Nice article on Hudson Heights in the WSJ

There's definitely some hyperbole (I don't really see the European feel), but the are article does explain what some of us see in the are: Village Feel on 181st- Wall Street Journal, Feb 14th People looking for a fusion of urban living and village life have discovered a stretch of West 181st Street in the Hudson Heights neighborhood that offers just that. The three-block micro-neighborhood... [more]

There's definitely some hyperbole (I don't really see the European feel), but the are article does explain what some of us see in the are: Village Feel on 181st- Wall Street Journal, Feb 14th People looking for a fusion of urban living and village life have discovered a stretch of West 181st Street in the Hudson Heights neighborhood that offers just that. The three-block micro-neighborhood extending west from Fort Washington Avenue to the Hudson River contains an attractive mix of small businesses and casual restaurants that offer both sophisticated fare and places for socializing. Patches of greenery and stone stairways ornamented with art, and benches dot the streets between the storefronts and prewar apartment buildings, giving this neighborhood within a neighborhood the feel of a small Parisian arrondissement. "You are in the heart of Dominican culture in the city at West 181st and St. Nicholas, and when you come [past] Fort Washington, you have a more European style," said Ebenezer Smith, a longtime resident on West 181st Street who is district manager of Community Board 12, which serves the neighborhood. Newcomers agree. "It is off the grid, even though it's part of Manhattan," says Kal Narvilas, who opened Saggio, a popular Italian trattoria, two years ago. "It's a neighborhood that looks like a mini Park Slope in 1989." But that might not be the case for long, as residents migrate farther north from Harlem and the Upper West Side. "In the 1980s and 1990s most of what we saw were first-time buyers, but that's not the case now," said Simone Song, a broker in the heights since 1986. "We have people who know the value, are selling what they have downtown and buying here." Enlarge Image There has been some turnover in neighborhood businesses. Café Buunni, an Ethiopian coffee micro roaster at 213 Pinehurst Ave., has opened while VIM pharmacy, a 37-year fixture at 766 W. 181st St., has gone out of business. That closing caused Sara Kotzin, a 13-year resident, to launch an online petition lobbying city officials to protect locally owned businesses. Within a week, the petition collected more than 500 signatures. "It's hitting any neighborhood that has a neighborhood feel to it, " said Ms. Kotzin, 40. "When a chain comes in, it creates an uneven playing field where the little guys can't compete." To aid businesses in the area, the Washington Heights Business Improvement District plans to expand its reach beyond Fort Washington Avenue to Cabrini Boulevard, where the more recent businesses have sprung up, a process that will take one to three years, said executive director Angelina Ramirez. "There is a lot of activity happening west of Broadway and we want to make sure it happens in a way that provides input from all the stakeholders and assists with [business] issues," she said. Another area improvement is the renovation of the Port Authority's George Washington Bridge Bus Station on West 179th Street. The $180 million face-lift designed by the Italian modernist architect Pier Luigi Nervi will add 100,000 square feet for retailers and a community space to the 50-year-old structure. Leases have been signed for Marshalls, Blink Gym and Fine Fare Supermarkets. Two nearby parks also have capital projects under way: a $1.2 million upgrade of Bennett Park, at the top of the stairs leading up from West 181st Street; and a $20 million project in Fort Washington Park, the waterfront area that includes the Little Red Lighthouse. The Upper Manhattan area "was the pleasure ground where all the estates were in the late 1800s and 1900s," said Jennifer Hoppa, the administrator of Northern Manhattan Parks and executive director of the Fort Tryon Park Trust. "All these summer homes that have left this wonderful legacy and an abundance of natural open spaces and topography that you don't have elsewhere." The project will renovate playing fields and add restroom facilities, a kayak launch and a playground as well as open up a mile of waterfront greenway. The enhancements appeal to residents such as Eric Cornell, 28, who moved to Hudson Heights in 2010. "I'm from Oklahoma and I didn't know how much I missed nature until I moved to the neighborhood," he said. Testing the uptown waters, Mr. Cornell, a theater executive, bought a studio apartment in Lafayette Gardens, one of the few postwar co-ops in the immediate area. He is now hoping to upgrade to a larger apartment in he same building. "For all the trepidation I had, I fell in love with the neighborhood. It's made Manhattan a little more livable in certain ways," he said [less]