Number 8: Upper Lenox Avenue, Central Harlem, between 125th Street and roughly 132nd Street. The best thing that Upper Lenox has going for it is the boom in new businesses and the express trains at 125th Street. With that particular train stop, one can get downtown within 15 minutes and midtown even in quicker time. With all that said, the stop also brings in a lot of foot traffic along the strip. Most of the old school dealers by the Starbucks on the corner have disappeared in the past few years but this is definitely the section of Harlem were the new and old mix and mingle. Older eateries such as Sylvia's hold court along with new favorites like Red Rooster or Corner Social at the intersection that is still the heart of Harlem.
On any given day, one can still see street vendors, longtime locals, new families with strollers, gay couples or the occasional hipster walking the boulevard and reasonably priced, modest brownstones with minimal interior finishes on the side streets. If the blocks were a little more put together, Upper Lenox would be higher on our list but there are still a few abandoned shells or open lots in the nabe and the architecture is not as consistent as some of the historic districts uptown. Astor Row is in this area also but we have divided that street into its own separate neighborhood that will be higher on the best blocks list.
This neighborhood has probably the most energy with the mixing of new and old along with vibrant restaurant row with Red Rooster as its center of gravity. Historically the intersection of Lenox and 125th was arguably the cultural center of Harlem, in the new Harlem I still think that is the case.
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