Park Ave Between 17th St and 19th St

   

Filled with stores and restaurants that feed off the residual crowds from Union Square, this part of Park Avenue is a markedly different from the blocks that exist further uptown. Lacking the high-end corporations that dot the landscape to the north, these few blocks borrow a lot from the surrounding Gramercy and Flatiron neighborhoods.

Anchored by the W hotel on the corner of 17th Street, the remainder of the block is filled with a mixture of restaurants, none of which could really be described as affordable. The buildings are a mixture of old and new – with the latter style sticking out more with a few "sore thumb" examples.

The first place I lived in New York was a dormitory on 23rd and 3rd at the School of Visual Arts. I remember thinking at the time that Union Square felt far away. Believe it or not, I would often contemplate taking the Subway instead of walking down this part of Park Ave. What a twit I was.