For: Tribeca (disambiguation)

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, TriBeCa suffered financially. However, government grants and incentives provided an infusion of capital and the area rebounded. Amidst the recent real estate boom, TriBeCa housing prices outpaced even those of the highly popular Manhattan market as a whole. Tribeca has become one of the most trendy residential neighborhoods in the city. Forbes magazine ranked the 10013 zip code in TriBeCa as the 12th most expensive zip code in the United States in 2006.

The neighborhood is also home to the Tribeca Film Festival, founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan. The mission of the film festival is "to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience." The neighborhood is a frequent filming location for movies, most notably, the 1984 hit Ghostbusters.

Demographics

As of the 2000 census, there were 10,395 people residing in TriBeCa. The population density was 31,467 people per square mile (12,149/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 82.34% White, 7.96% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 4.89% African American, 0.10% Native American, 1.66% from other races, and 3.02% from two or more races. 6.34% of the population were Hispanic of any race. Of the 18.2% of the population that was foreign born, 41.3% came from Europe, 30.1% from Asia, 11.1% from Latin America, 10.2% from North America and 7.3% from other.

Architecture

TriBeCa is dominated by former industrial buildings that have been converted into residential buildings and lofts, similar to those of the neighboring SoHo Cast Iron Historic District. In the nineteenth and early twentieth, the neighborhood was a center of the textile/cotton trade.

During the 1960s and '70s, abandoned, and inexpensive TriBeCa lofts became hot-spot residences for young artists and their families because of the seclusion of lower Manhattan and the vast living space. James Stratton, a TriBeCa resident since this period, wrote the 1977 nonfiction book entitled "Pioneering in the Urban Wilderness," detailing his experiences renovating lower Manhattan warehouses into residences.

Many people mistakenly attributed the name TriBeCa, the acronym for Triangle Below Canal, to the “triangular-shaped neighborhood”. However, the neighborhood resembles an irregular trapezoid. TriBeCa's etymology is more site-specific.

In the early 1970s, a couple of years after artists in SoHo were able to legalize their live/work situation, artist and resident organizations in the area to the south, known then as Washington Market or simply the Lower West Side, sought to gain similar zoning status for their neighborhood. A group of Lispenard Street artist/residents living on the block directly south of Canal Street between Church Street and Broadway, joined the effort. Just as the members of the SoHo Artists Association coined "SoHo" after looking at a City Planning map which marked the area as So. Houston' and shortened that to SoHo, these Lispenard Street residents likewise employed a City Planning map to describe their block.