Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is one of the city's quieter hoods, with a much slower pace than most other areas of the city. And it's for that reason-along with a large and somewhat more affordable housing stock-that families choose to live here. On weekends, stroller-pushing parents cram sidewalks along the wide avenues, shuttling their kids to soccer practice and birthday parties. Shoppers jam gourmet food emporiums such as Zabar's and Fairway, and other specialty stores along Broadway and Columbus Avenue.

Side streets are tree-lined, with high stoops leading up to stately brownstones straight out of Woody Allen films. The area has traditionally had a sizeable Jewish community, and so on the Sabbath large families can be seen walking to and from one of the Upper West Side's many synagogues. And everyone, no matter the season or time of day, enjoys Central Park and Riverside Park, two of the neighborhood's communal backyards. The Upper West Side also has its share of cultural institutions, from the stunning buildings that sit on the 16-acre Lincoln Center complex, to the impressive collection at the New York Historical Society to Columbus Circle's Museum of Art and Design to the much-loved American Museum of Natural History.

Most people think the area north of 106th Street and south of 125th Street on the West Side is just an extension of the Upper West Side. But technically it's called Morningside Heights, and it's largely dominated by Columbia University, along with a cluster of academic, religious, and medical institutions—Barnard College, St. Luke's Hospital, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, to name a few. Within the gates of the Columbia or Barnard campuses or inside the hushed St. John the Divine, New York City takes on a different character. This is an uptown student neighborhood—less hip than the Village, but friendly, fun, and intellectual.