In: Economics
Report writing on topic 'Greenwich Village' in 800-850 words with reference.
Greenwich Village is located on the west side of the city in Manhattan , New York City. It has become one of the best known parts in New York and a perfect place for tourists and artists to live in. It has become known as the Bohemian Capital, where people have pursued unorthodox lifestyles in the 19th century. It's a step stone for many musicians, because it used to be a forum for the disadvantaged and innovative. Greenwich Village today is one of the most desirable areas to live in.
Greenwich Village is an place where many artists feel free to express themselves. There have been other protests, such as lesbian groups marching down the streets of the village to demonstrate against discrimination. Greenwich Village was once home to the anti-culture movement of the 1960s. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the Village was where musicians, dancers, and actors would play at the Vaudeville Theater and make names for themselves, like Cole Porter. Over the next decade, the Village became well known to many artists around the world as a venue for artistic expression.
Soon authors from all over the world came together to support each other. By the 1960s, there were many abstract expressionists living in this city, including such popular people as Andy Warhol, a pop culture graphic artist, and Lou Reed, a singer. As an growing number of artists moved to Greenwich Village to make it their home, the cost of living became more costly, and fewer people were able to afford it.
Greenwich Village is still very culturally diverse today and is still rich in the arts. Several non-profit groups, such as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, are helping to preserve the area with numerous emblematic landmarks, including the Washington Square Arch at New York University and in the center of Washington Square Park. This icon, renowned for its Bohemian atmosphere, is one of the depictions of the Village. This continues to exist in spite of the University's plans to extend and take over the ground on which the Arch sits. Advocates and those who love Greenwich Village seek to keep their buildings and every aspect of their heritage alive today.
Many historical places to be seen in The Village are the Forbes Galleries situated on the first floor of the Forbes Publishing Building. There are many movie theaters to watch, as well as the Gray Art Gallery. The Comic and Cartoon Art Museum is also located in Greenwich Village.
Since Greenwich Village was once a small, remote village north of the 17th century European settlement on Manhattan Island, its street layout is more organic than the designed grid pattern of the 19th century city plan (based on the 1811 Commissioners' Plan). Greenwich Village was allowed to maintain the 18th century street layout of what is now called the West Village: neighborhoods that were already developed when the plan was initiated, west of what is now Greenwich Avenue and Sixth Avenue, resulted in a community whose streets are drastically different from the organized configuration of the newer sections of Manhattan.
Some of the residential streets are narrow, and some curves are at odd angles. It is commonly seen as an enhancement to both the historic character and the charm of the neighborhood. Furthermore, as the meandering Greenwich Street used to be on the banks of the Hudson River, most of the area west of Greenwich Street is on the landfill site, but still follows the old street grid Once the Sixth and Seventh Avenues were constructed in the early 20th century, they were diagonally designed to the current street layout, and many older, smaller streets had to be demolished.
Like most of Manhattan 's streets above Houston Street, the
Village's streets are typically named rather than numbered.
Although some of the previously named streets (including Factory,
Herring and Amity Streets) are now numbered, they often do not
always adhere to the normal grid pattern when entering the
neighborhood. For example, West 4th Street runs east-west through
much of Manhattan, but runs north-south in Greenwich Village,
intersecting West 10th, 11th, and 12th Streets before the end of
West 13th Street.
A broad portion of Greenwich Village, consisting of more than 50
northern and western blocks up to 14th Street, is part of the
Historic District of New York City Landmarks Preservation
Commission. The complex boundaries of the district extend no
further south than 4th Street or St. Luke's Place, and no further
east than Washington Square East or University Place. Development
in this area is heavily limited and developers must maintain the
key façade and design of the buildings during development.
Greenwich Village was historically regarded as an important
landmark on the map of American bohemian culture in the early and
mid-20th centuries. The area was renowned for its vibrant, musical
and alternative culture. Owing, in part, to the radical attitudes
of many of its inhabitants, the Village was the focal point of new
movements and ideas, whether political, creative or cultural. This
tradition as an enclave of avant-garde and alternative culture was
developed in the 19th century and continued in the 20th century,
when small printing presses, art galleries and experimental theater
flourished.
Reference- Book on Greenwich Village Stories