Delancey Street (Manhattan)

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Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of Manhattan's Lower East Side, running east from the Bowery to connect to the Williamsburg Bridge to Brooklyn.

Businesses range from delis to check-cashing stores to bars. Delancey Street has long been known for its discount and bargain clothing stores. Famous establishments include the Bowery Ballroom, built in 1929, Ratner's kosher restaurant (now closed), and the Essex Street Market, which was built by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to avoid pushcart congestion on the neighborhood's narrow streets. As the Lower East Side becomes gentrified, more upscale retail and nightlife establishments have moved in.

Delancey Street is named after James De Lancey, Sr., whose farm was located in what is now the Lower East Side.

The F, J, M and Z subway trains stop at Delancey Street/Essex Street,and the J, M, and Z trains stop at Delancey Street at Bowery. The M9, M14 and M15 buses stop on Delancey Street, and the B39 bus traverses the Williamsburg Bridge.

Delancey Street used to be one of the main shopping streets in the Jewish Lower East Side. Today the neighborhood around Delancey is a mix of young professionals and artists along with working class African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Chinese. Delancey Street is considered by many to be the unofficial northern border of Manhattan's Chinatown. Shopping bargains can still be found along Delancey Street, mostly at chain stores such as Payless ShoeSource, Hyperactive, and Gem Value Stores. A Starbucks opened on Delancey Street in 2005, signaling the further gentrification of the neighborhood.

From west to east, Delancey Street starts from the Bowery, intersects Chrystie Street, Forsyth Street, Eldridge Street, Allen Street, Orchard Street, Ludlow Street, Essex Street, Norfolk Street, Suffolk Street, Clinton Street, Attorney Street, Ridge Street, Pitt Street, Columbia Street (Bialystoker Place), and Lewis Street, and ends at the FDR East River Drive. The street continues as Kenmare Street west of the Bowery.

There is also a Delancey Street, of no particular distinction, in London NW1, England

[edit] In art and pop culture

The well-known song "Manhattan" (Rodgers and Hart) informs: "It's very fancy On old Delancey Street, you know."

The 1988 film Crossing Delancey is a romantic comedy focusing on the different shades of urban life in the area.

In the fictional comic book Marvel Universe, the Fantastic Four character Ben Grimm (AKA "The Thing") is known for coming from a "Yancy Street", which is based on and in reference to Delancey Street.

"Chrystie Delancey" is thought to be a woman's name by several characters in the 2000 film Happy Accidents, starring Vincent D'Onofrio and Marisa Tomei, until it is revealed to be a reference to the corner of Chrystie and Delancey streets.

In a song by Regina Spektor she sings "Hey remember that time I found a human tooth down on Delancey?"

In the song Delancey Street (1986), by 80's rapper, Dana Dane, he raps "...You'll tell your friends, and they'll chuckle and giggle// Now this little story's called Delancey Street// It's the place where clothes are bought and people meet// Each city has a place that's quite the same// Even though it might go by a different name// Delancey Street//Delancey Stree-eet//Delancey Street// This story can't be beat"

The 1987 Sonic Youth song Stereo Sanctity refers to "satellites flashing down Orchard and Delancey."