The Neighborhood

We might not be tourists, but we wanted a picture in front of the Charging Bull too!

Ask most New Yorkers for their opinion of the Financial District, and you’ll get some variation of the same answer: “There’s nothing to do there. It’s dead after 6.”

That might have been true a few years ago, but Wall St. has a new swagger now. It’s evolving from a business-only neighborhood into a residential haven for the newest generation of young professionals – the area’s residential population has doubled since 2000, according to the neighborhood's Community Board. Though it’s been a hub for economic interests since the seventeenth century, the Financial District is slowly changing its stripes.

Lower Manhattan is the oldest part of New York. It's the site of the original Dutch settlement, established in 1625 when the Dutch built Fort Amsterdam just south of Bowling Green. From there they expanded north, into what is now FiDi.

Though close to four centuries have passed since the Dutch first arrived, they've left footprints all over the neighborhood. Take Stone Street. When it was paved by the Dutch in the 17th century, it was the one of the first paved streets in the New World. Today, restaurants line both sides of the street. People mill about on the cobblestones, rarely recognizing the rich history beneath their feet.

Tourists also flock to this area that is so often ignored by New York City’s locals. They come to see Ground Zero with flowers and candles and cameras in hand. They go to Arturo Di Modica’s 7,000-pound bronze Charging Bull statue in front of Bowling Green, and smile broadly for the camera while hanging off of the Bull’s horns.

They flock to the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, crowding the Grecian columns where George Washington was inaugurated in 1789. They peruse through the “I Love NY” T-shirts and caps that vendors proudly hawk in front of Trinity Church, a Gothic marvel on Broadway. The area comes alive with a different pulse on weekends, when the suits are at home and the offices are closed. Saturdays and Sundays are for visitors, and they frequent the neighborhood in droves.

New apartment buildings and restaurants open daily. Probably the biggest indicator of the changing neighborhood is the rumor that Whole Foods might open a store on Broad Street.
There is much more to the Financial District than finance. Sure, money is its backbone, but there is so much more to this area than that. Here, there is tourism, there is housing, there is history.