When people profess their desire to move to New York to make their dreams come true, they’re probably not talking about Poughkeepsie — as charming as the Hudson Valley is, that’s not the part of New York that gets a million hearts beating. That honor goes to the lovely, crazy, fun-loving NYC neighborhood of Greenwich Village. What makes the Village such a fabulous place to live? Let’s take a look.

Ace Schools

If you’re moving to the city for work with a young family in tow, one of your biggest considerations will be deciding which schools your kids will be attending. Greenwich Village is home to some of the city’s top public and private elementary schools in the city, making the area a huge draw for families. Top-rated P.S. 41 on 11th Street often has more children on its waitlist than any other school in the city. P.S. 3 on Hudson Street is another neighborhood school that has more dreams than available seats — unless you’re zoned for the area.

All Together Now

Though it may seem like NYU’s ubiquitous white-and-violet flag hangs off every single building here, the Village is a whole lot more than a giant campus. It has a decidedly diverse populace, with a mix of lifestyles that’s withstood rising prices and ever-changing political regimes over the years. Literature lovers can stroll down Morton Street or Christopher Street late at night, reaching out to touch the ghosts of Jack Kerouac and Edith Wharton. Jazz lovers can head over to Zinc Bar and pretend it’s 1967. They’ll be passing sleepless parents pushing restless newborns in their Bugaboos.

It’s Got Everything You Need

And when we say everything, we mean everything. If you wake up one day and decide nothing would please you more than some spicy pork meatballs from The Meatball Shop and some super fresh Wensleydale cheese from a real British grocery store, you can get it. You can get nearly everything delivered, and anything that can’t be delivered can be easily accessed by one of the many subway or bus lines nearby.

Always a Party … If You Want One

No doubt about it — everything happens here. There’s a reason that tourists flock to this part of town. Celebrities live here, rockers rock here, Prince throws surprise 3am shows here (okay, technically, that happened in Tribeca, but if you lived in the Village, you’d have been within walking distance). There’s the nightclub Cielo if you want to party like you were just a baby in 1999, but if you’re in more of a solitary mood, you can share a bottle of Domaine Mardon Quincy with a friend at Le Gigot. You can walk down Bleecker Street and be enveloped by urban din, and then suddenly you make a quick turn onto Perry Street, and it’s beautiful, shaded silence and Carrie’s brownstone. The Village is as loud or as quiet as you want it to be.

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