Alphabet City, Manhattan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the Lower East Side

Lower East Side, Manhattan

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

and East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

in the New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

borough

Borough (New York City)

New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...

of Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

. It is also known as Loisaida, a Spanglish

Spanglish

.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...

adaptation of 'Lower East Side

Lower East Side

'. Its name comes from Avenues A

Avenue A (Manhattan)

Avenue A runs from north to south and is the westernmost of the avenues to be defined by letters instead of using the numbering system in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Avenue A runs from Houston Street to 14th Street, where it continues into a loop road in Stuyvesant Town, connecting to...

, B

Avenue B (Manhattan)

Avenue B runs from south to north and is two blocks east of 1st Avenue in Alphabet City, a district within the East Village. Avenue B runs from Houston Street to 14th Street, where it continues into a loop road in Stuyvesant Town, to be connected with Avenue A. Below Houston Street, Avenue B...

, C, and D

Avenue D (Manhattan)

Avenue D is the easternmost named avenue in the East Village neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, though several thoroughfares are closer to the East River. This area is also known as Alphabet City. Avenue D runs between East 12th Street and Houston Street, and continues south...

, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bordered by Houston Street to the south and by 14th Street

14th Street (Manhattan)

14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street rivals the size of some of the well-known avenues of the city and is an important business location....

to the north, along the traditional northern border of the East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

and south of Stuyvesant Town

Stuyvesant Town

Stuyvesant Town—Peter Cooper Village is a large private residential development on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, and one of the most iconic and successful post-World War II private housing communities...

and Peter Cooper Village. Some famous landmarks include Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the...

and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

Nuyorican Poets Café

The Nuyorican Poets Café is a non-profit organization in Alphabet City, Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, USA, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy and theatre.-History:...

. The neighborhood has a long history, serving as a cultural centre and ethnic enclave for Manhattan's German

German American

German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...

, Polish

Polish American

A Polish American , is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States...

, Hispanic

Hispanic and Latino Americans

Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...

, and Jewish populations.

Alphabet City is located in New York's 12th

New York's 12th congressional district

New York's 12th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in New York City. It includes parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan...

and 14th

New York's 14th congressional district

New York's 14th Congressional District is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives located in New York City. It includes most of the East Side of Manhattan, all of Roosevelt Island and the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, and Sunnyside in Queens...

congressional districts, the New York State Assembly

New York State Assembly

The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...

's 64th and 74th districts, the New York State Senate

New York State Senate

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

's 25th district, and New York City Council

New York City Council

The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...

's 2nd district. It is represented by Congresswomen Carolyn Maloney and Nydia Velázquez

Nydia Velázquez

Nydia Margarita Velázquez is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes residential areas of three boroughs...

, State Senator Dan Squadron

Dan Squadron

Daniel Squadron is the state senator for the 25th district of the New York State Senate. He is a Democrat. The 25th Senate District covers lower Manhattan and an area of Brooklyn down the East River from part of Greenpoint to Carroll Gardens, and eastward to part of Downtown Brooklyn.Before his...

, Assemblymen Sheldon Silver

Sheldon Silver

Sheldon "Shelly" Silver is an American lawyer and Democratic politician from New York. He has held the office of Speaker of the New York State Assembly since 1994.- Personal life :...

and Brian Kavanagh

Brian Kavanagh

Brian P. Kavanagh is a member of the New York State Assembly representing the 74th Assembly District, which is located on the East Side of Manhattan and includes parts of the Lower East Side, Union Square, Gramercy Park, Stuyvesant Square, Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, East Midtown Plaza,...

, and Councilwoman Rosie Mendez

Rosie Mendez

Rosie Mendez is an American Democratic Party politician in New York. She is a member of the New York City Council from Manhattan, representing the 2nd council district, which includes the Lower East Side, Alphabet City and the East Village...

. The neighbourhood is regulated by Manhattan Community Board 3

Manhattan Community Board 3

The Manhattan Community Board 3 is a local government unit in the New York City borough of Manhattan, encompassing the neighborhoods of Alphabet City, East Village, Lower East Side, Chinatown and Two Bridges...

. The neighborhood lies within the New York Police Department's 9th precinct, and its schools fall within Manhattan's 1st school district. If the neighborhood is considered, as according to some definitions, to extend to 23rd Street as its northern boundary, it also encompasses parts of the New York State Senate

New York State Senate

The New York State Senate is one of two houses in the New York State Legislature and has members each elected to two-year terms. There are no limits on the number of terms one may serve...

's 29th district (represented by State Senator Thomas Duane

Thomas Duane

Thomas K. Duane is an American politician from New York, currently serving in the New York State Senate. He was the nation's first openly HIV-positive person elected to office....

), New York City Council

New York City Council

's 4th district (represented by Daniel Garodnick

Daniel Garodnick

Daniel R. "Dan" Garodnick is a New York City Councilman representing Manhattan’s 4th District since 2006.-Biography:Prior to running for elected office, Garodnick was a litigation associate at the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison...

), and Manhattan Community Board 6

Manhattan Community Board 6

Manhattan Community Board 6 is a local government unit of New York City, New York, United States. Its area of responsibility encompasses the East Side of Manhattan from 14th Street to 59th Street. This includes the neighborhoods of Gramercy Park, Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, Waterside...

Early history

Until the early 1800s, much of what is now Alphabet City was an extensive salt marsh

Salt marsh

A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...

, a type of wetland that was part of the East River ecosystem. The wetland was drained, and a patch of the river bed reclaimed, by real estate developers in the early 19th century.

Like many other neighborhoods on Manhattan’s Lower East Side

Lower East Side, Manhattan

, Alphabet City became home to a succession

Ethnic succession theory

Ethnic succession theory is a theory in sociology stating that ethnic and racial groups entering a new area may settle in older neighborhoods or urban areas until achieving economic parity with certain economic classes...

of immigrant groups over the years. By the 1840s and 1850s, much of present-day Alphabet City had become known as "Kleindeutschland" or "Little Germany

Little Germany, New York

Little Germany, known in German as Kleindeutschland and Deutschländle and called Dutchtown by contemporary non-Germans, was a German immigrant neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City...

"; in the mid-19th century, many claimed New York to be the third-largest German-speaking city in the world, after Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, with most of those German speakers residing in and around Alphabet City. In fact, Kleindeutschland is considered to have been the second substantial non-Anglophone urban ethnic enclave in United States history, after Germantown

Germantown

- Places :in the United States* Germantown, California, former name of Artois, California* Germantown, Connecticut* Germantown, Illinois* Germantown, Decatur County, Indiana...

in Philadelphia.

By the 1880s, most Germans were moving out of Kleindeutschland and relocating Uptown, to the Yorkville

Yorkville, Manhattan

Yorkville is a neighborhood in the greater Upper East Side, in the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. Yorkville's boundaries include: the East River on the east, 96th Street on the north, Third Avenue on the west and 72nd Street to the south. However, its southern boundary is a subject of...

section of the Upper East Side

Upper East Side

The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...

. Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

ans replaced Germans as the dominant ethnic group in Alphabet City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this time the area was considered part of the Lower East Side, and became home to Eastern European Jews, Irish, and Italian immigrants. It consisted of tenement housing with no running water, and the primary bathing location for residents in the northern half of the area was the Asser Levy bath house on 23rd Street

23rd Street (Manhattan)

23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...

and Avenue C, north of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town

Stuyvesant Town

. During this time it was also the red light district

Red Light District

Red Light District may refer to:* Red-light district - a neighborhood where prostitution is common* The Red Light District - the title of the 2004 album by rapper Ludacris* Red Light District Video - a pornography studio based in Los Angeles, California...

of Manhattan and one of the worst slums in the city.

The 20th century

By the turn of the century, Alphabet City was among the most densely populated parts of New York City. This density was partially a result of the area's proximity to the city's garment factories, which were the major source of employment for newly arrived immigrants. After the construction of the subway system, workers were able to relocate to other parts of the city that were previously too remote, such as the Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

, and Alphabet City's population decreased dramatically.

By the middle of the 20th century, Alphabet City was again in transition, as thousands of Puerto Ricans began to settle in the neighborhood. By the 1960s and '70s, what was once Kleindeutschland and the red light district had evolved into "Loisaida

Loisaida

Loisaida is a term derived from the Latino pronunciation of "Lower East Side", a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The term was originally coined by poet/activist Bittman "Bimbo" Rivas in his 1974 poem "Loisaida"...

" (Spanglish

Spanglish

for "Lower East Side"). Alphabet City became an important site for the development and strengthening of Puerto Rican cultural identity in New York (see the Nuyorican Movement

Nuyorican Movement

The Nuyorican Movement is a cultural and intellectual movement involving poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican descent, who live in or near New York City, and either call themselves or are known as Nuyoricans...

). A number of important Nuyorican

Nuyorican

Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Rican diaspora located in or around New York State especially the New York City metropolitan area, or of their descendants...

intellectuals, poets and artists called Loisaida home during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, including Miguel Algarín

Miguel Algarín

Miguel Algarín , is a Puerto Rican poet, writer, co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, and retired Rutgers University professor of English.-Early years:...

and Miguel Piñero

Miguel Piñero

Miguel Piñero was a Puerto Rican playwright, actor, and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement.-Early years:...

.

During the 1980s, Alphabet City was home to a mix of Puerto Rican and African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

families living alongside struggling artists and musicians (who were mostly young and white). Attracted by the Nuyorican movement, low rents, and creative atmosphere, Alphabet City attracted a growing Bohemian

Bohemianism

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...

population. At one time it was home to many of the first graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

writers, b-boys, rappers, and DJs. The area also had high levels of illegal drug activity and violent crime. The Broadway musical Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...

portrays some of the positive and negative aspects of this time and place.

Origin of the term

The name 'Alphabet City' is thought to be of rather recent vintage, as the neighborhood was considered to be simply a part of the Lower East Side for much of its history. Urban historian Peter G. Rowe posits that the name only began to become used in the 1980s, when gentrification spread east from the Village. The term's first appearance in the New York Times is in a 1984 editorial penned by then mayor Ed Koch

Ed Koch

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...

, appealing to the federal government to aid in fighting crime on the neighborhood's beleaguered streets:

The neighborhood, known as Alphabet City because of its lettered avenues that run easterly from First Avenue to the river, has for years been occupied by a stubbornly persistent plague of street dealers in narcotics whose flagrantly open drug dealing has destroyed the community life of the neighborhood.

A later 1984 Times article describes it using a number of names: "Younger artists... are moving downtown to an area variously referred to as Alphabetland, Alphabetville, or Alphabet City (Avenues A, B, C and so forth on the Lower East Side of Manhattan)".

Tompkins Square Park Riots

In August 1988 a riot

Riot

A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...

erupted in Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park

when anarchists and homeless activists from outside the neighborhood began throwing M-80s

M-80 (explosive)

M-80s are a class of large firecrackers, sometimes called salutes. The Simulator, Artillery, M80, was originally made in the early 20th century by the U.S. Military to simulate explosives or artillery fire; Later, M-80s were manufactured as fireworks...

and rocks at police who had arrived to evict a large encampment of homeless people from the park. The police had been sent there to enforce a curfew enacted in response to over a decade of complaints from residents about the round-the-clock lawlessness and noise emanating from the park. The police showed little restraint, with several demonstrators injured, and much ensuing public disapproval. The rioters and their sympathizers refer to it as the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot.

Recent history

Alphabet City was one of many neighborhoods in New York to experience gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

in the 1990s and early 21st century. Multiple factors resulted in lower crime rates and higher rents in Manhattan in general, and Alphabet City in particular. Avenues A through D became distinctly less bohemian

Bohemianism

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...

in the 21st century than they had been in earlier decades. Apartments have been renovated and formerly abandoned storefronts are now bustling with new restaurants, nightclubs and retail establishments.

Cultural references

In Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

, Alphabet City is home to District X
District X
District X, also known as Mutant Town or the Middle East Side, is a fictional location in Marvel Comics. It is a neighborhood in New York City, first seen during Grant Morrison's run on the series New X-Men in New X-Men #127, which was primarily populated by mutants...

, also known as Mutant Town, a ghetto primarily populated by mutants
Mutant (Marvel Comics)
In comic books published by Marvel Comics, a mutant is an organism who possesses a genetic trait called an X-gene that allows the mutant to naturally develop superhuman powers and abilities...

. The ghetto was identified as being inside Alphabet City in New X-Men #127. It was described in District X as having the 'highest unemployment rate in the USA, the highest rate of illiteracy and the highest severe overcrowding outside of Los Angeles'. (These figures would suggest a large population.) It was destroyed in X-Factor #34.
The photo and text book "Alphabet City" by Geoffrey Biddle chronicles life in Alphabet City over the years 1977 to 1989.
The photo book "Street Play" by Martha Cooper
Martha Cooper
Martha Cooper is an American photojournalist born in the 1940s in Baltimore, Maryland where she picked up photography at the age of three. She graduated from high school at the age of 16, earned an art degree at age 19 from Grinnell College...
A fictional version of NYC's Alphabet City is explored in the Fallen Angels supplement to Kult
Kult
Kult is a contemporary fantasy horror role-playing game originally designed by Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén, first published in Sweden by Target Games in 1991. The first English edition was published in 1993 by Metropolis Ltd., a now defunct American publisher...

.
Allen Ginsberg wrote many poems relating to the streets of his neighborhood in Alphabet City.
Henry Roth
Henry Roth
Henry Roth was an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Roth was born in Tysmenitz near Stanislaviv, Galicia, Austro-Hungary...

's novel Call It Sleep
Call It Sleep
Call It Sleep is a 1934 novel by Henry Roth. The book centers on the experiences of a young boy growing up in the Jewish immigrant ghetto of New York's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century....

took place in Alphabet City, with the novel's main character, David and his family, living there.
Mike Codella's autobiographical novel, Alphaville, describes his time as a Sergeant in the NYPD, working in Alphabet City.
The fictional 15th Precinct in the police drama NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...

appears to cover Alphabet City, at least in part.
The series Law and Order: SVU frequently makes reference to the dangers of living in that area of the city.
The 1996 TV movie Mrs. Santa Claus
Mrs. Santa Claus
Mrs. Santa Claus is a 1996 television musical starring Angela Lansbury as the wife of Santa Claus. The musical score for Mrs. Santa Claus was written by Jerry Herman, the composer of such hit Broadway musicals as Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles.-Synopsis:The movie is set in December, 1910. Mrs...

is primarily set on Avenue A in Alphabet City in 1910.
The 2005 motion picture Rent
Rent (film)
Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...

, starring Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson
Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress, singer, and writer. She has appeared in films such as Kids, Men in Black II, 25th Hour, Sin City, Clerks II, Rent, Death Proof, The Rundown, Eagle Eye, Alexander, Seven Pounds, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Unstoppable.-Early...

, Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Angel Dumott Schunard in the Broadway musical Rent, for which he won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical...

, Jesse L. Martin
Jesse L. Martin
Jesse L. Martin is an American theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for originating the role of Tom Collins in the Broadway theatrical production of Rent, and for his portrayal of NYPD Detective Ed Green on the NBC drama television series Law & Order.-Early life:Martin, the third of...

, Anthony Rapp
Anthony Rapp
Anthony Deane Rapp is an American stage and film actor and singer best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway production of Rent in 1996 and later for reprising the role in the film version and the Broadway Tour of Rent in 2009...

, Adam Pascal
Adam Pascal
Adam Pascal is an American actor and singer known for his performance as Roger Davis in the original cast of Jonathan Larson's musical Rent on Broadway 1996, the 2005 movie version of the musical, and the Broadway Tour of Rent in 2009...

, Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...

, Taye Diggs
Taye Diggs
Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American theatre, film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Broadway musical Rent, the motion picture How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the television series Private Practice...

, and Tracie Thoms
Tracie Thoms
Tracie Nicole Thoms is an American television, film, and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in Rent, Cold Case, The Devil Wears Prada, Death Proof, and the short-lived Fox television series Wonderfalls....

, is an adaptation of the 1996 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

rock opera of the same name by Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson
Jonathan Larson was an American composer and playwright noted for the serious social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia explored in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works, Rent and tick, tick... BOOM!...

(which itself is heavily based on Puccini's opera La Boheme
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...

) and set in Alphabet City on 11th Street and Avenue B, although many scenes were filmed in San Francisco. Unlike the stage musical, which was not set in a specific period of time, the film is clear that the story takes place between 1989 and 1990. Although this leads to occasional anachronisms in the story, the time period is explicitly mentioned to establish that the story takes place before the gentrification of Alphabet City.
Much of the independent film Supersize Me, released in 2004, takes place in Alphabet City, near the residence of director Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...

.
Character actor Josh Pais
Josh Pais
Josh Pais is an American actor of film and television.He has appeared in many Hollywood films, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Raphael, Music of the Heart, Scream 3, It Runs in the Family, Little Manhattan and Find Me Guilty. He played Assistant M.E...

, who grew up in Alphabet City, conceived and directed a very personal documentary film, 7th Street, released in 2003. Shot over a period of ten years, it is both a "love letter" to the characters he saw everyday and a chronicle of the changes that took place in the neighborhood.
The 1999 film Flawless, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...

, Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Angel Dumott Schunard in the Broadway musical Rent, for which he won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical...

, takes place in Alphabet City with all filming taking place there.
A 1985
1985 in film
-Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...

movie by Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol.Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army...

, Mixed Blood was set and filmed in the pre-gentrification Alphabet city of the early 1980s
A 1984
1984 in film
-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....

movie called Alphabet City
Alphabet City (film)
Alphabet City is a 1984 crime drama film directed by Amos Poe. The story follows a young gangster of Italian descent named Johnny, who has been given control over his own neighborhood by the Mob. Then unknown actors Vincent Spano , Jami Gertz, and Michael Winslow give compelling performances in...

, about a drug dealer's attempts to flee his life of crime, took place in the district. It starred Vincent Spano
Vincent Spano
Vincent M. Spano is an American stage, film and television actor, and film director and producer. He received a Cable Ace Award nomination in 1988 for his role as Mark Ciuni in Il cugino americano.-Backround:...

, Zohra Lampert
Zohra Lampert
Zohra Lampert is an American actress, who has had roles on film, television and stage. She may be best remembered for her role as the title character in the 1971 cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death, as well as starring alongside Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in the 1961 romance film...

and Jami Gertz
Jami Gertz
Jami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz is known for her early roles in the films Sixteen Candles, Crossroads, The Lost Boys, Less Than Zero, the 1980s TV series Square Pegs with Sarah Jessica Parker, and 1996's Twister, as well as for her role as Judy Miller in the CBS sitcom Still Standing...

.
The Broadway musical Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...

takes place in Alphabet City. The characters live on East 11th Street and Avenue B. They hang out at such East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

locales as Life Cafe.
The Broadway musical Avenue Q
Avenue Q
Avenue Q is a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore and produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, and Jeffrey Seller...

takes place on the fictitious Avenue Q, which is, for the sake of the plot, located in Alphabet City. One of the main characters mentions he is looking for cheap accommodation in Alphabet City.
Avenue B
Avenue B (album)
-Personnel:*Iggy Pop - guitar, vocals*Peter Marshal - guitar*Lenny Castro - percussion*Hal Cragin - bass*David Mansfield - violin*John Medeski - Hammond organ, wurlitzer*Larry Mullins - drums, tabla, vibraphone, treated 808*Billy Martin - drums...

is an album by Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...

, who wrote the album while living at the Christodora House on Avenue B.
Avenue D is referenced in the Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...

song, "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More" off the 1975 album Katy Lied
Katy Lied
Katy Lied is the fourth album by Steely Dan, originally released in 1975 by ABC Records. It went gold and peaked at #13 on the US charts. The single "Black Friday" also charted at #37....
Alphabet City
Alphabet City (album)
Alphabet City is an album by the band ABC released in 1987.Following a hiatus while Fry was treated for Hodgkin's disease, ABC returned to the studio to record Alphabet City, which they thought might be their final album. Best known for "When Smokey Sings", a tribute to Smokey Robinson, the album...

is an album by ABC
ABC (band)
ABC are an English band, that charted ten UK and five US Top 40 singles between 1981 and 1990. The band continues to tour and released a new album, Traffic, in 2008.-Formation:...

.
The punk house and independent gig venue C-Squat
C-Squat
C Squat is a squat located at 155 Avenue C in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City, in an area called Loisaida.-History:Journalist and author Robert Neuwirth described the situation that gave birth to many of New York's squats, including C Squat, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, "In the...

is called so because it sits on Avenue C, between 9th and 10th St. Bands and artists to emerge from the former squat include Leftöver Crack
Leftöver Crack
Leftöver Crack is an American punk rock band formed in 1998, following the breakup of the ska punk band Choking Victim. Primarily playing an amalgam of ska and hardcore punk, they classify themselves as "crack-rocksteady". The band is currently signed to Fat Wreck Chords for CD releases, and...

, Choking Victim
Choking Victim
Choking Victim was a United States punk rock band formed in New York City, which were together from 1992 to 1999. Playing a mix of hardcore punk and ska with anarchist lyrics...

, INDK, Morning Glory and Stza
Stza
Scott Sturgeon, also known as Stza Crack , is a musician who has fronted several ska-punk bands in the New York City area, the best known being Choking Victim and Leftöver Crack...

. Leftöver Crack
Leftöver Crack
Leftöver Crack is an American punk rock band formed in 1998, following the breakup of the ska punk band Choking Victim. Primarily playing an amalgam of ska and hardcore punk, they classify themselves as "crack-rocksteady". The band is currently signed to Fat Wreck Chords for CD releases, and...

makes several references to "9th and C", the approximate location of C-Squat
C-Squat
C Squat is a squat located at 155 Avenue C in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City, in an area called Loisaida.-History:Journalist and author Robert Neuwirth described the situation that gave birth to many of New York's squats, including C Squat, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, "In the...

in the song "Homeo Apathy" from the album Mediocre Generica
Mediocre Generica
Mediocre Generica is the debut album by the American punk band Leftöver Crack. It was released on September 11, 2001 and includes much sociopolitical commentary, including anti-police sentiment, anti-racism and anti-homophobia. The album was originally intended to be titled Shoot the Kids at...

.
Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams
David Ryan Adams is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the band and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000...

references Avenue A and Avenue B in his track "New York, New York
New York, New York (Ryan Adams song)
"New York, New York" is a song written and performed by American alt-country musician Ryan Adams. It appeared on his 2001 album Gold. The song earned Adams a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal, and the single reached #53 in the UK charts in December 2001...

".
U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

references the neighborhood as "Alphaville" in their song "New York".
"Alphabet City" is the name of the fifth track on the 2004 release, The Wall Against Our Back from the Columbus, OH band Two Cow Garage
Two Cow Garage
-History:The group was formed in September 2001 by singer/guitarist Micah Schnabel, born in Bucyrus Ohio, who began playing with drummer Dustin Harigle in and around Columbus. Guitarist Chris Flint joined the group after seeing one of their early shows, and bassist Shane Sweeney followed soon...

.

External links

Alphabet City: The ABCs of Gentrification, Karin Pekarchik, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...

, June 11, 2001
6 and B Garden (Community Garden)
La Plaza Cultural (Community Garden)
Green Oasis Community Garden & Gilbert's Sculpture Garden (Community Garden)
Save Brigid's Church
Interactive map of Alphabet City

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