Church St, Tribeca

The beginning of Church in Tribeca is really ugly. It's the part of Tribeca that I like the least. It's insanely crowded, and loud and smelly (like most of Canal). It's just a nightmare to get around everyone and there's nothing really to see here anyway so I avoid this area if I can.
The next block down (at Lispenard) has a massive, ugly At&t building on one side and a lot of really cool, old buildings on the other side. The east side of the block looks like old New York and the ground levels of all the buildings have great little bars and restaurants. Macao Trading Co is one of my favorites. Its quite new but looks very old. It's dark and I always have interesting conversations with people in this place. The food is pretty good too.
The block at Walker is a very hip block, indeed. The Tribeca Grand hotel is right on the west corner. It's a boutique hotel that's quite popular with the musician set. There's always some sort of fancy party happening here. Across the street houses some great, 19th century buildings with cool restaurants and bars on the ground level. There's also a performance space and two fantastic Italian restaurants with the same owner across the street from one another. You really can't go wrong on this block as far as things to do. But, it would be kind of hard to live on because it's so loud around here.
Once you cross 6th Avenue, the buildings are very big and downtowny. Any neighborhood feel that Church had (which isn't a lot) is pretty wiped out after this point. There's a massive school on one side of the street and massive commercial buildings on the other side. There are tons of little eateries lining the street from here to Chambers, but they're all take out sort of places, so there's no neighborhood feel at all. It kind of resembles midtown around here more than anything you would Tribeca is. There's just no coolness to Church around here.
It would be hard to live on Church because it's so busy and loud. But, if you have to, I would stay around Leonard or Lispenard. Once you get too far south, it's just ugly and commercial with nothing to do.