Hell's Kitchen (also known as Clinton and Midtown West) is a neighborhood of New York City that includes roughly the area between 34th Street and 57th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River. The neighborhood which provides transportation, hospital and warehouse infrastructure support to the Midtown Manhattan business district has a gritty reputation that has resulted in its housing prices being lower than much of the rest of Manhattan. A great number of actors have spent residence time in the neighborhood thanks to its proximity to the Broadway theaters and the Actors Studio training school. Throughout its history, Hell's Kitchen has figured prominently in the New York City underworld, especially in Irish-American organized crime circles. Gangsters like Owney Madden, bootleggers like Bill Dwyer, and Westies leaders Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone were Hell's Kitchen natives. The rough and tumble days on the West Side figure prominently in Damon Runyon stories. The conflicts between Puerto Ricans and Irish formed the basis of West Side Story. Once a bastion of poor and working-class Irish-Americans, in recent years Hell's Kitchen has undergone tremendous gentrification. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Kitchen