North of Columbus Circle, the roadway becomes Central Park West along Central Park and, north of 110th Street, becomes Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Unofficially, Frederick Douglass Boulevard is sometimes still referred to as Eighth Avenue. Fredrick Douglass Boulevard eventually terminates near the Harlem River at the Harlem River Drive around West 159th Street. While the avenue has different names at different points in Manhattan, it is actually one continuous stretch of road, only changing in name.
Since the 1990s, the stretch of Eighth Avenue that runs through Greenwich Village and its adjacent Chelsea neighborhood has been a center of the city's gay community, with bars and restaurants catering to gay men. In fact, New York City's annual gay pride parade takes place along the Greenwich Village section of Eighth Avenue. Also, along with Times Square, the portion of Eighth Avenue from 42nd Street to 50th Street was an informal red-light district in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, before it was controversially renovated into a more family friendly environment under the first mayoral administration of Rudolph Giuliani.
Points of interest on or within one block of Eighth Avenue include:
