Eldridge St, Chinatown

The block at Hester has some really cool, old buildings with nothing cool in them. There used to be a big menswear shop, pawnshop, etc on the ground floors of these buildings, but now it's just apartments over less neighborhoody kinds of things. There's a Public school on the west side of the block and a karaoke bar directly next door to it which I think is an awful spot for a bar of any kind (even karaoke). I guess Manhattan kids just kinda got to roll with the neighborhood, though. There is a good little dumpling spot on this block, but that's about the only thing worth going to.
The block across Canal starts with a massive residential building in the works which sticks out like a sore thumb considering this whole block is taken up with really cool looking former tenements. I'm sure they weren't cool to the people who lived in them when they were tenements, but I like the look of them. There are a lot of Fujianese restaurants on this block and they are pretty hard core. None of the workers speak English so you have to go with someone who has been before or you'll end up with all kinds of crazy on your plate. There are also some great Chinese bakeries, a couple of dumpling places and a really beautiful but out of place looking Synagogue. It looks like a weird locale for the synagogue but this neighborhood used to be predominantly Jewish before it was Chinatown so I guess it was here first. It's a museum now but has been completely restored which I think is pretty awesome.
The street ends at the Manhattan bridge so it doesn't have much of a run. I wouldn't want to live on Eldridge because it's too far away, has shoddy transportation and I'm just not a fan of Chinatown. But, it's a great street to go to for an afternoon. The buildings and history are cool and there is some good food to be had. You just have to walk to another neighborhood after that.