If there’s any neighborhood in the city that has suffered by none other than its name, it’s the former Hell’s
Kitchen, affectionately referred to these days as the community of Clinton. Located just west of Times Square’s neon lights,
corporate offices and mobs of starry-eyed tourists, Clinton is a neighborhood that has learned—the hard way—not to
underestimate its potential.
Like many Manhattan neighborhoods, Clinton has “belonged” to certain communities throughout its history. During the 19th
century, the mix of ethnicities vying for territorial rights to the blocks west of Eighth Avenue, between 42nd and 59th Streets,
rendered the area a bona fide melting pot…in the most boiling sense of the phrase. The merging of these groups—or more
appropriately, the clashes between them—earned the neighborhood a name that has taken decades to shake: Hell’s Kitchen.
When community activists suggested renaming the area “Clinton” during the 1970’s, their entreaties fell on deaf ears. Few
people cared to acknowledge the steady improvements being made in the area, and, as Puff Daddy knows, it’s difficult to
make a new name stick. It wasn’t until the redevelopment of Times Square in the early 1990’s that the new moniker—and the
area’s growing reputation as an up-and-coming neighborhood—began to sit well with New Yorkers. As 42nd Street’s peep
shows and adult video stores moved out, Disney, Condé Nast, MTV and a slew of new developers moved in. Luxury condos
and rentals (The Biltmore, The Westport and The Foundry) began popping up all over the area at prices far more reasonable
than what you’d find further uptown. Not such a bad deal with Time’s Square at your back door, the Hudson River at the
front and institutions such as Carnegie Hall and the Port Authority flanking you on the sides.
One of the newest establishments to move in nearby is the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Though located just south of
Clinton, the huge, gleaming glass structure has added immeasurable value to the former Hell’s Kitchen, while also spawning
a community of its own within the immediate vicinity. Like all growing neighborhoods, it has a ways to go before food, clothing
and furniture shopping is done on the same block, but that hasn’t stopped leading architectural firms like Robert A.M. Stern
Architects, Vicente Wolf Associates and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates from snapping up property along these increasingly
valuable blocks—nor should it stop you from giving serious consideration to this “budding” community.
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