University Avenue is a fitting name when an institute of higher learning makes its home on your street, but walk the central artery of the Neighborhood Of The Arts and you'll be hard-pressed to find a main college/university. Some might say that the connection lies in the Memorial Art Gallery's relationship with the University Of Rochester, and that is the biggest clue. The MAG campus was the second home of The University Of Rochester, before a land swap afforded the U of R it's current home (which was the site of the original Oak Hill Country Club, and beforehand Rochester's lost rolling hill of the same name). The tradition of higher learning and the arts lives on in NOTA as SUNY Brockport's Visual Studies Workshop, the culturally focused School Of The Arts, and RIT's Gallery R all make their homes on the avenue. And the school colors of U of R, as well as the MAG's central tower, grace the shirt of the NOTA neighborhood to connect it's past and present.

Once an unassuming light-industry neighborhood, the original Atlantic-University neighborhood is now a diverse cultural and artistic hub for the city as the Neighborhood Of The Arts. Galleries, local boutiques, local restaurants and eateries, and very unique shops all line the colorful streets of the neighborhood. Repurposed industrial buildings housing artist studios and businesses like the Village Gate, Anderson Arts Building, and Elton Street further emulate the transformation of Atlantic-University into the Neighborhood Of The Arts we know today.

Rochester's long stretching network of trolley routes serviced the far reaches of the city; The 400 line of University and Arnett traveled the 19th Ward, through Center City, and ending in the Neighborhood Of The Arts.