SoHo

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This article is about an area of Manhattan, New York City. For other meanings see Soho (disambiguation)

SoHo is a neighborhood in Manhattan that is bounded roughly by Houston Street on the north, Lafayette Street on the east, Canal Street on the south, and Sixth Avenue on the west.

Image:NYC SoHo Green Street.jpgThe name is a play on that of the famous London shopping district, justifying its name as being the area 'South of Houston (pronounced HOUSE-tin) Street. It was the first such mildly amusing naming acronym that has been followed by other new neighborhood descriptions such as Tribeca and DUMBO. Before its incarnation as a trendy locale, it was known as the Cast Iron District.

1 Cast Iron District and LoMEX
2 Artist studios and residences
3 Historic district
4 External links

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Cast Iron District and LoMEX

What became SoHo was to have been the locale of two enormous elevated highways, comprising the two branches of the Lower Manhattan Expressway. The highway was intended to create an automobile and truck through-route connecting the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges on the east with the Holland Tunnel on the west.

The young historic preservation movement and architectural critics, stung by the desctruction of Pennsylvania Station and the threat to other historic structures, challenged the plans because of the threatened loss of a huge quantity of 19th century cast-iron structures, which were not then highly valued by the general public or contemporary business community. When John V. Lindsay became mayor of New York City in 1966, his initial reaction was to try to push the expressways through with political spin, dubbing the project Lomex, depressing some of the proposed highway in residential areas and stressing the importance of the artery to the city. Nevertheless, the project was derailed and abandoned.

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Artist studios and residences

After abandonment of the highway scheme, the city was still left with a large number of historic buildings that were unattractive for the kinds of manufacturing and commerce that survived in the city in the 1970s. Many of these buildings, especially the upper stories which became known as lofts, attracted artists who valued the spaces for their large areas, large windows admitting natural light and dirt-cheap rents. Most of these spaces were also used illegally as living space, being neither zoned nor equipped for residential use, but this was ignored for a long period because the occupants were using space that would probably have been dormant or abandoned in the poor economic conditions of the era.

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Historic district

As the artist population grew, the city made some attempts to stem the movement, especially concerned about the occupation of space that did not meet codes for living space, and the possibility that the space might be needed at some time for the return of manufacturing to New York City.

Pressured on many sides, the city eventually gave up on attempting to keep all of the Cast Iron District as industrial space, and the area received historical designation as SoHo.

The historic district is officially bounded by Houston Street, West Broadway, Canal Street and Lafayette Street. It is noted for the elaborate cast-iron architecture of many of its buildings, most of which date from the late 19th century. These buildings originally housed warehouses and factories. It is also noted for its cobblestone streets, which have all recently been repaved with the exception of Wooster Street and part of Howard Street.

The neighborhood rose to fame as a neighborhood for artists during the 1960s and 1970s, when the cheap spaces vacated by departing factories were converted by artists into lofts and studios. SoHo's lofts were especially appealing to artists because they could use the wide spaces and tall ceilings that factories and warehouses required to create and store their work. During this period, which lasted into the 1980s, living in SoHo was often of dubious legality, as the area was zoned for light industrial and commercial uses rather than residential, and many residents had to convert their apartments into livable spaces on their own, with little money. However, beginning in the 1980s, in a way that would later apply elsewhere, the neighborhood rapidly rose up the socioeconomic scale. This led eventually to an exodus of most actual artists, leaving galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and young urban professionals.

SoHo's location, the appeal of lofts as living spaces, its architecture and, ironically, its "hip" reputation as a haven for artists all contributed to this change. The pattern of gentrification is typically known as the "SoHo Effect" and has been observed in several cities around the United States. Thirty years ago a backwater of poor artists and small factories, SoHo is now a popular tourist destination for people looking for fashionable (and expensive) clothing and exquisite architecture.

SoHo's boutiques and restaurants are clustered in the northern area of the neighborhood, along Broadway and Prince and Spring streets. The sidewalks in this area are often crowded with tourists and with artists selling paintings and other works, sometimes leaving no space for pedestrians to walk. The southern part of the neighborhood, along Grand Street and Canal Street, retains some of the feel of SoHo's earlier days and is noticeably more dilapidated and less crowded than the northern half. There are even a few small factories that have managed to remain. Canal Street at SoHo's south boundary is now part of Chinatown and contrasts with the former's posh shopping district is offering cheap imitation clothing and accessories ("knockoffs") as well as an enormous range of Chinese soft goods and foods, the latter mostly aimed at New York's Asian population.

Nearby neighborhoods include:

To the north: Greenwich Village and NoHo (there is some debate as to whether the latter is a real neighborhood)
To the east: Little Italy, NoLIta, and the Lower East Side
To the south: Chinatown

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