The Historic Districts Council has identified six neighborhoods in the city that it argues deserve to be preserved and designated historic districts.

The neighborhoods are the Bowery, Mount Morris Park and Inwood in Manhattan, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Gowanus in Brooklyn, and Jackson Heights in Queens.

This is New York's only targeted citywide list of preservation priorities, according to the organization's press release.

The six, chosen from applications submitted by community organizations, were selected on the basis of the architectural and historic merit of the area, the level of threat to the neighborhood, strength and willingness of the local advocates, and potential for HDC's preservation support to be meaningful.

"By bringing these locally-driven neighborhood preservation efforts into the spotlight, HDC hopes to focus New Yorkers' attention on the very real threats that historic communities throughout the city are facing from indiscriminate and inappropriate development," said Simeon Bankoff, HDC's Executive Director.

"One of Manhattan's oldest thoroughfares, the Bowery, stretching from Cooper Square to Chatham Square, has a fascinatingly rich history which has left an equally rich built environment. From a fashionable shopping and residential neighborhood at the end of the 18th century, to a bustling center of dry goods, hardware and other specialty stores, to an entertainment mecca and later the notorious 'skid row' in the 20th century..., in recent years, the mix of historic structures along the street has been threatened by high-rise hotel development."

"The residential area surrounding Mount Morris Park in Harlem," the council continued, "includes elegant rowhouses and larger apartment buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Romanesque Revival, Neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles." The Mount Morris Park Community Improvement Association wants to expand the boundaries of the current Historic District, "which does not adequately represent the significant architecture of this Harlem neighborhood."

"Inwood, at the very northern tip of Manhattan, combines striking geography of hills and views with notable architecture that includes art-deco apartment building, Tudor Revival houses, and unique elements such as the 215th Street Steps, the Seaman-Drake Arch and the historic Isham Park. Despite this, very little of the neighborhood's historic buildings are protected or even official acknowledged," the council maintained, pointing out that the impressive Seaman-Drake Arch, shown at the right, is now partially hidden behind some low-rise buildings.

The Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood contains, according to the organization, "an astonishing number of architecturally, historically and culturally significant structures, including rowhouses, mansions, religious buildings, and schools dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although there are currently two designated historic districts in the area, the vast majority of Bedford Stuyvesant's architectural splendor is unprotected."

The Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus nominated the neighborhood surrounding the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. "This unique area," the organization said, "retains its largely industrial character," and "with the canal's recent designation as a federal Superfund site, there is now an opportunity to successfully advocate for the preservation of the industrial character of the area."

Jackson Heights is New York City's first planned neighborhood of "garden apartments" and "garden homes," the organization said, adding that the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, established in 1988, is seeking to extend the boundaries of the existing Jackson Heights Historic District, landmarked in 1993, to better reflect and protect the actual historic neighborhood.