In recent years the neighborhood has become increasingly popular with young singles. Restaurants and bars are sporting a theme night trend throughout the week (ie- Mo's, Carribean located on the corner of 2nd Ave and 76th Street, has Lobster Madness on Mondays and Seafood Thursday's).

More and more shops have moved into the area making it into a self-sufficient residential community. On the Upper East Side the feel and style is more casual than other areas of Manhattan ... less trendy and everything costs less (from bagels to rent).

Yorkville is also known with its residents for its coffeehouses and pubs. The area is highly residential and very quiet. It houses the famous landmark, Gracie Mansion where NYC's Mayor resides. The decor of the area is turn of the century brownstones, some with gorgeous wrought-iron railings. There is a Queen Anne style to the houses that were built in the latter part of the 19th century. Because of this and the quiet surroundings the neighborhood can be quite pricey.

The subway line is a long haul ... most residents spend 10-15 minutes walking to Lexington Avenue to the nearest station.

Although this is farther from midtown than the southeast quadrant from the Upper East Side, this area benefits from the presence of a large, riverfront park and a major retail "strip" on 86th Street.

Carl Schurz Park, contains the Mayor's Residence at Gracie Mansion and overlooks the East River and several major bridges to the north. It is bordered by several of the Upper East Side's swankiest apartment houses such as Ten Gracie Square and 120 East End Avenue and the prestigious Chapin and Brearley Schools are nearby. As a result, the Carl Schurz Park area is one of the most desirable in the city for family living. Henderson Place, a small street running north of 86th Street across from the park and a block south of Doctors Hospital on East End Avenue is one of the city's loveliest groups of townhouses.

This quadrant of the Upper East Side includes the Yorkville community that was named after a village whose center was 86th Street and Third Avenue and was the city's major German-American community, full of many German restaurants and stores and dance halls that made it one of the city's most popular and lively areas of nightlife before the explosion of "singles" bars along First Avenue in the 1960's. A couple of German restaurants and stores remain, but the low-rise character of much of East 86th Street has largely vanished and been replaced by apartment towers of a wide range of architectural quality.

The street's retail activity, however, remains very vibrant and important on the Upper East side as it has several movie theaters clustered around Lexington and Third Avenues as well as such major stores as Barnes & Noble and HMV. The Upper East Side's express subway station is at 86th Street and Lexington Avenue and cross-town bus service on the street is excellent. Because of the convenient public transportation that location was chosen by Gimbel's, the famous department store that challenged Macy's at Herald Square, for a major satellite department store that survived in its large windowless building for several years but eventually was completely rebuilt, with windows, and expanded into a large, Georgian-style apartment building with an entrance on 87th Street.

The area north of 86th Street was slow to be redeveloped until the Ruppert Brewery was closed and replaced by a mammoth complex at Third Avenue and 90th Street of very large apartment buildings designed quite boldly by Davis, Brody & Associates. The east side of the avenue in this area is now filled with several "luxury" apartment towers and the west side has many attractive restaurants in low- and mid-rise buildings.

The major cultural facility in this quadrant of the Upper East Side is the 92nd Street "Y," which has many interesting concerts and lectures. One of the city's most fascinating landmarks is the parabolic arch of the Asphalt Green, a recreational center along the East River at 90th Street that was formerly an asphalt plant.

The popularity of the Carl Schurz Park neighborhood led to a cluster of "luxury" apartment towers along York Avenue in the high 80's, but the most attractive post-war apartment is the green-glass building known as the Waterford at 93rd Street and Second Avenue, designed by Beyer Blinder Belle and Vinjay Kale. Third Avenue is now developed pretty fully, although Second, First and York Avenues still have many tenement blockfronts as do many of the area's sidestreets east of Third Avenue. Some sidestreets, such as 94th Street, east of Lexington, are delightful surprises full of attractive brownstones.

There are many attractive restaurants along Third Avenue north of 79th street and the city's most famous restaurant, Elaine's, is on Second Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets.

Although the only subway in this area runs on Lexington Avenue, there is good cross-town bus service on 79th, 86th and 96th Streets and many of the city's finest schools and museums are located nearby in the 80's and 90's west of Lexington Avenue.

The area was late to bloom as a luxury residential neighborhood because of the presence until the mid-1950's of an "elevated" line along Third Avenue. With the demolition of this noisy line, Third Avenue has undergone significant redevelopment.