Everything about Tribeca totally explained
Tribeca is a
neighborhood in
lower Manhattan,
New York in the
United States. The name is a
syllabic abbreviation of "
Triangle
Below
Canal Street." It runs roughly from
Canal Street south to Chambers Street, and from the
Hudson River east to
Broadway. TriBeCa, once an industrial district dominated by
warehouses, has undergone a major revitalization. Warehouses were converted into
loft apartments and new businesses emerged, making it into a mixed
zoning neighborhood.
After the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, TriBeCa suffered financially. However, government grants and incentives provided an infusion of capital and the area rebounded. Amidst the recent real estate boom, TriBeCa housing prices outpaced even those of the highly popular Manhattan market as a whole. Tribeca has become one of the most trendy residential neighborhoods in the city.
Forbes magazine ranked the 10013 zip code in TriBeCa as the 12th most expensive zip code in the United States in 2006.
The neighborhood is also home to the
Tribeca Film Festival, founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan. The mission of the film festival is "to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience." The neighborhood is a frequent filming location for movies, most notably, the 1984 hit
Ghostbusters.
Demographics
As of the 2000 census, there were 10,395 people residing in TriBeCa. The population density was 31,467 people per square mile (12,149/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 82.34%
White, 7.96%
Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander, 4.89%
African American, 0.10%
Native American, 1.66% from
other races, and 3.02% from two or more races. 6.34% of the population were
Hispanic of any race. 18.2% of the population was foreign born, 41.3% came from Europe, 30.1% from Asia, 11.1% from Latin America, 10.2% from North America and 7.3% from other.
Architecture
TriBeCa is dominated by former industrial buildings that have been converted into residential buildings and
lofts, similar to those of the neighboring
SoHo Cast Iron Historic District. In the nineteenth and early twentieth, the neighborhood was a center of the textile/cotton trade.
Notable buildings in the neighborhoods include the Powell Building, on
Hudson Street, which was designed by
Carrère and Hastings and built in 1892. At 73
Worth Street there's a handsome row of neo-Renaissance White Buildings built at the end of the Civil War in 1865. Other notable buildings include the
New York Telephone Company building at
140 West Street with its Mayan-inspired Art Deco motif, and the former
New York Mercantile Exchange at 6 Harrison Street.
During the 1960's and '70s, abandoned, and inexpensive TriBeCa lofts became hot-spot residences for young artists and their families because of the seclusion of lower Manhattan and the vast living space. James Stratton, a TriBeCa resident since this period, wrote the 1977 nonfiction book entitled "Pioneering in the Urban Wilderness," detailing his experiences renovating lower Manhattan warehouses into residences.
Many people mistakenly attributed the name TriBeCa, the acronym for Triangle Below Canal, to the “triangular-shaped neighborhood”.
However, the neighborhood resembles an irregular trapezoid. TriBeCa’s etymology is more site-specific.
In the early 1970s, a couple of years after artists in
SoHo were able to legalize their live/work situation, artist and resident organizations in the area to the south, known then as Washington Market or simply the Lower West Side, sought to gain similar zoning status for their neighborhood. A group of Lispenard Street artist/residents living on the block directly south of Canal Street between Church Street and Broadway, joined the effort.
Just as the members of the SoHo Artists Association coined "SoHo" after looking at a City Planning map which marked the area as So. Houston’ and shortened that to SoHo, these Lispenard Street residents likewise employed a City Planning map to describe their block.
Since that block below Canal is wide on the Church Street side but narrows towards the Broadway end, it appears as a triangle on City maps. The Lispenard residents decided to name their group the Triangle Below Canal Block Association, and, as activists had done in SoHo, shortened the group’s name to the TriBeCa Block Association.
A reporter covering the zoning story for the
New York Times came across the block association’s submission to City Planning and mistakenly assumed that the name TriBeCa referred to the entire neighborhood, not just one block. Once the paper began referring to the neighborhood as TriBeCa, it stuck.
Landmarks
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel connecting New York to New Jersey has its entrances and exits in the northwest corner of TriBeCa, centered around the intersection of Canal Street and Varick Street.
Washington Market Park
Washington Market Park, bounded by Greenwich, Chambers, and West Streets, is a 1.61-acre park in TriBeCa that's popular with children for its large playground. The park also has a community gardens and hosts many community events.
Borough of Manhattan Community College
The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), part of the City University of New York, is located in TriBeCA. The college campus is located between Chambers Street and North Moore Street, spanning four blocks. BMCC's Fiterman Hall, severely damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks, is slated to be demolished and rebuilt.
Stuyvesant High School
Stuyvesant High School, one of New York City's prized Specialized Science High Schools, calls TriBeCa home. The ten-story building is located on Chambers Street on the Hudson River, accessible via The Tribeca Bridge, a pedestrian bridge, over West Street. Stuyvesant is noted as being one of the best schools in the country.
PS 234
Public School 234 is the zoned elementary school for TriBeCa. Located at the corner of Chambers Street and Greenwich Street, it's considered one of the best public elementary schools in New York City for its exceptional test scores, teachers, curriculum and building.
Business
A large number of
Citigroup employees work in Tribeca at
388 Greenwich Street near the northwestern corner of Tribeca.
Notable residents
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tribeca'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://tribeca.totallyexplained.com">TriBeCa Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
