Neighborhood Overview

Chinatown bustles to the north. The 5,989-foot long Brooklyn Bridge stretches out toward the east. Tribeca expands along the west. And in the south, Fulton Street meanders down to the South Street Seaport. Nearby stands the New York City Police Department's headquarters, where I interned two summers ago.

In the middle of all this is the Civic Center (A.K.A. City Hall). And although the neighborhood has arts groups and museums and tourist attractions, it still lacks major movie theaters - a cultural and entertainment necessity. Especially in Lower Manhattan, where the population has doubled since the year 2000, according to the Community Board One director of land use and planning, Michael E. Levine.

Despite this flaw, I quickly fell in love with the place and its purpose, which remains the same as when the 17th century Dutch settled the area: politics. Our current City Hall, opened in 1812m was the third constructed in the neighborhood. Around this time, the infamous Boss Tweed built the Tweed Courthouse for twice the price of Alaska.

With a neighborhood all about government, it makes sense that journalists writing about government would locate here too. The 19th century Park Row was called 'Newspaper Row,' home of the Times, the World, and the Herald. Now, Pace University, along with a series of small technology stores and commercial chains like Starbucks have taken over.

Along with these new shops has come diversity. A walk around the outskirts of City Hall Park reveals businesses ranging from computer stores to pharmacies to coffee shops. During my NYPD internship, I usually stopped at the Park Row Starbucks, and then tried to snag a bench near the majestic, four-tiered Mould Fountain in City Hall Park.

The history attached to City Hall Park seems never-ending. During 1991 renovation near the park's northern end, construction workers discovered an Arican burial ground, containing the skeletal remains of more than 400 Africans from the 17th century. Now, a monument stands at the corners of Duane and Elk streets.

My favorite part of this neighborhood is also a sort of underground burial site, although this one reveals chandeliers and skylights instead of skeletons. The City Hall subway station, constructed by the IRT in 1904 as part of the six subway line and close to the public since 1945, represents a cultural and historical graveyard. The New York Transit Museum planned to turn it into an exhibit, but the Giuliani administration feared a terrorist threat.

Now, the Civic Center is trying to break away from its 17th century model by creating scools and cultural centers to meet the population surge. But it will always be the heart of New York politics.