Seedy Area in NYC

Elaine Margarett · Aug 22, 2008

Hi all,

I need a not so nice neighborhood in NYC where a minor bad guy would live. Something along the lines of a walkup (no evelvator). What area would this be?

TIA,
EM

WendyNYC · Aug 22, 2008

Most areas in Manhattan are now pretty expensive, even the formerly seedy areas. If you want a high-crime neighborhood, I'd maybe put him in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn (although even that has gentrified somewhat). There are still some grittier-feeling streets with walkups around LES, Spanish Harlem, or Hell's Kitchen, but the apartments inside are worth millions of dollars sometimes.

Fillanzea · Aug 22, 2008

The grittiest neighborhoods I've been to are in Brownsville, East New York, and Cypress Hills - but those are all in Brooklyn about an hour out of Manhattan.

Susan Breen · Aug 22, 2008

I work in an area that is near the Port Authority--over on eighth avenue and 38th street, and it's not a high crime area, but there are a lot of peep shows and prostitutes and other shady looking characters selling various things out of boxes and i suspect there are lots of pick pockets and I don't know that I would want to walk around there at midnight. Though there is a Starbucks at 39th and 8th.

Ken · Aug 22, 2008

Yep, bad area by the Port Authority. I had $40 swiped from me, there, while doing research for an article two years ago.

Elaine Margarett · Aug 22, 2008

anis said:
Yep, bad area by the Port Authority. I had $40 swiped from me, there, while doing research for an article two years ago.

Perfect! Well, not for you but it works for me. So if I said my character lived in a rundown apartment building on Eighth Ave., or he lived on 38th Street near Eighth Ave. it'd have the ring of truth.

Thanks!

EM

Ken · Aug 22, 2008

glad to be of assistance, lol.
Good luck.

KansasWriter · Aug 24, 2008

I'm sorry to interfere but as long as we're on the subject and there are some real live New Yorkers here...

My girlfriend is considering a job at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Is that in an OK area? And if we were to move there, would there be a decent area not too far away to get a house? In Jersey perhaps?

Thanks,
KW

Claudia Gray · Aug 24, 2008

Elaine Margarett said:
Perfect! Well, not for you but it works for me. So if I said my character lived in a rundown apartment building on Eighth Ave., or he lived on 38th Street near Eighth Ave. it'd have the ring of truth.

Thanks!

EM

It would, but make it clear that he has lived there for a while. The area is gentrifying -- much more slowly than the rest of the Times Square zone, but newer residents are not as rough as before. You might mention that he feels like he's going to be squeezed out eventually. Maybe his landlord is trying to get rid of all the old-time tenants to repaint and bring in a higher-paying, higher-class clientele.

rugcat · Aug 24, 2008

A long time ago I lived in Alphabet City, on 7th St between C & D. Sketchy is not the word. Is that area all gentrified now?

Just curious myself.

IceCreamEmpress · Aug 24, 2008

KansasWriter said:
I'm sorry to interfere but as long as we're on the subject and there are some real live New Yorkers here...

My girlfriend is considering a job at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Is that in an OK area?

If you mean at the facility that's located on West 168th Street, that's in a neighborhood that's generally low-income and a bit battered around the edges. That's the 33rd Precinct, and you can get the crime statistics for it here.

And if we were to move there, would there be a decent area not too far away to get a house? In Jersey perhaps?

The median price of a single-family home anywhere in what's considered the New York metropolitan area is over $500,000.

The Grift · Aug 26, 2008

rugcat said:
A long time ago I lived in Alphabet City, on 7th St between C & D. Sketchy is not the word. Is that area all gentrified now?

And then some. Even when I was living between A and B five years ago it was getting nice. I haven't been over in the past couple of years, but even back then it was expensive and gentrified.

Cybernaught · Aug 26, 2008

If you want a seedy area, have the guy live in Newark, NJ. There's more crime there than all of NYC combined, and it's right on the edge of the river.

I had the misfortune of getting lost in Newark once. The sound of gunshots while riding shotgun was enough for me to duck underneath the dashboard for the remainder of the excursion. I lived in Manhattan at the time, so thankfully I knew my way around Northern Jersey well enough by then to get my driver the hell out of there.

Seedy Area in NYC

Elaine Margarett

High and Dry

WendyNYC

fiddle-dee-dee

Fillanzea

Susan Breen

Ken

Elaine Margarett

High and Dry

Ken

KansasWriter

Claudia Gray

rugcat

Lost in the Fog

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

The Grift

Tom Swiftly's Favorite Adverb

Cybernaught

Decker