"Greenwich Village" Top 5 Page for this destination Greenwich Village Tip by Christophe_Ons

Greenwich Village is a great place for idle wandering and people-watching from sidewalk cafés. New Yorkers call it simply "the Village" since the area began as a country village - in most of the western part, narrow brownstone-lined streets reflect early farm boundaries and meander haphazardly through the village without regard to grids.
The Village first became fashionable in the 1830s, when elegant townhouses were built around Washington Square. It has remained a bohemian haven that has been home to many artists and writers, and today many of the city's media power elite live here -- they fill the bistros and bars that line Bleecker and Hudson Streets, the area's main thoroughfares.

The area of Washington Square Park is home to the New York University - the park hums with musicians and street artists. Eight Street is a long procession of punky boutiques, shoe shops and piercing-parlors - however, most non-conformists tend to live in the East Village, as Greenwich Village - including West Village (west of 6th Avenue) which is a popular gay district - has become more mainstream and very high priced during recent years.

Directions: Bordering streets are 14th St in the north, Broadway in the East, West Houston in the south. "West Village" is bordered by the Hudson. New neighborhood names pop up all the time, the part around Broadway north of Houston St is often called NoHo nowadays.