West Village

The West Village is the western portion of the Greenwich Village neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Though there are no defined boundaries, the area is usually defined as bounded by the Hudson River and either Sixth Avenue or Seventh Avenue, extending from 14th Street down to Houston Street. Bordering neighborhoods include Chelsea to the north, the South Village, and the newly invented (2009) area called Hudson Square to the south, and Central Village to the east. The neighborhood is primarily residential, with a multitude of small restaurants, shops and services. The High Line connects the historic district to the art galleries in Chelsea and points north. The elevated train tracks running parallel to Tenth Avenue have been converted to an open greenway. The tracks once served the businesses in the area, but have been long abandoned. Instead of demolishing the structure, the unique features have been used to benefit the entire city. 

in the last few years young families (often with children) started to take over as the neighborhood's most "visible" constituency. As far as the social makeup is concerned, the majority could easily qualify as affluent. Real estate prices here are among the highest in Manhattan, not to mention other boroughs. Architecturally, the West Village has been preserved pretty well, which is a plus if you like the character of old buildings, but a minus if you're looking for an affordable yet modern apartment. There are very few modern buildings and practically none of them qualifies as a "high-rise".  Because of a geological quirk, the "rock" foundation, easily reachable in Midtown and Downtown, is actually very deep here. As a result, building too high would either be prohibitively expensive or outright dangerous. The result is a neighborhood dominated by 19th and early 20th-century brownstone and low-rise apartment buildings.