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The 'Upper East Side' is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River.
The neighborhood, with elegant rows of landmark townhouses, once known as the 'Silk Stocking District', has some of the most expensive real estate in the United States, and is believed to be the greatest concentration of individual wealth in the nation.
In the 19th century, and until the Park Avenue railroad cut was covered (finished in 1910), rich industrialists including Pittsburghers Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick began building stylish mansions and townhouses on the large lots along Fifth Avenue, abutting Central Park. One of the first sections to be developed was around 86th Street, where several prominent families of German descent, including the Schermerhorns, the Astors, and the Rhinelanders built country estates.
Yorkville as it was known, soon moved east past Lexington Avenue and became a suburb of middle-class Germans, many of whom worked in nearby piano factories, stables, and breweries.
A long high bluff fronting the river north of Beekman Place was dotted with fine suburban villas in the 19th century, the last remaining one being Gracie Mansion, now home of New York's mayors.
The Upper East Side is also notable as a significant source of political fundraising in the United States. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top ZIP Code, 10021, is on the Upper East Side and generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and John Kerry.^[1]
Madison Avenue from 60th Street well into the 80s is the monied crowd's main shopping strip, recently vaulting ahead of Hong Kong's Causeway Bay to become the most expensive retail real estate in the world. Zip code 10021 has the highest concentration of stores in the United States with more than $1 million in annual sales each.^[2]

Contents

Geography

Demographics

Cost of living

Transportation

Landmarks and institutions

Cultural Institutions

Educational Institutions

Primary and Secondary Schools

Colleges and Universities

In Film and Television

Movies

TV

Famous Residents

See also

References

External links

Community interest sites

Geography

The Upper East Side stretches from 59th Street north to about 110th Street. Embedded within the Upper East Side are the neighborhoods of Yorkville, centered on 86th Street and Third Avenue, and Carnegie Hill, centered on 91st Street and Park Avenue and Lenox Hill centered on 69th Street and 1st Avenue. While still wealthy, Yorkville does not compare to Carnegie Hill in the scale of its wealth.
Its north-south avenues are Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Third, Second and First Avenues, York Avenue, and East End Avenue (the latter runs only from East 79th Street to East 90th Street).

Demographics

As of the 2000 census, there were 207,543 people residing in the Upper East Side. The population density was 118,184 people per square mile (45,649/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 88.25% White, 6.14% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.34% African American, 0.09% Native American, 1.39% from other races, and 1.74% from two or more races. 5.62% of the population were Hispanic of any race.

Cost of living

The Upper East Side maintains one of the highest pricing per square foot in the United States. A 2002 report cited the average cost as $856, however, that price has noticed a substantial jump, increasing to almost as much as $1,200 per square foot as of 2006.^{[3] [4]}

Transportation

The Upper East Side is served by one subway line, the four-track IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4, 5, 6, <6>), and local bus routes. Due to severe congestion on the subway and bus routes, the MTA is building a second subway line, the Second Avenue Subway, in the area. The first phase will run from 96th Street to 63rd Street, where it will connect with the BMT Broadway Line; service will be provided by a northern extension of the Q train. In later phases, the line will be extended north to 125th Street and south to Hanover Square, and a new T train will be created to serve the southern portion of the line.

Landmarks and institutions

Cultural Institutions

The area is host to some of the most famous museums in the world. The string of museums along Fifth Avenue fronting Central Park has been dubbed "Museum Mile." It was once named "Millionaire's Row." Among the cultural institutions on the Upper East Side:

★ The 92nd Street Y

★ The Asia Society

★ Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

★ El Museo del Barrio

★ The Frick Collection

★ Goethe-Institut New York

★ The Jewish Museum of New York

★ The Metropolitan Museum of Art

★ The Museum of the City of New York

★ The National Academy of Design

★ The Neue Galerie

★ Society of Illustrators

★ The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

★ The Whitney Museum of American Art

Educational Institutions

Primary and Secondary Schools

★ The Allen-Stevenson School

★ The Birch Wathen Lenox School

★ The Brearley School

★ The Buckley School

★ The Chapin School

★ Convent of the Sacred Heart

★ The Dalton School

★ East Side Middle School

★ Eleanor Roosevelt High School

★ The Hewitt School

★ Hunter College High School

★ Loyola School

★ Lycée Français de New York

★ Marymount School

★ The Nightingale-Bamford School

★ PS 6 (Lillie Devereux Blake School)

★ PS 158 (East Side Middle School)

★ PS 183 (Robert Louis Stevenson School)

★ P.S. 290 (The Manhattan New School)

★ The Ramaz School

★ Regis High School

★ Senator Robert F. Wagner Middle School (JHS 167)

★ St. Bernard's School

★ The Spence School

★ The Trevor Day School

★ Urban Academy Laboratory High School

Colleges and Universities

★ Cornell University Medical School

★ Hunter College

★ Marymount Manhattan College

★ Mount Sinai School of Medicine

★ Rockefeller University

In Film and Television

The Upper East Side has been a setting for many movies and television shows due to its world-class museums, expensive restaurants and boutiques, proximity to Central Park, elite schools, and influential residents.

Movies

★ ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961)

★ ''The Boys in the Band'' (1970)

★ ''Live and Let Die'' (1973)

★ ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'' (1990)

★ ''Six Degrees of Separation'' (1993)

★ ''Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

★ ''Ransom'' (1996)

★ ''The Devil's Advocate (1997)

★ ''Men in Black (1997)

★ ''A Perfect Murder'' (1998)

★ ''Cruel Intentions'' (1999)

★ ''25th Hour'' (2002)

★ ''The Nanny Diaries'' (2007)

TV

★ ''The Jeffersons'' (1975-1985)

★ ''Diff'rent Strokes'' (1978-1986)

★ ''The Nanny'' (1993-1999)

★ The home of Carrie Bradshaw, the iconic lead character of ''Sex and the City'' (1998-2004)

★ ''Gossip Girl'' (2007-?)

Famous Residents

The neighborhood has a long tradition of being home to some of the world's most wealthy, powerful and influential families and individuals. Some of the notables who have lived here include:
Actors, Artists, Musicians, and Writers:

★ Woody Allen

★ Candice Bergen

★ James Cagney

★ Joan Collins

★ Sean Combs

★ Greta Garbo

★ Art Garfunkel

★ George Gershwin

★ Rosemary Harris (part time)

★ Steve Hofstetter

★ Donna Karan

★ Ralph Lauren

★ Marx Brothers

★ Mary Tyler Moore

★ Paul Sorvino

★ Michael J. Fox
Athletes:

★ Tiki Barber

★ Jason Giambi
Business Moguls:

★ Michael Bloomberg

★ Rupert Murdoch

★ George Soros

★ Bruce Wasserstein
Journalists:

★ Katie Couric

★ Walter Cronkite

★ Barbara Walters
Political Figures:

★ Howard Dean

★ Rudy Giuliani

★ Caroline Kennedy

★ Jackie Onassis

★ Eleanor Roosevelt

★ Franklin D. Roosevelt

★ Eliot Spitzer
Socialites:

★ Nan Kempner
The Upper East Side is also the location of Sutton Place, an enclave home to many notable residents. It is also the site of a four-story townhouse built for Anne Morgan, daughter of financier J.P. Morgan, and now the official residence of the United Nations Secretary-General.

See also

★ East Side (Manhattan)

References

1. Big Donors Still Rule The Roost, accessed July 18, 2006.
2. Belson, Ken. "In This Town, Even a Mall Rat Can Get Rattled.", ''The New York Times'', December 20, 2006. Accessed June 7, 2007. "Already, Paramus has 320 stores with more than million in annual sales each, second in the country only to the 10021 ZIP code on the East Side of Manhattan."
3. Hevesi, Dennis. " Residential Real Estate; TriBeCa Is Priciest Neighborhood", ''The New York Times'', May 17, 2002. Accessed June 7, 2007.
4. [1]

External links

Community interest sites

Uppereast.com
Wikipages Upper East Side