Profiles of New York City neighborhoods

Manhattan Valley: City Living above the Upper West Side

Sandwiched between the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights, Manhattan Valley, with its appealing blend of upscale services and day-to-day conveniences, is one of the few remaining bargains on the island -- relatively speaking.

City Living in NYC

Inwood: Hunting real estate deals at the tip of Manhattan

When schoolchildren in New York are taught that the Dutch purchased Manhattan Island from American Indians for just $24 and trinkets some 400 years ago, it's unlikely the teacher also mentioned the transaction occurred in Inwood, the borough's most remote neighborhood.

Travis, Staten Island: City Living with a small town feel

Follow Staten Island's Victory Boulevard all the way west and you'll come upon Travis, a small residential community whose history, friendliness and striking natural environment make it unlike anywhere else in the city.

Brooklyn Heights: City Living amid historic charm

During the epic battle of Long Island in August 1776, George Washington hoodwinked the British by ferrying his troops to Manhattan from what was then called the Town of Brooklyn, leaving an empty campsite behind. Since then, escapism has moved in the opposite direction, with Manhattanites seeking respite in the city's original suburb --Brooklyn Heights.

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn: City Living among old and new

As the F or G train transitions to the elevated tracks after leaving the Carroll Street station, the first thing many straphangers notice are the unusually expansive gardens sprawling out in front of the surrounding brownstones.

Pelham Bay, Bronx: City Living among family

Most New Yorkers are familiar with the unpredictable housing market and the neighborhood gentrification raging across the city. But as tumultuous as those changes have gotten, a small area in the Northeast Bronx has managed to weather the worst of it so far.

Red Hook, Brooklyn: City Living on the edge?

The cobblestone streets, turn-of-the-century row houses, and industrial buildings that characterize Red Hook, which has been shaped by years of relative isolation from the rest of Brooklyn, often surprise first-time visitors.

TriBeCa: New York's neighborhood with star power

Take a quiet lower Manhattan neighborhood, mix in big salaries and star power, and you get TriBeCa, a haven for high-earning professionals, families, and celebrities. With its spacious lofts, the presence of the TriBeCa Film Festival and proximity to Wall Street, it's not surprising the "triangle below Canal Street" is one of the most expensive zip codes in the city. In fact, Forbes calls it the most overpriced in the nation. (Click here for up-close photos of the TriBeCa neighborhood)

New York real estate: Great Kills, Staten Island

No one really uses the word "love" when they describe their feelings toward Great Kills, Staten Island. In fact, most residents speak with a blend of reservation and cautious optimism that it's almost disarming at first. It's not a dangerous place or a ghost town, but then again, it's no Shangri-La, they say. It's middle-class, medium sized, centrally located and even-keeled, through and through. What you see is what you get in Great Kills and the people that live here like it just fine.

New York Real Estate: Midwood, Brooklyn

-Click here for 16 photos of the Midwood, Brooklyn neighborhood

New York Real Estate: Roosevelt Island

To Native Americans, it was Minnehanak. To the Dutch, it was Varckens (Hog's) Island. For 20 years it was Manning's Island, for 235 years it was Blackwell's Island, and until 1973 it was Welfare Island. Only then was the island sandwiched between Long Island City and Manhattan's Upper East Side given its current name.

New York Real Estate: Morningside Heights

Dubbed New York's "Academic Acropolis" because of the many schools that call the area home, Morningside Heights boasts a vibrancy and diversity infused with the spirit of higher education.

New York real estate: Chelsea

It's hard to believe that less than 70 years ago, steam locomotives barreled down 10th Avenue flagged by cowboys on horseback. The West Side Cowboys, as they were called, galloped bravely in front of the train to warn pedestrians of imminent danger, waving red flags by day and red lanterns by night.

Williamsburg: Not just for hipsters

Forget everything you've read. Williamsburg really is more than a hipster habitat.

New York real estate: Howard Beach

For better and for worse, Howard Beach, Queens, has long been a neighborhood on the periphery and an area defined by sharp contrasts. It's where tradition is confronted by modernism, and old and new stand side by side on the borough's border with Brooklyn.

New York real estate: Newark, NJ

Though often ignored by many, except those traveling through Newark Liberty International Airport, the city of Newark is staging a comeback. Once known as one of the most dangerous places in the U.S., Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, has seen a dramatic drop in crime in recent years.

Mill Basin: Waterside living, Brooklyn style

Until the early 20th century, the inlet that constitutes Mill Basin was largely swampland. Avenue U, now a residential and commercial thoroughfare separating Mill Basin from its northern neighbor, Old Mill Basin, was a small stream.

Finding space and quiet in SI's Westerleigh

Anthony Wolk, 91, moved to Westerleigh in 1971 after he was carjacked in his neighborhood of East Flatbush.

Floral Park: A suburban outpost on city's edge

There seems to be some confusion about Floral Park. Is it in Nassau County or New York City? Is it a suburb or is it an urban center? Well, the answer to both of these questions is yes.

City Living

New York real estate: Flatbush

Good luck trying to get a straight answer on where Flatbush is. Encompassing 11 neighborhood associations, all of which can claim some stake in this emerging community, the boundaries are amorphous--something in which local civic leaders seem to take pride, given the great diversity that exists here.

City Living

New York real estate: Carnegie Hill

Given the swanky townhouses, proximity to Museum Mile, proliferation of uniformed schoolgirls and lovingly manicured greenery, it's difficult to believe that Carnegie Hill, which occupies the northeast corner of the Upper East Side, wasn't always considered the luxurious enclave that it is today.

City Living

New York real estate: Fresh Meadows

The sprawling, tree-lined boulevards and quaint colonial cottages that color Fresh Meadows' landscape easily recall images of the picturesque, suburban American Dream.

City Living

New York real estate: New Dorp, Staten Island

Wander off Hylan Boulevard onto any of New Dorp's smaller streets, and the vibe is much more small-town hamlet than big-city living. With small boutiques, long-standing mom-and-pop eateries, big trees and old-fashioned street lamps, much of New Dorp has retained its old-world charm.

City Living

New York real estate: Bedford Park, Bronx

The residents of Bedford Park don't necessarily want people to know about their neighborhood. It's not for lack of pride; quite the opposite. They just want to keep this quiet, working-class enclave all to themselves.

City Living

New York real estate: Lower East Side

Like the neighborhood Whole Foods that was perpetually "coming soon," the transformation of the Lower East Side has been a long time coming. Once the first stop after Ellis Island for newcomers, the enclave has probably played host to more immigrant populations than any other New York neighborhood.

City Living

New York real estate: South Slope

Most people don't differentiate between the two areas straddling Ninth Street; to them it's all Park Slope, with its trendy restaurants, abundant stoop sales, prominent gay community and proliferation of young families.

CITY LIVING

New York real estate: Crown Heights

As the heart of Brooklyn's Caribbean and Hasidic Jewish communities, Crown Heights deserves its reputation as a cultural touchstone. It is home to the annual West Indian Carnival Parade as well as the international headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

CITY LIVING

New York real estate: Chinatown

Steeped in tradition, Chinatown is one of the city's few neighborhoods to fend off gentrification, keeping its cultural fabric intact through a constant infusion of immigrants who keep the neighborhood true to its roots.

New York City real estate: St. Albans, Queens

St. Albans is a quiet middle-class neighborhood in eastern Queens, but just beneath lies a level of culture, politics and heritage that not all New York neighborhoods can boast.

City Living: Wakefield, Bronx

Ride the No. 2 train all the way to the last stop, step off and you've found Wakefield, a small suburban enclave that's New York City's northernmost neighborhood.

City Living: Jersey City

One of the best views of Manhattan can be found across the Hudson River, in what many consider to be the sixth borough, Jersey City. In fact, those who earn their wage in Manhattan would find Jersey City's less-expensive housing and proximity to NYC a very appealing alternative to the other boroughs.

City Living: White Plains

Despite its current reputation around Westchester as the county's shopping center, White Plains was once home to a Native American tribe and later, the site of a Revolutionary War battle.

City Living: Little Neck, Queens

Most residents think of Little Neck as the best of both worlds, where they can enjoy the serenity of the suburbs and the commerce of the city without ever having to leave New York. Tucked away in the northeast corner of Queens, yet only a 45-minute commute to downtown Manhattan, this bustling peninsula on Little Neck Bay has managed to evolve with the rest of the city while retaining much of its original character.

City Living: Midtown South

The area the city defines as Midtown South is many things, but it's definitely not this: slow. People bustle to their jobs in the towering office buildings. Tourists flock to the ample shopping and historical sites. And now more than ever, people are calling the area's many neighborhoods home.

NEW YORK CITY REAL ESTATE

City Living: Prospect Park South

Deep in the belly of Flatbush lies an enclave of colossal freestanding houses, characterized by turrets, oriel windows, grand entrances flanked by columns and expansive wraparound porches.

NEW YORK CITY REAL ESTATE

City Living: Port Richmond, Staten Island

Once the "Fifth Avenue" of Staten Island, the formerly bustling Port Richmond Avenue was a major center of transportation and industry in the 19th century. The area was first incorporated collectively as Port Richmond in 1866, after the Staten Island Railway constructed their first North Shore Branch stop on the avenue.

NEW YORK CITY REAL ESTATE

City Living: Hell's Kitchen

They've tried calling it Clinton. They've tried calling it Midtown West, or even Times Square West. They've tried to call it something other than Hell's Kitchen, but it's never stuck.

City Living: Yonkers

Sitting a mere 30 minutes from midtown by train and offering expansive views of the Hudson, Yonkers in southern Westchester County is in the middle of several large-scale development projects, mainly on the waterfront, that are helping to revitalize the city's long-neglected core.

City Living: Columbia St. Waterfront, Brooklyn

The Dutch dubbed it Red Mills, old timers call it Red Hook, real estate brokers describe it as "Carroll Gardens West," and newcomers have given it the clunky designation, "Columbia Street Waterfront District." Whatever you call it, this little (literal) slice of South Brooklyn can't quite be thrown in with its neighbors to the south or east.

City Living: West Harlem

Twenty-five years ago, no one was rushing to settle down in West Harlem.

City Living: Maspeth

Venturing from Manhattan to the quaint Queens neighborhood of Masbeth is like stepping into a time warp. There is an old-fashioned and traditional feel about the place that stands in contrast to other Queens neighborhoods struggling with population growth, traffic, and gentrification.

City Living: Greenwich Village

Longtime Greenwich Village residents lament the neighborhood's transformation from bohemian to bourgeois, but the '50s and '60s were far from the Village's grittiest era: Before there was Sing Sing, in the heart of Greenwich Village was Newgate Prison. Legend has it, condemned prisoners were hanged from a certain elm in Washington Square Park, although naysayers claim evidence is scant.

City Living: Tottenville

Tottenville is not only the southernmost tip of Staten Island -- it's also the southernmost point in New York state, a novelty that attracts a surprising number of curious urban explorers.

City Living: Bedford-Stuy

"I've been stranded in the combat zone/I walked through Bedford-Stuy alone." If Billy Joel's words were prescient in his 1980 song "You May Be Right," they're downright amusing now. Because even though pockets of this vast central Brooklyn neighborhood are afflicted by the crime and poverty that ravaged it in the '80s and '90s, it also has something else that's in huge demand: historic brownstones.

City Living: Hoboken

Long-time Hoboken residents relish the opportunity to rattle off a list of their hometown's firsts: the city's lore includes the first baseball game, the first ice cream cone, the first zipper, the country's first brewery and the world's first ferry service.

City Living: Queens Village

Blink and you might miss it, but just a 30-minute commuter train ride from Manhattan is Queens Village, a thriving, community-focused, family-oriented residential haven.

City Living: Ozone Park, Queens

In 1880, when Benjamin W. Hitchcock and Charles C. Denton first began slicing up Ozone Park, they chose the community's name to remind potential buyers of the salty breezes blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean.

City Living: Corona, Queens

More than 150 years ago, residents of what is now Corona were hunting grouse, harvesting pumpkins and raising cattle. Then the advent of the Flushing Railroad in 1853 transformed the farmland -- branded West Flushing to appeal to developers -- into a thriving urban center.

City Living: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

If Prospect Heights was ever in the shadow of Park Slope, its ritzy neighbor across Flatbush Avenue, those days are long past.

City Living: Astoria, Queens

It was only a few years ago that Astoria was largely synonymous with Greece in the minds of many New Yorkers. But the word is spreading: Just across the river from midtown Manhattan, the neighborhood is -- for now -- still as affordable as it is diverse.

City Living: Woodhaven, Queens

Nearly 200 years ago, Woodhaven was "Woodville" -- the name was later changed to distinguish the area from its upstate New York counterpart -- and home to two racetracks, drawing in tens of thousands of onlookers.

City Living: Greenpoint

Mowimy po polsku. Walk around Greenpoint enough, and you'll become familiar with this sign -- which means "we speak Polish" -- and is often placed in businesses lining Manhattan or Nassau avenues.

City Living: Rockaways

Named after a Native American moniker for the area, Reckowacky, the Rockaway Peninsula was sold to the Dutch by the Mohegans in 1639.

City Living: Manhattanville

As fast as the pace of change is in New York, perhaps no other part of the city is seeing transformation as rapidly as Manhattanville, a post-industrial neighborhood sandwiched between Columbia University and the upper reaches of Harlem's west side. Once a busy Hudson River port, today the old warehouses and rusted viaducts are being replaced by apartments, restaurants and -- most significantly -- Columbia University's planned 17-acre expansion.

City Living: Brooklyn Heights

Find it Brooklyn Heights runs from Fulton Street and the Brooklyn Bridge to the north; Atlantic Avenue to the south; the East River to the west; and from the river to Court Street and Cadman Plaza.

City Living: Bushwick

Once New York's beer capital -- there were 14 breweries spread across 14 blocks in the late 1800s -- Bushwick was home to wealthy professionals and industrial magnates who lived in the mansions lining Bushwick Avenue.

City Living: Clinton Hill

Find it Clinton Hill is bounded by Franklin Avenue to the east, Atlantic Avenue and Fulton Street to the south, Vanderbilt Avenue to the west and Myrtle Avenue to the north.

City Living: Whitestone

For waterfront access, there's no better city neighborhood than Whitestone, the sleepy residential area between the Throgs Neck and the Bronx Whitestone bridges in Queens.

City Living

City Living: Little Italy

Little Italy harks back to a time when grandma lived upstairs, the mozzarella was fresh and the local butcher knew customers on a first-name basis.

City Living: Jamaica Estates

At the last stop on the F train in Queens, you can head south into the sprawling, bustling urban enclave of Jamaica. Head north uphill though, and you'll find yourself in a suburban neighborhood where it seems there are more squirrels than people plying the sidewalks.

City Living: Bay Ridge

Originally christened Yellow Hook by Dutch settlers due to its rich yellow soil, Bay Ridge got its present name only after a yellow fever epidemic made the original moniker a tad unsavory.

City Living: Hudson Heights

It's a story as familiar to real estate as security deposits and credit checks. Brokers, eager to capture the attention of buyers, invent a new name for a neighborhood, hoping to separate it from a lesser-thought-of area or glom onto a hipper one nearby.

Sunnyside landmark status divides nabe

A bid to landmark Sunnyside Gardens is bitterly dividing the historic Queens community, once envisioned as a utopian oasis of green spaces and neighborly cooperation.

City Living

College Point

To live in College Point, Queens, you've got to deal with some pretty noisy neighbors.

City Living

Glendale

In the last 400 years, the area now known as Glendale has morphed from freshwater swamp to vibrant German farming community to saloon-filled "playground," and finally to an attractive multicultural enclave bounded by graveyards and lush parks.

City Living

Rego Park

Before it was the setting for scenes in Art Spiegelman's Maus or dubbed "Regostan" by The New York Times due to its prominent Central Asian community, Rego Park was occupied by Dutch farmers.

City Living

Murray Hill

In many ways, Murray Hill is like anywhere in Manhattan. Townhouses, tenements and brownstones compete for space along streets by turns both busy, pocket parks such as St. Vartan's provide a small respite from the hub bub, and dry cleaners, delis, markets and salons fill in the cogs of commerce of a thriving neighborhood.

City Living

Park Slope

On a sunny spring day in Park Slope, Seventh and Fifth avenues are the very picture of vibrant street life, teeming with busy sidewalk cafes and people riding bikes, pushing strollers or walking dogs.

City Living

Bayside

Although you'll never see a subway car in this northeast Queens burg, you can find just about everything else you might want. A mall full of chain stores? Check. A quaint strip of mom-and-pop stores within easy walking distance? Check. History? A Civil War-era fort is right around the corner.

City Living

Tribeca

Tribeca's transformation from the butter and eggs district to sought-after downtown destination has been going on for decades, but a recent boom in development has some worried that what drew them to the neighborhood are at risk.

City Living

Brighton Beach

It's not uncommon to approach a shop clerk in Brighton Beach and be greeted, before anything else, in Russian.

City Living

Southwest Harlem

The revival of Harlem is well known. But the area of Manhattan that was once the Dutch village of Nieuw Haarlem is a vast one, stretching from the Hudson River to the East Side.

City Living

Kensington

Brooklyn's Kensington neighborhood is only just being discovered. A small, quiet community sandwiched between more popular neighborhoods of Windsor Terrace and Prospect Heights, Kensington is one of the most diverse corners of New York.

City Living

Middle Village

Middle Village's location between Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Jamaica Turnpike no longer has as much relevance as it did at its founding in the early 19th century. But with three large cemeteries surrounding it and only one subway line, the Queens community can certainly hold onto its "village" designation.

City Living

Kingsbridge

With a growing central commercial area chock-a-block with big chain stores, restaurants and shops, Kingsbridge has become a noisy, bustling neighborhood.

City Living

Upper West Side

"Quintessential New York" is often a phrase used to describe the Upper West Side.

City Living

Battery Park City

Right after 9/11, residents had no choice but to abandon Battery Park City, which stood in the Twin Towers' shadow. Retirees moved elsewhere, families relocated and the flow of Manhattanites into this peaceful oasis abruptly ended.

City Living

Far West Side

Wander down Eighth or Ninth avenues in the 40s and 50s and you're surrounded by classic midtown Manhattan -- new office towers, restaurants, night clubs and theaters. Then there are 10th and 11th avenues.

City Living

Gowanus

Standing on one of the four bridges that straddle the Gowanus Canal, it's downright impossible to imagine that this was once a creek that British soldiers crossed during the American Revolution.

City Living

South Street Seaport

With the smell of the ocean, cobblestone streets, low brick buildings, and the looming sails of historic ships, South Street Seaport doesn't seem to have changed much in the past 200 years when its waterfront was the hub of the city's economy.

City Living

Woodlawn

When Robert Moses started laying down mile upon mile of road in New York in the 1940s, he carved up many a poor neighborhood in the Bronx.

City Living

Flushing

You can eat your way through Flushing. Its large immigrant population (55% Asian) brought with it pork dumplings, scallion pancakes and fine teas. Hispanic and Hindu populations add even more flavor to the mix.

City Living

Carroll Gardens

Walk through Carroll Gardens and you will encounter neighbors calling to each other from across streets, young couples pushing strollers and an affable sense that it's a neighborhood where everyone belongs.

City Living

SoHo

Sure, SoHo can be read as an acronym for South of Houston Street, but these days it seems to have more in common with the famed ritzy neighborhood in London whose name it shares.

City Living

Williamsburg

Once a desolate waterfront littered with factories and abandoned buildings, Williamsburg became the darling of the art-school crowd lured by its relative proximity to the city and the hip night scene.

City Living

Bensonhurst

A jaunt into the working-class Brooklyn neighborhood of Bensonhurst can offer visitors an immediate sense of deja vu.

City Living

Washington Heights

New Yorkers who've made the move north to Washington Heights often rave about this upper Manhattan neighborhood.

City Living

Forest Hills

Simon and Garfunkel called it home, and so did The Ramones. But Forest Hills – a sought-after Queens neighborhood -- is probably best known as the place where tennis got its footing in the city.

City Living

Red Hook

Once a forgotten, crime-ridden corner of South Brooklyn, Red Hook has slowly become a destination for the artsy and adventurous -- those who are attracted to the quiet, the smell of sea water and the views of the Statue of Liberty.

City Living

Sunset Park

Felix Soto, a longtime Sunset Park resident, was flying his kite in Sunset Park, the neighborhood's crown jewel and namesake. He stopped and gestured toward the harbor.

City Living

Inwood

With rivers on three sides and 282 acres of parkland on its western border, Inwood -- the 'hood where the A train ends -- has an isolated feel that makes it seem even farther from "the city" its roughly nine-mile distance from midtown would indicate.

City Living

Greenpoint

Greenpoint is a neighborhood in transition -- one where its identity as Little Warsaw is slowly losing ground to the slew of luxury high-rises that are rapidly changing the neighborhood.

City Living

City Living: Stuyvesant Town

A visit to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village is like stepping back in time. Mere blocks away from the percolating hipness of the East Village and the roar of the FDR is an oasis as quiet as the deepest reaches of Central Park.

City Living

Long Island City

Until recently, Long Island City was most known for impressive art and culture thanks to P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center and 5 Pointz art studios. But the neighborhood wasn't terribly promising as a business or residential district.

City Living

Midwood

Even if you're a native New Yorker, chances are you've never stepped foot in Midwood. The little-known Brooklyn neighborhood offers the city's ethnic melting pot with an unexpected suburban feel.

City Living

Riverdale

Riverdale. The very name conjures the popular notion of magnificent estates framed by stately oak trees and immaculate lawns. The reality includes those million-dollar mansions, but also plenty of modest houses, down-to-earth apartment buildings, and huge, gleaming towers that could fit right into the Upper East Side.

City Living

Jackson Heights

A stroll through Jackson Heights is like a ride on Disney's "It's A Small World," without the obnoxious song. Fewer than 20% of the 67,000 residents speak just English, and you're more likely to find tortillas than cheeseburgers on a local menu.

City Living

Two Bridges

Paul Ratnofsky remembers playing Skully in the streets of Two Bridges, using a detergent cap weighted with melted crayons.

City Living

Grand Concourse

Between the building of the new Yankee Stadium, a soon-to-be renovated Bronx Museum and Edgar Allan Poe Park, there is a lot of history on the brink of reflourishing along the Grand Concourse.

City Living

Tudor City

With its clattering traffic, six- and seven-deep crush of pedestrians and more asphalt per square inch than anywhere on the continent, midtown Manhattan would seem to be just the kind of neighborhood you wouldn't want to call home.

City Living

Lower Manhattan

Three years ago, when the city was still offering incentives to draw people to lower Manhattan, Rafael Esquer took the bait and moved into a 575-square-foot studio on Greenwich Street in the Financial District, not far from Ground Zero.

City Living

Chelsea

Known for its galleries and large gay population, Chelsea has long been a haven for a creative, diverse community.

City Living

City Island

How different is City Island from the rest of the city?

City Living

Prospect Lefferts Gardens

When Patricia Glynn and her husband Eamon relocated from Paris 28 years ago, she knew this much: She wanted to live in a Brooklyn brownstone.

City Living

Richmond Hill, Queens

Faced with rising rents in Williamsburg, Eileen Raab packed up four years ago and moved to Richmond Hill.

City Living

Midtown Manhattan

Many New Yorkers don't go -- or say they don't go -- to Times Square, in the heart of central midtown.

City Living

Weehawken, N.J.

The view from the car window as you speed through the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel isn't very impressive, but just off the first ramp is Weehawken, a New Jersey township with views and history way more interesting than its 13,500 population might suggest.

City Living

Woodside, Queens

When Woodside residents describe their neighborhood, it sounds like a utopia. "It's quiet and safe," they repeat like a mantra. "There's a good community here."

City Living

Ditmas Park

The Belt Parkway isn't the only route to suburbia.

City Living

Hamilton Heights

Back when northern Manhattan was still farmland, Federalist Papers co-author and U.S. Constitution architect Alexander Hamilton settled in an area high above the rest of the island.

City Living: Roosevelt Island

As a sliver of land on the East River between Manhattan and Queens, Roosevelt Island is just yards away from the city mayhem, but it feels like a different world.

City Living

Ridgewood: On the edge of it all

Once home to many German immigrants, Ridgewood is today a blend of Latino and Eastern European immigrants, many of whom have been priced out of Greenpoint.

City Living

Lincoln Square

Long before there was a Lincoln Center, the name Lincoln Square referred to the area between where 63rd Street and 66th Street intersected with Broadway and Columbus Avenue. But as so often happens in New York City, the surrounding neighborhood would in time take on that name, though many residents simply call it the Upper West Side.

City Living

Belmont: The Bronx's true Little Italy

Anyone in the know will tell you the "real" Little Italy isn't on Mulberry Street, but in the Bronx.

City Living

Sheepshead Bay

Sheepshead Bay is celebrated for its seafood, excellent fishing and family-friendly environment. With a rich history, the area remains a must-see for nostalgia buffs, with institutions such as Lundy's seafood restaurant.

City Living

Far West Village

The Far West Village is like a movie set of New York City: warehouses and townhouses, cobblestones and pavement, Mustangs and Schwinns.

City Living: Kew Gardens

The Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens has retained a bucolic splendor for decades even though it's bordered by two major highways and bisected by the Long Island Rail Road.

City Living: Morningside Heights

Morningside Heights is a neighborhood very much defined by the educational and religious institutions in its borders.

Living in Fort Greene

Even those who have never been to Fort Greene have probably seen it.

City Living

Nolita

Several lifetimes ago, Little Italy was a thriving pocket of immigrants from a certain Southern European country stretching into the Mediterranean. Over time, most of them left, and the residents of Chinatown filled much of the void.

City Living

St. George, Staten Island

Located at the northeastern tip of Staten Island where the Kill Van Kull enters Upper New York Bay, St. George, also known as "Downtown Staten Island," has seen its share of ups and downs since the early 20th century.

Living in Alphabet City

If gentrification were an earthquake, then Alphabet City would be the epicenter, from which waves of rent hikes and community upheaval spread out over New York City.

City Living

Lenox Hill

When the Third Avenue el train was torn down in 1955, it sparked a transformation of the section of the Upper East Side closest to the East River that is still continuing today.

City Living

Marble Hill

Marble Hill suffers from Borough Identity Disorder. The community's residents belong to Manhattan politically -- they vote and serve jury duty there -- but they receive municipal services from the Bronx.

City Living

Flatiron District

Once known primarily as a commercial district, Flatiron is becoming more residential, as commercial buildings are converted into condominiums and families flock to the rejuvenated Madison Square Park.

City Living: Sunnyside

While the seed of gentrification has sprouted throughout Queens – in neighborhoods such as Long Island City and Astoria -- Sunnyside remains relatively unsown. "The area hasn't changed much in over 70 years," said Gerald Lederman, who was born in Sunnyside in 1934 and has worked there ever since.

City Living: Elmhurst

Walk down any of the main shopping streets in Elmhurst and experience a mix of cultures that is unprecedented even for Queens, a borough known for its multi-ethnicity.

City Living: West 90s

The Upper West Side has long been a haven for artists, musicians and writers. But the bohemian feel of the West 90s is slowly eroding as real estate prices rise, fancy new apartment buildings go up along Broadway and young professionals continue to move in.

City Living: Windsor Terrace

If you've been priced out of Park Slope, the first place you're likely to think about moving is the neighboring area of Windsor Terrace. This is a neighborhood not of lofty brownstones but of more modest two-family houses.

City Living: Yorkville

Yorkville is home to the mayor's official residence, Gracie Mansion, but the Upper East Side neighborhood used to be home to the "German Broadway" – aka 86th Street. That street was once lined with German nightclubs, butchers, vaudeville houses, restaurants and clothiers.

City Living: Manhattan Valley

Manhattan Valley -- sandwiched between Central Park, the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights – is ripe for gentrification.

City Living: Turtle Bay

Turtle Bay rises from shadow of the UN

You'll never hear the same language spoken twice in Turtle Bay. As the home of the United Nations, Turtle Bay houses diplomats and consulates from around the world, as well as many ethnic organizations such as the Turkish Center, Japan Society, and Anti-Defamation League.

City Living: Union Square

Union Square was a junction for commerce, politics and transit in the earliest days of the city's history, and after falling into disrepair in the 1970s, the area has made a full comeback. Four-star hotels, restaurants and clubs call it home, a famed farmer's market has been joined by a new Whole Foods store, and newly restored playgrounds and a dog run make the area friendly for families too. Leonard Steinberg, a real estate broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, said the area's central location makes it extremely attractive.

City Living: Hell's Kitchen

What to Expect: