SoHo, Manhattan
SoHo (South of Houston Street), sometimes written Soho,[4] is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store outlets. The area's history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification, encompassing socioeconomic, cultural, political, and architectural developments.[5]
This article is about an area of Manhattan. For the area of London, see Soho. For other uses, see Soho (disambiguation).
SoHo
0.87 km2 (0.336 sq mi)
18,894
22,000/km2 (56,000/sq mi)
$135,083
212, 332, 646, and 917
Roughly north to south: Houston to Canal Streets; and west to east: West Broadway or Sixth Avenue to Crosby Street or Lafayette Street
Manhattan, New York City
73 acres (30 ha)
June 29, 1978
August 14, 1973
May 11, 2010 (extension)
The name "SoHo" derives from the area being "South of Houston Street", and was coined in 1962 by Chester Rapkin,[6] an urban planner and author of The South Houston Industrial Area study,[7] also known as the "Rapkin Report".[notes 1] The name also recalls Soho, an area in London's West End.[8]
Almost all of SoHo is included in the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District, which was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, extended in 2010, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in
1978.[9] It consists of 26 blocks and approximately 500 buildings,[10] many of them incorporating cast-iron architectural elements. Many side streets in the district are paved with Belgian blocks.[11]
SoHo is part of Manhattan Community District 2 and its primary ZIP Codes are 10012 and 10013.[1] It is patrolled by the 1st and 5th Precincts of the New York City Police Department.
Geography[edit]
Boundaries[edit]
Because of the nature of neighborhoods in New York City,[notes 2] different sources will often give different boundaries for each one. In the case of SoHo, all sources appear to agree that the northern boundary is Houston Street, and the southern boundary is Canal Street, but the location of the eastern and western boundaries is disputed.
In 1974, shortly after SoHo first came into existence, The New York Times described the boundaries as "stretching from Houston to Canal Streets between West Broadway and Lafayette Street"[13] – a definition it continued to hold to in 2016[14] – but The Encyclopedia of New York City reports that SoHo is bounded by Crosby Street on the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west.[15] These are the same boundaries shown by Google Maps.[16] However, the AIA Guide to New York City gives the western boundary of SoHo north of Broome Street as being West Broadway,[8] and New York magazine gives the eastern boundary as Lafayette Street and the western boundary as the Hudson River.[17]
The map at the Community Board 2 profile page on New York City's official website has "SOHO" written near Broadway in the space roughly equidistant between Houston Street and Canal Street.[18][19]
In the 1990s, real estate agents began giving an adjacent neighborhood below West Houston Street various appellations, with no general agreement on whether it should be called (or included as part of) West SoHo, Hudson Square or the South Village.[20] The AIA Guide calls that neighborhood "An intersection of brick and glass, searching for an identity", and refers to the western section of it as "The Glass Box District".[21] Unlike Hudson Square, the South Village has traditionally appeared on maps of Community District 2, centered near the intersection of Houston Street and Avenue of the Americas.[22] The more recent map of Community District 2 contains both the South Village and Hudson Square, with the latter written in the area below Houston Street, between Hudson Street and the Hudson River.[19]
Historic District[edit]
The SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District is contained within the zoned SoHo neighborhood. Originally ending in the west at the eastern side of West Broadway and to the east at the western side of Crosby Street, the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District was expanded in 2010 to cover most of West Broadway and to extend east to Lafayette and Centre Streets. The boundary lines are not straight, and some block-fronts on West Broadway and Lafayette are excluded from the District.[23][24]
Police and crime[edit]
SoHo and Lower Manhattan are patrolled by the 1st Precinct of the NYPD, at 16 Ericsson Place.[62] The 1st Precinct ranked 63rd safest out of 69 city precincts for per-capita crime in 2010. Though the number of crimes is low compared to other NYPD precincts, the residential population is also much lower.[63] With a non-fatal assault rate of 10 per 100,000 people, SoHo's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 100 per 100,000 people is also lower than that of the city as a whole.[58]: 8
The 1st Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 86.3% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct saw 1 murder, 23 rapes, 80 robberies, 61 felony assaults, 85 burglaries, 1,085 grand larcenies, and 21 grand larcenies auto in 2018.[64]
SoHo is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations:[65]
Health[edit]
Preterm births are more common in SoHo and Greenwich Village than in other places citywide, though teenage births are less common. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, there were 91 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 1 teenage birth per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), though the teenage birth rate is based on a small sample size.[58]: 11 SoHo and Greenwich Village have a low population of residents who are uninsured. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 4%, less than the citywide rate of 12%, though this was based on a small sample size.[58]: 14
The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in SoHo and Greenwich Village is 0.0095 milligrams per cubic metre (9.5×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.[58]: 9 Sixteen percent of SoHo and Greenwich Village residents are smokers, which is more than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers.[58]: 13 In SoHo and Greenwich Village, 4% of residents are obese, 3% are diabetic, and 15% have high blood pressure, the lowest rates in the city – compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively.[58]: 16 In addition, 5% of children are obese, the lowest rate in the city, compared to the citywide average of 20%.[58]: 12
Ninety-six percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is more than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 91% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%.[58]: 13 For every supermarket in SoHo and Greenwich Village, there are 7 bodegas.[58]: 10
The nearest major hospitals are Beth Israel Medical Center in Stuyvesant Town, as well as the Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU Langone Medical Center in Kips Bay, and NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital in the Civic Center area.[68][69]
SoHo is within two primary ZIP Codes. The area north of Broome Street is in 10012 while the area south of Broome Street is in 10013.[70] The United States Postal Service operates two post offices near SoHo both in ZIP 10014:
Transportation[edit]
Vehicles[edit]
By vehicle, SoHo borders the Holland Tunnel, which carries vehicular traffic under the Hudson River, connecting SoHo and Lower Manhattan with Jersey City and New Jersey to its west.
Subway[edit]
SoHo can be reached by the New York City Subway, using the A, C, and E trains to Spring Street; 1 and 2 trains to Houston Street; the N, Q, R, and W trains to Prince Street; and the 4, 6, and <6> trains to Spring Street. The crosstown M21 on Houston Street and the north–south M1, M55 bus routes also serve the neighborhood.[81]
Informational notes
Citations
Bibliography