Understand
Greenwich Village was once a large industrial park; later, it was colonized by radicals, bohemians, beatniks, artists, and literary greats squatting in abandoned factories. High rents exclude most of their ilk today their countercultural counterparts are NYU students with parental support but the Village as it is known still has its charm.
Greenwich Village, home to a vibrant artistic and literary community in the 1950s, occupies the space between Houston Street and 14th Street. The central portion surrounds Washington Square Park and includes NYU's large campus and a thriving B&T bridge & tunnel - a pejorative term nightlife scene on MacDougal Street. West of University Place are many historic and attractive brownstones and some of the city's best restaurants and bars. The area's traditional avant garde reputation - it was a major center of the gay rights movement in the 1970s, for example - has somewhat faded as yuppies and movie stars move in.
Many people worldwide who have never been to the Village are familiar with the Village Voice newspaper (http://villagevoice.com/), which is actually published in the East Village.
Greenwich Village is also the main setting for the TV series Friends as Monica's apartment has a Grove St. address, and there are numerous references to nearby areas such as Bleecker St. and SoHo although the series was actually filmed in the Warner Brother studios in Los Angeles.
