Cheap hotels in East Village, New York

Neighborhood Description

The down and dirty East Village really isn't so down and dirty anymore. It used to be New York City's troubled teen—a hub for bad-boy rock-and-rollers and other rabble-rousers. But things took a turn in the late '80s and '90s: the homeless squatters were ousted from Tompkins Square Park, and the drug dealers were cleared from (most of) the street corners of Alphabet City—the area between avenues A and D.

Now it's all about NYU students, quirky shops, cheap food, raucous pubs, and sleek little bars. There's still a little edge left to the East Village. St. Marks Place, for example, has its share of freaks. Traces of the neighborhood's Ukrainian community remain, there's a cluster of back-to-back Indian restaurants, and quite a few eateries catering to Japanese expats.

History buffs should check out McSorley's, New York's oldest pub, and Cooper Union, the design college where Abraham Lincoln delivered an important anti-slavery speech in 1860.