Hot in Manhattan?

December 31, 2006 9:55 AM

In 1990 (as a non-USAnian) I visited Manhattan. At that time, SOHO was the new "up-and-coming" area: money moving in, interesting shops, galleries, bars, restaurants. What's the hot-spot now? And what's SOHO like now?
posted by TiredStarling to Destinations: What to Do (16 comments total)

Haven't been there in years but I'm told that you've got to have big money to live there. That probably applies to all of Manhattan though.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 10:31 AM on December 31

Newish and hot would probably be Chelsea and The Meat Packing District. Scroll down.
posted by iconomy at 10:39 AM on December 31

The up and coming neighborhoods are no longer in Manhattan. They are in the boroughs, mostly Brooklyn.

SoHo is still fun, though. It's just not really edgy, I guess.
posted by lampoil at 10:42 AM on December 31

I lived in SoHo in the early 80s, when it might've been "up and coming"; by the 90s it was pretty well established and other neighborhoods like chelsea, tribeca, LES, etc, were the new territory. As others have said, there is nothing in manhattan that is still up & coming, except maybe washington heights or something. SoHo is a essentially a mall these days.
posted by mdn at 11:54 AM on December 31

The Downtown areas around Wall Street and on the west side near gateway plaza could be considered up and coming residential areas in Manhattan. Agree with mdn that SOHO is a huge mall these days.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:11 PM on December 31

I would say that the Meat Packing District arrived to official hotness when Samantha from Sex and the City moved there, and everything since has been a messy degrade into sprawls of overpriced cocktails, HumVee limos, and Jersey girls.

Williamsburg and Greenpoint are pushing strong but the more interesting and creative enterprises are pushing ever eastward. Virtually every established neighborhood in Brooklyn is trying to become the new "it" place, but most of that hype is real-estate market driven.
posted by hermitosis at 1:14 PM on December 31

washington heights isn't that up and coming even though people are moving in but its real estate driven. there isn't any major art scene, hipsters, type of person evolving or being developed in washington heights and that's because the heights is full of dominicans. it already has an entrenched culture that has the population to keep it viable. there are also a lot of families in the heights who will stay in their apartments for years keeping the real estate market contained for a little while.

the heights is still pretty raw. i've lived there for almost 2 years and i have seen more and more young professionals moving into the area but they're being absorbed by the bilingual existence that is already inplace, they're not replacing it.

the new area is probably in queens or brooklyn. in manhattan, the hip and trendy place is the meat packing district but that was hot a few years ago and its cooling at the moment.
posted by Stynxno at 2:52 PM on December 31

Second everyone who said SOHO is now (quite literally) a mall and the Meat Packing district is a Bridge-And-Tunnel (ie. New Jersey) mess. The current "hottest" New York City residential neighborhood for the Bankers and Hedge Fund money droids is Tribeca -- 10013 recently became the most expensive zip in the City. So that's where you'll find the new fancy. For the new fun and hip, I agree with the various Brooklyn neighborhoods mentioned. According to New York Magazine a few weeks ago, many of the hottest new New York neighborhoods are in New Jersey but I don't recall where.
posted by The Bellman at 3:04 PM on December 31

i recently moved from tribeca to los angeles (two years ago), i would attest that you can find all the fun you can handle in new york without going north of canal street.

as for "brooklyn neighborhoods", i would make the argument they are a little tougher to navigate if you don't know the area well and don't have a car. less cabs, less trains.

i was a fan of meatpacking district; club lotus was the over-the-top hot spot i remember most.
posted by phaedon at 3:29 PM on December 31

You heard it here first: Queens is the new Brooklyn and the Bronx is the new Queens.
posted by MLIS at 6:59 PM on December 31

Exactly what mdn said. SoHo was special in the 80's.

I took some friends there in the mid 90's and could not believe the changes - we basically shopped in the JCrew store for our SoHo experience.
posted by vronsky at 7:41 PM on December 31

Agree with above posters. I live on the Upper West Side (definitely not the hot spot unless you're married with kids, like me). I like the Lower East Side, lots of unusual places there, definitely not a "mall" experience. Williamsburg/DUMBO have been the new "hot spot" for a while now, interesting to visit, couldn't live there myself.
posted by dudeman at 8:33 PM on December 31

You can't really surf the tide of hotness — as soon as word gets out, it's already behind the curve. My advice: move to deepest Staten Island, and wait for the rest of the City to catch up to you.
posted by rob511 at 9:37 PM on December 31

Long Island City (in Queens) had buzz for a while, but I'm not sure if it's already passed.
posted by bshort at 11:02 PM on December 31

bshort:

LIC could've been the hotness, but Williamsburg has taken it full-force, hipster glasses and all.
posted by Mikey-San at 1:11 AM on January 1

I'd watch out for people calling Meat Packing a "hot spot". Unless by "hot spot" you mean meat-head, bridge and tunnel, bad music and expensive drink hell hole. Gawker.com just did a (snarky) series on the death of the Meat Packing District.

Lower East Side is still pretty hip. The small venues in the area (Bowery, Mercury Lounge, Cake Shop, The Annex, Pianos) are substantially well known not only in NYC, but nationally. There are a great number of cheap, interesting food options, too.

Williamsburg is still cool to me, although it's starting to get a little too pricey. Prepare for un-hipdom! I work in Astoria/LIC and I've never understood why it's "hip". Unless you like big chain operations. That said, a trip down Steinway St into the Middle Eastern areas is a complete must. Kebab Cafe (25thish and Steinway?) is some of the best food in NYC and it's flanked by a number of Middle Eastern bakeries that offer more than canolis and pound cake. Mmm.

DUMBO is still waiting to bloom, Harlem is still waiting to happen (Wait. There's something above 90th street?). Who knows where it'll hit next. I think New York mag just called Jersey City as the new "it" spot, but that doesn't even count.
posted by GilloD at 7:44 AM on January 2