The countercultural history
CBGB, the club that launched the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads, operated on the Bowery at the edge of the East Village from 1973 until 2006 — the storefront is now occupied by a different business, but the neighborhood's association with punk, poetry (Allen Ginsberg and the Beat poets lived and worked here), and DIY culture is still a real part of its identity, even as rents have risen substantially.
What's there today
A genuinely dense concentration of small, independent restaurants and bars, particularly along St. Marks Place and around Tompkins Square Park — still one of the best neighborhoods in Manhattan for a spontaneous, unplanned night out.
Tompkins Square Park
A relatively small park by NYC standards but a real neighborhood anchor, with a history of its own — including the 1988 "Tompkins Square Park riot" tied to homelessness policy and gentrification tensions that, in different forms, are still part of the neighborhood's story.
Getting there
The L train (1st Avenue) and 6 train (Astor Place) both reach the neighborhood directly, and it's an easy walk from the East Village into the Lower East Side or Greenwich Village.