Low & Behold

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Photo by Karilyn Sanders

Editor’s Note: To read more from our Ultimate Guide To Family Life In Lower Manhattan, click HERE!

“This is heaven,” says local mom Eva Folch as she enjoys a parent break, sitting along a low-slung concrete wall while her 2-year-old son entertains himself in one of the nearby sand pits at the Imagination Playground in Lower Manhattan. When the playground opened to much fanfare five years ago, it was praised for its maritime elements and intuitive hands-on features, like its over-sized and temptingly stackable blue blocks. But on the sunny and temperate Saturday afternoon in early June when I interviewed Folch, a native of Spain who works as a marketing executive in the fashion industry, she wasn’t only commenting on her restful moment in the park. The heaven she referred to was her new neighborhood—the Financial District—as well as the adjoining ‘hoods of Lower Manhattan including Battery Park City and Tribeca to the West, and the Seaport to the East. After she and her husband spent their first year as parents living near Midtown, she still seems a bit in awe of what a difference their move has made.

“The pace, the mood, the vibe reminds me more of Europe than it does other parts of the city,” she says. “It’s just very easy—and as a family, it feels like I have everything I want, including more room and lots of other families with young children.”

That’s for sure.

For all of its storied history, the future of Lower Manhattan was a big, anxious question mark after 9/11, of course. But in the years since then, the area has enjoyed what I’ll describe as a steady explosion of families and family life, including more schools, parks, shopping, restaurants, extracurricular activities and enrichments, and new or newly-renovated buildings with lots of children’s playrooms (“Best idea ever,” Folch says of her building’s playroom).

The population of Lower Manhattan has doubled since 2000 and that growth has primarily been driven by families. You see it everywhere: From the beehive of activity at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 (with its playground, mini-golf course, volleyball court, soccer field, and sailing classes) to the playfully decorated classroom windows of the Pine Street School overlooking Chase Manhattan Plaza; from the big Kidville banner strung across Gold Street to the façade of the newest area public school, the Peck Slip School, scheduled to open in its permanent home in the heart of the Seaport in September.

“What’s not to love?” asks Andy Biggers, a father-of-three living in Battery Park City, who took a break from playing a self-contained game of street hockey with his 10-year-old son in a quiet corner of Rockefeller Park to chat with me. And, actually, he did have one serious concern which is not uncommon: The rising real estate prices (for both condos and rentals) that have no sign of abating. Biggers has friends who recently moved to New Jersey because of these rising costs. He thinks that his family likes the area too much to move themselves.

As the editor of New York Family magazine and a city parent myself, I’ve watched, listened to, and reported on the family growth in Lower Manhattan for years, but I feel like the big difference these days is how so much of what families want and need has actually come to fruition (or is palpably on the way). In years past, the deep affection for the area was there, but the caveats loomed larger. Yes, families liked living near the water and appreciated the quiet and the low crime rates—the feeling of being in the city and also being a little bit apart from it. But the public school shortage was deeply worrisome, and the private options after nursery school were few. Depending on where you lived, there was a paucity of convenient grocery stores, good restaurants, and children’s activities and enrichment classes. The parks and playgrounds were good, but there was room and a need for more.

These days, however, the caveats are fewer and less intense. If anything, the big message from local parents like Folch, Biggers, and the many others we interviewed for this article, is that family life in Lower Manhattan is flourishing—wonderfully in Battery Park City and Tribeca, and increasingly in the Financial District and the Seaport, where the prevailing sense is that it’s already pretty good and it’s only going to get better.

While his 4-year-old daughter climbed on one of the stone boulders on Peck Slip and his baby watched from the confines of his arms, I spoke with another local dad about how the Seaport area has changed over the years. “Instead of a rugged fish market, we have an upscale doggie spa,” he says with an affectionate laugh, pointing to the Salty Paw, a noted local doggie emporium. “I miss the old fish smells, actually. But I
like this a lot,” he adds, pointing this time in the other direction toward the Peck Slip School, where his daughter will start in September.

This father had another insightful comment about the neighborhood: “Back in the day, when my friends heard that I lived near the Seaport, I’d get a weird look. But now, it’s like: ‘Ah, cool! I’m interested. Tell me more.’”

Our Ultimate Guide to Family Life in Lower Manhattan is for the interested, for those new to Lower Manhattan, those actively thinking about moving there, and those who just want to know more. It’s a selective and explanatory overview, filled with the highlights, key trends, and hidden gems.

If you’re still interested after reading it, the next step I recommend is to do what I did: Walk the area, talk to parents, and see for yourself what’s going on.

Eric Messinger, editor
[email protected]

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