Palermo Soho v Palermo Hollywood

There are 15 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 462 times. The latest Post (July 19, 2024 at 1:13 PM) was by Rice.

    I'm ashamed to say I haven't a clue about the barrios in BA. We have an apartment in the capital and I haven't the foggiest which barrio its location comes under.

    Only those 5 criteria? How about

    Likes much older men

    Not particular

    Father owns a liquor store

    Quote from Bombonera

    I didn’t like Palermo Soho much at all. I know it’s winter but it was as dead as a dodo. And the bars and restaurants were soulless and lifeless as were the staff.

    So is Palermo Hollywood different? And if so how?

    When we were still living in San Isidro, I too had heard about Palermo Soho and visited a couple of times and wondered 'Why all the hype?!'

    It turns out we went there at the wrong times. It is pretty dead in the morning. Stores (as in clothing stores) don't open until 11 AM. Cafés open no earlier than 9 AM (something I'll never understand - in Italy they open at 5-6 AM in the morning, when people get up to go to work and stop there to have breakfast)

    Palermo is the biggest barrio of the Capital, and Palermo Soho is quite big, too. I live in a run down part of Soho on the border with Villa Crespo and Almagro. It is between "yellow" (walkable) zones of Palermo, but somehow it didn't explode (yet?). I have been living here for 7 years.

    The nice thing about it is that it has a variety of food/restaurants not found elsewhere. Or at least, a mix of several within Palermo vs. the Korean district in Flores, the Chinese district in Belgrano and so on. If you want delivery food, you have options besides the holy trio of milanesa-pizza-empanadas.

    The stores display nice things, which remind me of the wealth of Europe. Of course, a quick glance at the prices and the excitement quickly fades. It is well connected by public transport and finding a taxi is easy. There are supermarkets open 24/7 (with the crappy, limited, overpriced local selection), but also mom-and-pop stores.

    From your description, I think you were staying around Coronel Diaz - is that correct?

    I felt palermo hollywood was much quieter, still had the coffee shops, cafes and bars etc

    Also good access to the alto shopping district which we enjoyed, pop up bars and food stalls there which we sat out most afternoons after walking around.

    Palermo soho for me was ok for a few hours in the afternoon, alot of beggers that kept coming to our table selling tissues etc in the centre which we didnt see in hollywood.

    Quote from Bombonera

    I Hunk serafina identified the problem. It was probably a case of timing. Both in terms of time of year and time of day. I would get there about 4 pm each time.

    I like Hollywood more, but I didn't know Palermo at all when I moved downtown, so Soho or Hollywood it was the same to me.. Perhaps because I am not in my 30s anymore and Hollywood feel much quieter and upscale vs. Soho which is hipster.

    I think that Hollywood is nicer, more stone-paved roads with trees, but also much less public transport (which also means less noise). It is going toward the green parts of Belgrano, without the beautiful mansions and just skipping from city house to concrete buildings.

    What I don't like of Soho is that it is dirty, and not because the city doesn't clean it but because the old residents are lower class (sorry if this sounds classist) and apparently they grew up thinking that discarding whatever on the street is okay or appreciate walking among their own trash. Gentrification can only do so much when you sell old houses worth tearing down for over half a million dollars (this one is a couple block away from us). The city cleans the streets around where I live on a daily basis, both by foot and from now and then also using machines. Regardless, it is always full of discarded packages, cans of beer, broken glasses from liquor bottles, trash taken out of the large collecting bins by villeros, cigarette boxes, dog poo, leftovers from constructions (some people mix cement on the sidewalk, leaving stains, others throw paint, pieces of wood, broken furnitures etc.

    When the encargados clean the sidewalk, their idea of cleaning is sweeping the dirty from the sidewalk into the street. Traffic brings back plastic, card and leaves on the sidewalk. Aren't they smart?!

    Villeros, cartoneros, homeless people also contribute to littering. Some people have food trays next to where they sleep, that get carried away by the wind when they are sleeping. People leave them food on the street, they eat and discard them on the street. You might be wondering where those people do their necessities: men pee against the gray trash bins, which stinks like crazy (in addition to dogs' pee that no dog owner washes away after their pet is done peeing) -- you can smell it just by walking by, and it is no fun going out to throw the trash in the large bins just to get a stronger whiff of human pee. EEEW!

    For number two, they look for construction sites or abandoned lots. I personally saw a homeless who has been living on our block for at least 4 years asking for pieces of paper in the paper shop to wipe his butt.

    People waiting at bus stops also throw stuff on the sidewalk even if there is a trash bin steps away. There are bricklayers who drink beer after their work shift, while waiting for their bus, and the can is either dropped on the ground or put on a window's edge (you can imagine where it will end up in a matter of minutes, given the strong breeze of the busses coming and going next to the sidewalk).

    Sidewalks are getting repaired, at last. However, since pipes / tubes keep breaking, the maintenance people coming to fix them have already broken the new sidewalk.

    So, even the best diligent effort are useless against the bad that surrounds them.

    There are so many homeless people who hide their belonging in any crevice they can find, or in gas boxes/water boxes, or that wrap them up in a dirty mattress and tie it against a closed windows' shop or gate. Some must have some mental issue because they drag along and then forget/abandon stuff they won't ever need, like a broken fax machine or a computer part they found on the street or toys/dolls. Perhaps they see a bartering value in them, but most of the time they get thrown away on the street, in flower pots or below a tree.

    Dog owners consider the sidewalk and trees as litter boxes. The same "privilege" is awarded to trash bins, so when we have to throw away our trash, we have to tip-toe around dog poo (at night, it takes some skills), broken glasses, unidentified bags.

    I haven't seen that much trash/dirt in Palermo Hollywood. To be honest, if I could switch homes, I would. I have been browsing properties for a couple of years, but between location, safety features and money, I still haven't see anything that fits our bill. I mean, there are cute PHs but we'd be spending north of 250k USD for a place with no heating. Thanks, but I'll pass.

    It sounds dire, serafina . I’ve never noticed that your ‘hood is any worse than most of the city, where the streets always need a good bath. We are lucky because the city cleans the plaza every night, but it’s impossible not to notice that the homeless population has increased.

    I was at Honduras and Bonpland doing a collection this PM and it was a very smart area with loads of bars and restaurants. It's also really easy to get to down Juan B Justo/Bullrich/Alcorta. I like those runs on the bike and can probably do it all without a map nowadays.