A “RAFFISH THOUGH DEBONAIR” NEIGHBORHOOD.

A “RAFFISH THOUGH DEBONAIR” NEIGHBORHOOD. A couple years ago I was taken aback by a description in a NEW YORK magazine review of the restaurant Mas as being located in a “raffish though debonair” neighborhood. The address for Mas is 39 Downing Street in Greenwich Village. I lived for five years at 46 Downing Street, and it seemed to me that my neighborhood, while it might aspire to being raffish, could never be characterized as “debonair.” What had changed? I think that if one understands that a “neighborhood” can be half a block or less—a microneighborhood—then both the reviewer and I are correct. Mas is located near Bedford Street, which was always charming. Half a block away, the neighborhood is different. The half block from where I lived on Downing Street to the corner of Varick Street (Seventh Avenue) was dominated by a brick wall which was the back of the commercial buildings on the next block. There was almost no activity there except for an occasional crap game