Curbed Cup First Round: (1) FiDi vs. (16) Jackson Heights

---

The Curbed Cup, our annual award to the New York City neighborhood of the year, for the past three years has been determined by reader vote. This year, we're upping the ante with a 16-neighborhood elimination tournament spanning the month of December. The first round begins today and run through next Monday, with two faceoffs per day, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. Next matchup... now!

As this morning's battle between closely-ranked seeds Soho and Tribeca rages on—Soho has almost tied things up, after falling behind early—we're looking at what could be a blowout in the day's second matchup. In one corner, the tournament's #1 seed, FiDi, a monied piece of land that came into its own this year with new developments, new retail, and endless media hype. In the far corner, we have the winner of yesterday's play-in round, #16 seed Jackson Heights. So who's moving on to take on either Soho or Tribeca in round two? Polls open until 9am tomorrow.

Curbed polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

FiDi (aka Financial District, The Financial District)
2007 Notables:
· André Balazs's William Beaver House rocked our world, set FiDi sales record
· Residences at the W Hotel Downtown also sold out in a flash; Oh, Shvo!
· Even Amy Sacco got in on the fun, serving up 'amenity overdrive'
· Ruthless landlords smelled blood and hiked apt rents; cue reader rants!
· As the WTC site showed growth (forget that Deutsche Bank thing), office rents grew
· Both Tiffany and Hermes opened in the nabe, but only Hermes gave out ice cream
· And, in case it needed another one, FiDi braced for another new steakhouse

Jackson Heights (aka Jack Heights, at least by insane real estate marketers)
2007 Notables:
· The neighborhood was deemed worthy of FreshDirect delivery!
· Was actually renamed Jack Heights by ambitious developer

Other notables we overlooked? Do let us know. And your best arguments for neighborhood superiority or inferiority are welcomed in the comments below, too.

Back to top