the nightlife....problem....EV?, williamsburg?

Maybe this got lost...I seriously think that some areas (blocks) that look kind of cool are, on reflection, to be avoided due to crowds milling about at night, especially in summer. Some such areas were always well known (st marks, e.g.), but it seems these things migrate.

You buy into a neighborhood like Williamsburg or the East Village, you deserve what you get: Rowdy 20-somethings screaming obscenities at each other and barfing all over the sidewalk.

You want a more grown-up atmosphere, buy on the Upper East Side.

BuyerBuyer, I lived on 7th Street for 7 years (how's that for symmetry?) and I both loved and hated it. It was great Sunday-Wednesday; Thursday, Friday and Saturday it was a totally different neighborhood. The problem with the East Village is that there is very little inventory, so prices remain quite high due to scarcity. It depends on who's buying: trustafarians didn't only buy in Williamsburg, just in larger numbers.

7th Street is "so cool" that it has a movie made about it:
http://www.7thstreetmovie.com/
and it was featured in the NYT this weekend:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/realestate/05block.html?hpw

But as I grew up, I started to hate living there. I'm sure whoever lives in my old apartment is paying more in rent than I did, so the fact that I outgrew the area doesn't mean it affected property values any. As long as more people want to live there than there are properties available, the nightlife only seems to enhance values. I don't know why - I wouldn't consider buying in that area except for a couple of very specific, comparatively un-cool blocks.

I really like Wmburg -- people are very friendly in the bars and stores and restaurants, kind of like it is a real neighborhood -- but I was surprised on some nights at just how ultra-thronged some streets are. It borders on unpleasant on some corridors. It starts to kill the cool vibe a bit. I'm not saying it ruins the hoood, but it's a factor (and a risk factor to the extent it keeps growing), and it certainly effects what particular areas I would like within the hood.

maybe i'm just not so aware, but i've lived in neighborhoods full of issues and hardly noticed a thing.

i lived across from a crack park on west 46th street and never saw anything (although the better half noticed crack vials and prostitutes).

i lived in a better hood and noticed a huge prostitute presence when i ventured at a time i usually wouldn't have (so it wouldn't have affected me generally).

really, how often are you awake and out and about so that you experience last night's vomit? or that night's vomit? i've lived all over the city, in many less desirable hoods, and the number of times i've been so affected has been small.

I didn't mention vomit or drugs and I don't that is what is being discussed. The issue is crowds of people moving around on the sidewalks, making noise or just making it not so pleasant to stroll around yourself. It's hard to miss in extreme cases -- not many would want to live on St Marks Place,or on the busier part of bleecker. Obviously, Wmburg isn't like that but there are blocks that are pretty crowded on some nights, and many people would avoid a condo on such a block.

FWIW, vomit was a pretty regular occurrence on or near my doorstep. It was irksome, but not what I remember most now. Some people like living in the middle of the action. In any neighborhood, I think it's going to vary a lot street by street. For example, I really like Stuyvesant St. in the East Village, but you couldn't pay me to live on St. Mark's.

"Rowdy 20-somethings screaming obscenities at each other and barfing all over the sidewalk.
You want a more grown-up atmosphere, buy on the Upper East Side."

Remarks like this are unfortunately curmudgeonly. I can honestly say I've never (as in not even once) encountered the hurling of obscenities or half-digested food/alcohol in my supposedly adolescent neighborhood. Nothing against the UES, but the part of it that I assume you're talking about has closer to a nursing home feel than a "grown up" feel. And several parts of Yorkville are just as full of the fratty, 20-something bar-hopping that you're apparently so disgusted with. Anyone who's lived in this city long enough should know better than to peg neighborhoods with extreme generalizations. Not a well thought-out post, to say the least.

I dont know if bjw is referring only to what Matt said. I was careful not to overgeneralize. But there are some blocks in wmburg that seem pretty bad. I can't see wanting to live in UrbanGreen...that finger building might be loud too.

buyerbuyer -I think the difference is that the East Village, the Lower East Side, and Williamsburg have become 'destination' areas, whereas even 15 years ago, the bars/restaurants in these locations catered more to the locals who lived in the neighborhood.
I could not help but think of the differences between the bar in the article you cite, and some of the Avenue A bars 20 years ago.
Personally, I would not want to live in any area that overwhelmingly caters to folks who travel in from different areas specifically for the bars/nightlife. My ideal neighborhood is one where the neighboring businesses put the locals first. Not one where neighborhood businesses rely on folks not from the neighborhood, who have no stake in the neighborhood, and who travel to the area primarily for the bars/nightlife.

buyerbuyer, I was. Matt unfortunately has a track record of only posting disparaging comments about the neighborhood. Which blocks in Williamsburg do you find to be bad? Bedford is obviously pretty animated most of the time, especially between North 3rd and about North 10th. North 6th from Wythe to Bedford also has its moments. But otherwise, I can't think of any blocks that really stand out. And like I said, I have yet to see any of what Matt described. No idea how the "finger building" will turn out, but despite that block's proximity to Bedford, it's actually fairly quiet.

And in non-destination neighborhoods like the UWS, people complain the that the restaurants suck.