Greenwich Village has retained much of its charm and historic character in recent years, thanks in part to its activist residents and zoning regulations. South of 14th Street and west of Sixth Avenue, Manhattan’s grid system of streets ceases to function, and crooked, narrow lanes begin. How else to account for the intersection of West Fourth and West 12th Streets? Here jazz locales and trendy cafés compete with quieter establishments and small off-off-Broadway theaters. And it was in Greenwich Village that the gay-rights movement intensified after the Stonewall riots of the 1960s; the Stonewall/Christopher Street area today is testimony to the neighborhood’s unique and liberal character.