Even though I was raised on the Upper West Side, I feel like I grew up in the East Village. From the day I first turned the Astor Place Cube back in the early '80s, I knew the neighborhood was my kind of place. I loved all the cool street art and performers, funky second-hand and punk-rock shops, old-world eateries, community gardens blooming with flowers and sculptures, and the fact that its scary reputation freaked out my uptight uptown parents.
Like much of New York City, the East Village has undergone a drastic transformation over the past few decades. Today the only thing scary about the area is the never-ending influx of chain stores and NYU students. But you can still find traces of the old neighborhood if you know where to look. Plus new businesses and amenities like the beautifully renovated Tompkins Square Park, and listservs like East Village Parents and Bowery Babes make the nabe decidedly more kid-friendly than it was back in the day.
Throughout September, we'll be highlighting everything the East Village has to offer families. For the purposes of our posts, our boundaries are Broadway to the East River between Houston and 14th Streets. We have lots of posts coming up about the best places to eat, shop and play in the area but we're kicking off our coverage with the top 40 things to do in the East Village with kids.
