A Lot of Everything on the Upper West Side

New York Times
August 7, 2010

Crowded with shops, serviced by multiple subway lines and bordered by Central and Riverside parks, the Upper West Side has no problem attracting residents.

Traditionally a working-class neighborhood, the area has been transformed in recent years by an influx of affluent young families and more than a few local and national artists, musicians and actors.

Celebrities known to have an address on the Upper West Side include Yoko Ono, Alex Rodriguez and Sting. They're living side by side with longtime residents and Columbia University students, who have a quick walk to campus. It's not surprising to catch a celebrity or two strolling through the neighborhood, or come across blocked off streets due to a television show or movie filming. Recent sightings: Al Pacino, Kelsey Grammer and Keanu Reeves, according to Torrey Taralli, co-founder of the My Upper West Side blog and an eight-year resident.

The neighborhood is made up of a mix of prewar buildings, many originally built as rental properties before being converted into cooperatives and condominiums. High-rises constructed in the 1960s often went co-op in the 1980s. Rental conversions continue today at such high-end buildings as the Apthorp. The neighborhood is also stocked with tenements, brownstones, a few low-rise brick buildings and some public housing.

There's no shortage of cultural attractions. Parents and children flock to the Children's Museum of Manhattan and the American Museum of Natural History. There's also the New York Historical Society, where current exhibitions include Slavery in New York.

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French Roast sits at Broadway and W. 85th St. in the Upper West Side

Upper West Side businesses along Broadway include Coach at West 84th Street

A statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback at the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History