Greenwich Village, New York City

Accomplice: The Village is a really cool experience. I should not write anything at all other than to go - It's full of surprises and super fun. Takes place all over Greenwich Village and there are improv actors - it was hilarious - part theater, part tour and part game. Great for all ages - even our teenagers said that they loved it! Don't want to ruin it but check it out if you're looking for something different. We saw the "Village" version. I believe the "New York" version opens in April. Have fun!

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Take in some street art when you are walking the charming residential streets of Greenwich Village.

The Carmine Street Mural was painted in August 1987 by graffiti artist Keith Haring (1958–1990) on the wall that faces the Carmine Street Pool, part of the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center at the corner of Clarkson Street and Seventh Avenue South.

The mural measures 18 feet high by 170 feet long. Haring was inspired by the colors of the pool’s underwater surface; the mural features fanciful images of fish and children and abstract shapes in black, white, yellow and blue.

The outdoor pool, built in the 1930s, is a city public pool open to city recreation members for a small fee.

The mural’s creator, Keith Haring, was born on May 4, 1958 in Pennsylvania, and died of AIDS on February 16, 1990.

This is a free walking event. There are no memberships, administrative or registration fees. The desserts are free to drool over, but affordably priced for consumption.

Now that we’ve cleared up what’s free, let’s concentrate on those succulent works of art, the desserts. This inaugural monthly walking tour will take us to the West Village, for tasting delicious hand-made chocolates, gelatos and cupcakes.

Meet our tour guide in the red ball cap saying “Free NYC Dessert Fest” on Sunday December 7, 2008 at 10:30am at Magnolia Bakery, 401 Bleecker Street at West 11th Street. Then over to L’Arte Del Gelato, and our last stop we’ll be at Jacques Torres Chocolate. Tour lasts approximately 2 hours. Walking distance 1 mile.

For questions or comments http://www.walkingtoursmanhattan.com click contact

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This is almost certainly the best known of New York’s downtown districts and has been a focal point for alternative city living for over a hundred years. It is generally considered as being bounded by Broadway on the east, the Hudson River on the west, Houston Street on the south, and 14th Street on the north, though this varies slightly according to the source you consult – some for instance regard the West Village (west of Seventh Avenue) as a separate district. Unlike more northerly districts of Manhattan, its historic streets are laid out in a more European fashion rather than a geometric grid, with diagonals and even bends quite commonplace. This makes exploring here more of a challenge but also more fun, as getting lost is the best way to encounter unexpected sights and events.

It grew up as a distinct village and was only later absorbed into the fast-growing New York City. Perhaps because of this it has always been seen as a focal point of new movements and ideas: political, artistic and cultural. Artists were attracted to its bohemian image, and in the 1950s it saw the birth of the Beat culture, attracting writes such as Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsburg and Dylan Thomas. And growing up in the 1960s and 70s I first heard about “The Village” as the place for American folk music and my favoured musical genre, the folk-influenced singer-songwriters. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, Tom Paxton and many others lived and played here. More recently the area played a key role in the gay liberation movement – see my separate tip on the Stonewall Inn for more on this. These days this is an expensive area in which to live, so it has perhaps lost its former beatnik charm, but the presence of lots of students (New York University has its main campus here) keeps it young and lively in tone. There are still plenty of music and comedy clubs, bars and excellent coffee shops.

This is exactly the sort of area that makes exploring New York such a delight in my view. You can be walking the skyscraper-walled canyons on midtown Manhattan in the morning, and by lunch-time find yourself, as we did, on the much more human-scale streets of the Village. This is a people-watcher’s paradise. Take a seat at a pavement café or in a local bar, maybe bring along a book to fit in (although on this visit we saw as many Apple Macs as we did books!), and relax and watch the world go by. Or wander in and out of some of the more eclectic shops to be found here – left-wing bookshops, vintage clothing stores, old vinyl record shops and much more. You could easily spend the best part of a day exploring just a few streets, and still not see everything.

My photos were taken mostly around Bleecker and McDougall Streets.

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One of my most enjoyable experiences in NYC is to walk around aimlessly in the West Village. This is a peaceful, wealthy neighborhood, still in Manhattan, but away from the noise and congestion of Midtown and other neighborhoods like Midtown (ie. UES, UWS, Murray Hill, you know who you are).

Also, there are lots of little boutique stores like Marc Jacobs, enjoyable cafe spots , celebrities incognito, renowned cupcake shops (Magnolia Bakery), a really nice vibe overall. Walking through the streets of the West Village is a perfect antidote to the madness of the rest of New York.

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The area of Bleecker & Macdougal St in the village is an enjoyable walk, both day and nightime.
There is so much history and for me
so many musical ghosts to chase.
Some of the best music & major influences from my teen years originated in this part of town.

from my favorite Fred Neil ... (Here's a classic & beautiful Fred Neil 'Dolphins' clip)

the Blues Project / Cafe Wha? & the Bitter End, the Velvet Underground scene with Andy Warhol to the best early Dylan.The Greenwich Village music scene from as early as the 1920s to 1964 was the precursor to the major wave of musical influence that spawned out on the West Coast and later in 1966 / 67 washed over the entire country,
cleansing and changing everything.

Even if music history isn't your thing, though now a gentrified, expensive neighborhood (like most of Manhattan these days) there are still lots of off-the-wall interesting little businesses & cafes: everything from psychics, tattoo parlours & unique / collector record shops to coffeehouses - great places to hang out & people-watch.Speaking of NY gentrification: Comdomania (pictured 2nd) is yet another victim of skyrocketing Manhattan rents
C-mania closed
(gee, maybe they'll slam in another fu#%ng Starbucks ...)

Sorry, the Bleeker St / Village webcam appears to be gone.

Though it is definitely not what it was then (what IS?) the area of Bleecker & Macdougal still can be a very interesting & fun walk, not to mention (if you are an aging musician) a both happy & sad stroll down "nostalgia lane."

Halloween Night 7pm-10pm
the greatest parade, must do at least once

We gone over the years and had a great time.

You'll see some of the best costumns, fun, mellow crowd, music,

looking forward to seeing the 35th annual parade

pictures to come....

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I visited Greenwich Village some nights for some nice small blues venues but one morning I passed by again to see the area under the day light because I always knew that this was the area of bohemians in the 20th century, the beatniks, alternative artists etc. The truth is that I didn’t see anywhere the old artistic feeling but it was nice to walk around here anyway although I knew that the high rents brought here some celebrities while the artists had gone in other parts of NY. The locals call the area simple “The Village” and the area is very popular among the homosexual community, Stonewall Inn is one of their landmarks. I got lost in the tiny streets that were too complicated in comparison with other parts of Manhattan. What’s more most of them are named rather that numbered so I had to check the map all the time :) This district is interesting if you check the 19th century row houses, the small alleys and tiny squares but there are also too many buildings that belong to New York University (law school etc) and I always thought they must be in a separated area.

Washington Square park is a popular public park where families, dogs and street artists try to find a free space. You can also see a lot of people playing chess (pic 1), some picnic tables, the Stanford White Arch(the first Arch was built in 1889 from wood but some years later a marble arch created), a fountain and some statues like the Giuseppe Garibaldi monument(pic 2). What I liked most here were the small squirrels running on the wires over the trees of the park! Opposite the square is the Judson Memorial Church (pic 3). It was built in 1892 and it has some nice vitro windows. If you go down Thompson street you’ll find a lot of cafes and pubs.

At the north side of the square at 5th avenue(at 10th street) you will see the Church of the Ascension (pic 4), a neo-gothic church that was built in 1840 by Richard Upjohn (he also built Trinity Church). One other interesting building is the Jefferson Market Library with the “Old Jeff” Tower (pic 5) that housed a fire bell the old times. It’s located at 425 Avenida of the Americas. It was originally a courthouse from 1877 till the middle of 20th century

Don’t miss the nightlife of Greenwich village. A dozen of blues and jazz venues, you can also watch an alternative performance at one of the Off Broadway theatre or a stand up comedy performance.