Like most of "downtown" it is more stimulating and interesting than the more commonly chosen residential neighborhoods (the upper east and west sides)--but this is a double edge sword. What is stimulating when you want to go out (bars, dancing, restaurants, etc) becomes annoying when one opens up next door to you or pours 50 drunk people out the door into your hood at 4am on Monday morning. Additionally, the zoning for most of downtown is still ambiguous--you really can't be too sure as to what you'll be getting when you move in--on the upper east and upper west this is not the case.

trendy, expensive, lofts! On a typical weekend the streets are packed with fashionable shoppers visiting stores run by well-known fashion brands. While originally intended for manufacturing, many of the offices above the stores feature art galleries, ad agencies, and design firms working in open, loftlike offices. The side streets of SoHo have fancier shops and art galleries that Broadway, and include one of New York's Apple stores, "Station A", housed in the former Prince Street post office. Broadway and Houston, the unofficial entrance to SoHo, is famous for its giant billboards, second only to Times Square. The grid of girders on the building to the right is not some partially constructed building, but an artwork called "The Wall" which has been there since 1973.