Emily:
        I'm an upstater and know little about the city and fearing way too much
ignorance on the subject I'll stick to pitching in my 2 cents from an angle
I understand.
        I'm an historian and archaeologist and althrough I've never worked in the
city (been there once, though) I know there are numerous reports on
inner-city excavations wherein really great neighborhood histories have
been written.  It is standard proceedure in studying and reporting a
particular site to put it into a series of contexts at the neighborhood,
city-wide, and larger levels (ie how does the site fit into the various
systems of interaction).  Since identification of local resources, focal
points, and activity areas are important the histories can often be quite
detailed.  Perhaps there was an excavation done in the vicinity in which
you would find descriptions of the neighborhood and some of the imortant
places.

Dan W.