(Left, The Goddard Institute, and Tom’s Diner directly underneath. Right, the West End Bar before it was bought out.)

Business around Columbia University is known for it’s longstanding uniqueness. A famous resturant in Morningside Height’s is known as Tom’s Diner. It’s on Broadway at West 112th St, and was featured in a popular 1990’s song of the same name by a college student in the nearby area. It also would go on to be featured on television episodes of the sitcom Seinfeld and achieve local fame through that.

Another restaurant, the West End Bar, was famously known as a meeting place for the Beat Generation. Between the 1940’s and 1950’s, writers as well as student activists would meet up and discuss their work. Also, they would meet before and after the University Protests during the late 60’s as well. It included a jazz room which was run by a jazz historian and DJ for over seventeen years. However, and quite sadly, it was recently turned into a chain restaurant known for mediocre cuban food.

Outside of food, the neighborhood is home to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, owned by Columbia, for students serious about their studies of the stars and beyond. This institute has brought in new students and lots of money in the past several years. It’s research is rooted in a study for global chance, ranging from anthropogenic changes in environment as well as the habitability of our planet. These studies include looking back at volcanic explosions, the recent effects of El Nino, and other disaster related data from space shuttles and seism waves that can help procure predictions and even prevention methods when future disasters hit.

The area itself has recently coined the term and earned the name Academic Acropolis. It contains many academically dedicated buildings, such as Columbia and it’s sister school, Barnard. It’s also home to the Union Theological Seminary, The New York Theological Seminary, The Jewish Theological of America, and the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. From banking to nursery school, education and botany, it’s an area that’s offering as diverse of an education as an area of it’s size possibly can.