Jeff Petriello first fell in love with a tiny swath of Chinatown that he and other residents call "Chumbo" while filming a night scene with actress Winona Ryder along chaotic Canal Street in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge.
"It just felt remote and genuine and beautiful," said Mr. Petriello, 25 years old, who decided to move to an apartment on East Broadway and Canal after being a production assistant on that film, "The Stare."
Even better, Mr. Petriello added, "I can afford to live here."
Mr. Petriello is among a growing number of young, creative types who say they've found Manhattan's last low-rent art district in the stately tenements and unadorned streets hugging the southern flank of Corlears Hook.
Some now call the neighborhood Chumbo, combining the names of Chinatown and its high-brow Brooklyn neighbor across the Manhattan Bridge, Dumbo. It sits largely south of East Broadway, where Chinese immigrants still dominate and the upscale restaurants and nightclubs of the Lower East Side have only just begun to penetrate.
The rent is cheap—about $2,900 a month for the average three-bedroom, said Sofia Song, a senior researcher at StreetEasy.com, compared to almost $7,000 a month for a comparable unit in Dumbo. And the area is reclaiming some of the edgy cool that Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Williamsburg and Bushwick have stolen from Manhattan over the past two decades.
Peter J. Smith for The Wall Street Journal
Artist Billy Rennekamp, 25 years old, called Chinatown 'the last cool neighborhood on the island.'
Christopher Glazek, a 24-year-old writer for literary magazines such as n+1, said that, among his friends, "you either live in Bushwick or in Chinatown."
But the changing demographics of Chumbo and the larger Chinatown area have caused tension with longtime residents.
A report set to be released Thursday by the advocacy group CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities and the Urban Justice Center portrays a neighborhood beset by new development and gentrification. Working-class immigrant residents who were surveyed said they were fearful of being pushed out by higher rents.
"There's a changing of the landscape," said Lindsay Cattell, a co-author of the report.
Upscale restaurants such as Fat Radish and Pulqueria and nightclubs such as the soon-to-open Le Baron have popped up as the Lower East Side nightlife district spills into Chinatown, bringing with them fashionistas, expensive cocktails and new high-rise apartments. The artists living north of the border have taken to exploring the Chumbo neighborhood.
Yan Chen, a 19-year-old resident profiled in the report, said she was concerned about being able to live in the neighborhood and with people she grew up with. "Chinatown is important for Chinese people," she said.
But the Chumbo area—long part of a Chinatown district called Two Bridges—has retained much of its old character and walk-up tenement apartments, many of them rent-stabilized. High-rises and luxury buildings have yet to find their way there, said Corcoran Vice President Glenn Schiller.
"It's a different neighborhood within the same neighborhood," Mr. Schiller said.
Billy Rennekamp, a 25-year-old artist who decided to move to Bayard Street from Berlin in June, called Chinatown "the last cool neighborhood on the island."
Mr. Rennekamp recently shot a film in the area and collaborates with other local artists. Some gather in established restaurants, such as the Cup & Saucer, a classic greasy spoon.
"[Chinatown] is the most attractive place for an artist today," he said. "It's a typical setting for avant-garde activity."
