the mid 19th Century, many claimed New York to be the third largest German-speaking city in the world, after Berlin and Vienna, with most of those German speakers residing in and around Alphabet City. In fact, Kleindeutschland is considered to be the first substantial non-Anglophone ethnic enclave in United States history. The corner of Orchard and Rivington Streets, Lower East Side (2005) The Lower East Side is a neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. ... A German band in New York, around 1876 Little Germany, also called in German Kleindeutschland was a densely populated German neighborhood around Tompkins Square, in an area bounded by Avenues A and B and 7th and 10th Sts, in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York. ... (help· info) is the capital city and a state of Germany. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Slovenian: Dunaj, Croatian and Serbian: Beč Romanian: Viena, Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya;) Vienna is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ...

By the 1880s, most Germans were moving out of Kleindeutschland and relocating Uptown, to the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. Eastern Europeans replaced Germans as the dominant ethnic group in Alphabet City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this time the area was considered part of the Lower East Side, and became home to Eastern European Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants. It comprised tenement housing with no running water, and the primary bathing location for residents in the northern half of the area was the Asser Levy bath house on 23rd Street and Avenue C, north of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town. During this time it was also the red light district of Manhattan -- with most of the prostitutes being Jews -- and one of the worst slums in the city, home to many pimps and gangs dangerously vying for territory. A section of Yorkville as seen from a high rise on Second Avenue and 87th Street Yorkville is a neighborhood within the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan in the city of New York City. ... The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. ... Current division of Europe into five (or more) regions: one definition of Eastern Europe is marked in orange Eastern Europe as a region has several alternative definitions, whereby it can denote: the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Central Europe and Russia. ... 23rd Street runs from river to river across Manhattan, carrying two-way traffic. ... Peter Cooper Village is a residential development on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. ... Stuyvesant Town as well as the adjacent Peter Cooper Village is a large residential development on the East Side of Manhattan. ...

The 20th Century

Alphabet City is part of the East Village, which at the turn of the century was the most densely populated part of New York City. This density was a result of the area's proximity to the City's garment factories, which were the major source of employment for newly-arrived immigrants. After the construction of the subway system, workers were able to relocate to other parts of the city that were previously too remote, such as The Bronx, and Alphabet City's population decreased dramatically. Main article: New York City The Bronx is one of the five boroughs of New York City in the United States. ...

By the middle of the 20th century, Alphabet City was transitioning again, as thousands of Puerto Ricans began to settle in the neighborhood. By the 1960s and '70s, what was once Kleindeutschland and the red light district had evolved into “Loisaida” (a Latinization of "Lower East Sider"). Alphabet City became an important site for the development and strengthening of Puerto Rican cultural identity in New York (see the Nuyorican Movement). A number of important Nuyorican intellectuals, poets and artists called Loisaida home during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, including Miguel Algarín and Miguel Piñero. Alphabet City, formerly considered a slum, is now a trendy part of the East Village in lower Manhattan, New York City. ... The Nuyorican Movement is an intellectual movement involving poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Ricans or of Puerto Rican descent and who live in or near New York City and call themselves or are known as Nuyoricans. The word Nuyorican derives from a combination of the words New... Nuyorican is a blending of the phrases New York and Puerto Rican and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or still living in the New York area). ... Miguel Algarín (born ca. ... Miguel Piñero (December 19, 1946–June 18, 1988), born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, was a playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. ...

During the 1980s, Alphabet City was home to an eclectic mix of Puerto Rican and African American families living alongside struggling artists and musicians (who were mostly young and white). Attracted by the Nuyorican movement, low rents, and creative atmosphere, Alphabet City attracted a growing bohemian population. The area also had high levels of illegal drug activity and violent crime. The Broadway musical Rent portrays the positive and negative aspects of this time and place, though some say in a kitschy manner. In August 1988, a riot erupted along Tompkins Square Park between police, homeless residents in the park and their supporters. An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Though a Bohemian is a native of the Czech province of Bohemia, a secondary meaning for bohemian emerged in 19th century France. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theater combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... Rent is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical. ... Tompkins Square Park is a 10. ...

Recent History & Gentrification

The late 1990s has witnessed a sharp rise in housing rents and has ushered in a new, distinctly less bohemian era for Alphabet City. Apartments have been renovated and formerly abandoned storefronts are now bustling with new restaurants, nightclubs and retail establishments. Crime has also decreased since the 1980s and 1990s at an even greater rate than elsewhere in Manhattan. The drawback to redevelopment has been that many families, artists and small businesses can no longer afford to remain in the neighborhood. Young professionals or yuppies now dominate the area around Avenues A and B. Avenue C is still a transitional area, but rents are rising quickly and many long-time residents and businesses are being priced out of the market. Avenue D, home to a number of large low income housing projects seems destined to remain affordable for the foreseeable future, although plans have been floated in city hall which call for the eventual destruction of the housing projects and redevelopment of the waterfront along East River Park. As part of the gentrification, the area lost a number of community gardens which were planted by residents in vacant lots. These gardens serve as valuable green space in the densely built neighborhood. A recent major loss has been the Charas community center. Though a Bohemian is a native of the Czech province of Bohemia, a secondary meaning for bohemian emerged in 19th century France. ... An apartment (or flat) is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. ... Yuppie is short for Young Urban Professional. It is used to describe a demographic profile: people, usually between their late twenties and early thirties, generally with graduate degrees. ... East River Park, part of the New York City Parks Department, is a public park located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. ... Gentrification (a. ...

Trivia

An East Village Wisdom (arguably no longer true):

• Avenue A, you're All right.
• Avenue B, you're Brave.
• Avenue C, you're Crazy.
• Avenue D, you're Dead.

Alternately:

• Avenue A, aware.
• Avenue B, beware.
• Avenue C, caution!
• Avenue D, DEATH!

Alphabet City in Art and Entertainment

• The television police drama NYPD Blue takes place in Alphabet City.
• The Broadway musical Rent takes place in Alphabet City. The characters live on East 11th Street and Avenue B. They hang out at such East Village locales as Life Cafe.
• The motion picture Rent, an adaptation of the musical, is likewise set in Alphabet City, specifically in 1989-1990, but many scenes were filmed in San Francisco. But the movie takes place on 11th Street and Avenue A.
• Much of the independent film Supersize Me takes place in Alphabet City, near the residence of the director.
• Alphabet City is mentioned in the song 'Alphabet Town' by Elliott Smith.
• A 1984 movie called Alphabet City, about a drug dealer's attempts to flee his life of crime, took place in the district. It starred Vincent Spano, Zohra Lampert and Jami Gertz.
• Alphabet City is mentioned in the song "Poster Girl" by the Backstreet Boys.
• In the book Hellboy: Odd Jobs Alphabet city is home to a giant rat named Mick that collects arcane artifacts and a "fairy" that eats children.
• Avenue B is an album by Iggy Pop.
• Alphabet City is an album by ABC.
• A fictional version of NYC's Alphabet City is explored in the Fallen Angels supplement to Kult.
• The Broadway musical Avenue Q takes Alphabet City to a humorous extreme: "I started at Avenue A, but so far everything is out of my price range..."
• In Tony Kushner's play, Angels in America (and the film adaptation of same), the character Louis makes a comment about "Alphabet Land," saying it's where the Jews lived when they first came to America, and "now, a hundred years later, the place to which their more seriously fucked-up grandchildren repair."
• Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams references Avenue A in his track "New York, New York."
• The members of the now defunct seminal ska punk band Choking Victim were originally from a squat in Avenue C.
• In Bongwater's 'Folk Song' there is the repeated chorus "Hello death, goodbye Avenue A."

Borough of Manhattan in New York City

Neighborhoods

Alphabet City | Ansonia | Battery Park City | Bowery | Chelsea | Chinatown | East Village | Financial District | Garment District | Gramercy | Greenwich Village | Harlem | Hell's Kitchen | Hudson Heights | Inwood | Kips Bay | Koreatown | Little Italy | Lower East Side | Lower Manhattan | Manhattanville | Marble Hill | Midtown | Meatpacking District | Morningside Heights | Murray Hill | NoHo | NoLIta | Roosevelt Island | SoHo | Spanish Harlem | Tenderloin | Tribeca | Turtle Bay | Upper East Side | Upper West Side | Washington Heights | West Village | Yorkville