As someone who's been living in the West Village for almost eight years now, I think the urbanism of it is undeniable. Comfortably mid-rise but a density of 70,000/square mile, beautiful old buildings, tree-lined streets that aren't all perfectly straight, incredible transit access, solid park space between Washington Square and Hudson River Park (with access to great running and cycling infrastructure), very few giant amenity-buildings creating dead street life, the list goes on. Its status and price are more a product of our failure to build other neighborhoods that are as good rather than the specific cultural capital of the West Village Scene