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Wall St. Looking More Like Main St.
Wall Street is still home to the New York Stock Exchange, but many financial firms have moved elsewhere.
(By Mary Altaffer -- Associated Press)
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Now some businesses, such as Giovanni Orlando's Hirsute Inc. hair salon at 82 Wall St., are clinging to a client base that has mostly moved away with the banks.
"My clientele comes from New Jersey. They live and work there now because their firms have left New York, but they still come in to see me," Orlando said. "It's like a loyal group of friends."
Secundino Diaz, assistant manager of Kenjo, at 40 Wall St., where watches sell for as much as $50,000, notes the street's increasingly casual atmosphere. "Everything is different now," he said. "You got loose collars. You got nightlife."
Other new businesses cater to tourists. Alfred Lavery, a street vendor, sells bull figurines symbolizing the boom market -- which now seem like relics of a bygone era. He joked: "I sold out of bears." If there's one place booming, it's the Museum of American Financial History, which on a recent day was crowded with European visitors.
But most businesses have little to do with finance. On a recent afternoon, Jahaira Duverge, 29, was on her way to apply for a Wall Street job -- not in a bank, but as a chef at a catering company. "It's a typical neighborhood; it's not all about money," she said, cradling her month-old son.
At 120 Wall St., nonprofit, arts and media tenants include the United Negro College Fund, Girls Incorporated, Vibe Magazine, Lambda Legal and the United Way.
But perhaps the biggest change in the area is represented by the influx of new residents.
LaRusso said that on the southern side of Wall Street, almost every building has been converted or is being converted to housing or hotels. Residents here, however, must accept a police SWAT unit in riot gear that has been stationed a few blocks away since the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as barricades designed to prevent a car bomber from reaching the New York Stock Exchange. It is difficult to hail a cab, and a walk to the nearest grocery store is substantial.
But it works well for Nathan Berman, the principal of Metro Loft Management, which owns two buildings on Wall Street. He said people like an address that connotes money: "It's a status symbol, I think."
In his brick-and-limestone apartment tower at 63 Wall St., a 10,000-square-foot second-floor space that once housed rows of bank-teller windows has been converted to a lounge for residents that includes wireless Internet access, a pool table and a 25-seat movie-screening room.
"At first, the age ranged from 22 to 26," Berman said, with people renting apartments whose prices range from $2,200 a month for a studio to $5,000 for a two-bedroom. Then the apartments became popular with young couples and their children.
"It's fun here," said Edward Chernick, 27, an account executive with NYFIX who lives at 37 Wall St. and walks home for lunch. "There's a good vibe down here deep in the markets. It's better bang for your buck than other places in town."
