Canal Street was once a canal. Don’t laugh. We all know it as the place to buy knock-off designer handbags and clothing and as the demarcation line between Little Italy and Chinatown in Manhattan. The real canal was filled in a couple of centuries ago, and since then it has become a center of cheap commerce and the big cross town highway to get from Long Island and Brooklyn across Manhattan to New Jersey. It’s noisy, crowded and not exactly the place you would think of looking for a NYC apartment.
That’s all changing. Canal Street is becoming slicker. Renovated buildings open up on side streets and buffer the noise. The oldest tenement buildings in the city are being classed up and are now chic dwellings.
Clean Up And New Buildings
Canal Street is still one of the most bustling areas of the city. It has hundreds of small shops, street vendors selling grey market imports, tourists seeking deals, and traffic. It’s as easy to find a fake Rolex watch as it is a decent deal on genuine items, and everyone loves it. Rents have been traditionally cheaper than about anywhere else in the downtown area. But something happened.
Actually, a couple of things happened on Canal. The City decided to shut down a lot of the street vendors, who weren’t paying sales tax and who were touting illegal goods. That cleaned the street up a lot. Then, developers started to take notice of the area, and the result is either a number of excellent renovations or slick new apartment buildings that have gone up. The rents have increased but the spaces and buildings are much nicer, and because the location is actually great, it is becoming a very cool area to live in.
Ever Changing Gentrification
There’s no reason to bemoan the old, crowded Canal Street area. It has changed before and it will change again, but for now enjoy the boom. The character of the area is so ingrained that it may gentrify but its roots will always be evident. New business – and more legitimate ones – are springing up as a result of new apartments. The rents are expensive but the area remains a bargain at the same time. New parks are being built, commuting anywhere in the city is easy, and you can still have a taste of downtown NYC the way it has always been – fun, eclectic and ethnic.
The best thing about Canal Street is that while it is tarting itself up a bit and becoming a nicer place to live, you are still sandwiched between two extraordinary areas like Little Italy and Chinatown. It means diversity. The city clean up means less noise, and maybe a little less traffic. It’s an area not to be missed if you’re looking for a new NYC apartment.
