Roughly covering the area from Houston Street north to 14th Street, and from Lafayette east to Avenue D, East Village was once a fairly grubby section of Manhattan. East Village of the 1970’s and the 1980’s was the birthplace of performance art, New Wave and punk bands The Talking Heads and Blondie – but also home to the notorious motorcycle gang Hell’s Angels. The area has changed over the years to become an enclave of artists, college students and young professionals seeking to live in a bustling, edgy part of the Manhattan scene. Tompkins Square Park – once the incarnation of seediness – is today, appropriately, the epitome of change. These days, the park is frequented by strollers and designer dog breeds. The area features scores of hipster bars, funky boutiques, designer showrooms, great restaurants and upscale stores. Small stores selling vintage clothing, records and such, as well as tattoo parlors, remain. The punk-rock look persists, with tattoos and tight leatherwear being the area’s visual commonplace. Small pockets of eastern European heritage from over a hundred years ago continue to linger through Ukranian and Polish bars and restaurants.
