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.

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