New York City has thousands of avenues, boulevards, streets and other byways, some famous, others merely utilitarian. But even many veteran taxi drivers and longtime local residents find it difficult to give the location of Extra Place, mostly because they have never heard of it.

The tiny street is in the East Village and runs north from First Street  without making it to Second Street  between the Bowery and Second Avenue. About 30 feet wide and 120 feet long, it resembles a dusty alleyway more than an active thoroughfare. There are no street signs. It is virtually impossible to see on a standard atlas.

The street does, however, have admirers. For instance, there is Avalon Bay, the developer of recently constructed luxury buildings on First Street. It wants to repave Extra Place and create a cleaner passageway to the shops and boutiques that are expected to open in the new buildings.

Other admirers include longtime neighbors who said they were charmed by the truncated lane simply because it was one of the last remnants of the block’s pregentrified past. But the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which has control of the street, has no interest in holding on to it.