23rd St Between 3rd Ave and Lexington Ave

While on a street surrounded by buildings owned by NYU, CUNY and SVA, you're very likely to run into students of some sort. However, while schools are very prevalent here, it's not entirely dominated the way Greenwich Village or the Upper West Side is; it's a more subtle takeover.  A 50/50 mix of new and old buildings keep you from getting a solid reading on the neighborhood's vibe. Up until just a few years ago the north-western corner of 23rd and 3rd was home to a series low-rise buildings which were in-turn home to a series of very handy bodegas – this is now a tall, glassy building which is  being used as NYU housing.

Along with the James Farley building in Midtown and Grand Central Station on Lexington, the Madison Square Station Post Office in the middle of 23rd Street is one of my favorite Post Offices. With a beautiful, stoic facade, you feel like you're entering some grand palace, and for the most part, that grandeur is continued to the interior.

It's worth nothing that the three Post Offices that I've mentioned are all confusingly named in their own right. The James Farley Building is better-known simply as the main post office building in New York - or colloquially as the Madison Square Post Office (thanks to it's proximity to the current Madison Square Garden). Meanwhile this Post Office on 23rd is known properly as the Madison Square Garden Station, which is nearly impossible to search for on Google since it'll inevitably bring you to the aforementioned midtown location – or even Penn Station. Grand Central Station is the proper name for the Post Office on Lexington Ave and 44th Street – the train depot next door is Grand Central Terminal.