Punk, poetry and tiny counters
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Between St. Marks Place and Tompkins Square Park, the East Village still has an unruly streak: brick fronts laced with fire escapes, cocktail bars the size of a living room, ramen at any hour and old Ukrainian diners. The further you head toward Avenues A, B and C, the more residential it gets, with community gardens squeezed between buildings.
Until the 1960s it was simply the northern end of the Lower East Side. In the 19th century it was Kleindeutschland, New York's Little Germany, before Ukrainian and Polish communities took over. The name “East Village” appeared when artists, beatniks and musicians priced out of Greenwich Village crossed east; punk, Nuyorican poetry and the 1980s gallery scene did the rest.
