East Village extends from Houston to 14th Street and from the Bowery and Third Avenue to the East River.
The area was once generally considered to be part of the Lower East Side, but began to develop its own identity and culture in the late 1960s, when many artists, musicians, students and hippies began to move into the area, attracted by cheap rents and the base of Beatniks who had lived there since the 1950s.
The neighborhood has become a center of the counterculture in New York, and is known as the birthplace and historical home of many artistic movements, including punk rock and the Nuyorican literary movement. The East Village to this day has more of a bohemian street style than its West-side counterpart.
The easternmost portion has been long known as Alphabet City (for Avenues A-D), and you can still find in it some of the old East Village flavors as longtime residents, old- and new-school bohemians, NYU students and young bankers drink and dine side by side in the area’s many hot spots. Popular neighborhood spots include DBGB, Ippudo, Momofuku Ko, the Bowery Hotel and Tompkins Square Park – with its well-loved dog run that draws puppies and their owners from the surrounding blocks and beyond.