Downtown Manhattan slowly comes alive again

The streets may be filled with construction and all the Wall Streeters may leave by 6 p.m., but the Financial District is not completely dead.

With a few new businesses opening up on Fulton Street and plenty of great restaurants within walking distance of the University, there are a lot of places for students to hang out, get some food and shop in downtown Manhattan.

Shopping may not be something most associate with the area, but there are plenty of stores near the University and even more along Broadway just a few blocks north of City Hall Park. There are mostly great discount stores in the immediate vicinity of the University, like Strawberry for clothes and Lot Less for all sorts of items, with more high-end stores closer to the Wall Street.

“I never really thought downtown was dead,” sophomore Samuel Hathaway said. “There’s a lot of variety in restaurants and shopping here, but not a lot of high end shopping. You can really get some great knock-offs though.”

One thing that does seem to be lacking is the amount of entertainment at night and on weekends. With the Knitting Factory’s move from neighboring TriBeCa to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, there aren’t any popular concert venues in the area.

There are fairly frequent outdoor concerts at the South Street Seaport and in Battery Park over the summer, but there isn’t much going on through the colder months. An indoor concert venue near the University would bring a much needed nightlife to the area.

“Downtown is seen just as a business and shopping area,” freshman Alyssa Laguerra said, agreeing that the area could use more college-friendly hang-outs. “They forget college kids like us at Pace actually live here. We need entertainment and food.”

While the Financial District is in need of entertainment, it definitely has food covered.

What some University students may not realize is that there are a lot of restaurants beyond Fulton Street with wide varieties of meals including Lenny’s for sandwiches, Hale and Hearty for soup, Crumbs for cupcakes and countless diners for a reasonably priced burger and fries.