East Village (Manhattan)

East Village, Manhattan
Neighborhood in Manhattan
Second Avenue and 6th Street, facing south.
Location of the East Village in Lower Manhattan, denoted in gray
East Village, Manhattan Map of New York City, with the dot showing the position of East Village in Manhattan
Coordinates: 40°43′39″N 73°59′09″W / 40.72750°N 73.98583°W / 40.72750; -73.98583Coordinates: 40°43′39″N 73°59′09″W / 40.72750°N 73.98583°W / 40.72750; -73.98583
Country	United States
State	New York
City	New York City
Borough	Manhattan
Named	1960s
Streets	2nd Avenue, 1st Avenue, Avenue A, Bowery, St. Marks Place
Population (2010)
• Total	62,832
Demonym(s)	East Villager
ZIP code	10002, 10003, 10009, 10012
Congressional Districts	8, 12, and 14
New York State Assembly	Districts 64, 66, and 74
New York State Senate	Districts 25 and 29
City Council District	New York City Council District 2
Community Board	Manhattan Community Board 3
Police precinct	NYPD 9th Precinct
Fire protection	4th and 6th Battalions

East Village is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its boundary to the north is Gramercy Park and Stuyvesant Town, to the south by the Lower East Side, and to the east by the East River. Generally, although definitions vary on the neighborhood's exact street boundaries, the East Village is considered to be the area east of Broadway to the East River, between 14th Street and Houston Street.

The area was once generally considered to be part of the Lower East Side with a large Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish population but gradually changed and by the late 1960s, many artists, musicians, students and hippies began to move into the area, attracted by cheap rents and the base of Beatniks who had lived there since the 1950s. The neighborhood has become a center of the counterculture in New York, and is known as the birthplace and historical home of many artistic movements, including punk rock and the Nuyorican literary movement. It has also been the site of protests and riots.

East Village is still known for its diverse community, vibrant nightlife and artistic sensibility, although in recent decades it has been argued that gentrification has changed the character of the neighborhood.

The area that is today known as the East Village was originally a farm owned by Dutch Governor-General Wouter van Twiller. Peter Stuyvesant received the deed to this farm in 1651, and his family held on to the land for over seven generations, until a descendant began selling off parcels of the property in the early 19th century. Wealthy townhouses dotted the dirt roads for a few decades until the great Irish and German immigration of the 1840s and 1850s.