City of Neighborhoods

In Manhattan, everything you need or could want can probably be found within a 15 block radius of your apartment, and unless you work outside of that radius, there is rarely a reason to leave your neighborhood. On days that I don't go to work I find that I often don't even leave the Upper West Side.

It is this neighborhood clustering tendency, I believe, which has led the formation of Manhattan's many distinct neighborhoods. What I find fascinating, however is that not only do these communities form, but they develop personalities... suggesting that like-minded, like-interested, or like-motivated people attract one another - forming associations and then clustering together.

Does this happen anywhere other than New York?

You could make a case that it happens on a macro level across the country. The South has a personality and a culture all its own (Two words: Fried Catfish). As does the Midwest (You coastal people laugh, but John Deere is serious stuff), the Southwest (it takes a special kind of person to love a cactus), California (venti-no-foam-soy-vanilla-chai-latte-to-go-please), Florida (enough said), New England (where the Puritan work ethic still haunts the hallways of private prep schools), and The Great Lake States (Cheese heads).

So I guess it makes sense, really... since New York is like a concentrated version of America (with a little bit of trans-continental flavor mixed in).

The vibe of the different Manhattan neighborhoods is so dintinct in fact, that you can feel the difference as you cross the street. You can tell by the displays in the store windows, by the clothes and the demeanor of the people passing you, whether you're in Chelsea or Meatpacking, Gramercy or Murray Hill. With a little bit of practice you can even distinguish the Upper West Side from Manahattan Valley and Morningside Heights. It'd be difficult to draw a boundary around each neighborhood on a map. But trust me, the East Village and the West Village are unquatifiably, yet vastly different.

One of the tricks to surviving in the city is to find the neighborhood that suits you - the one where you feel most comfortable, and set about settling into your little mini community. The big city just doesn't seem as daunting when you have a little piece of it that you know backwards and forward and can call it home.