Boerum Hill- Diverse but Gentrified Inner Broolyn Neighborhood and Historic Home of the NYC Mohawk Community

I followed the Google maps boundaries for the neighborhood using Smith St as the eastern boundary and DeGraw as the southern. Boerum Hill is named for the colonial farm of the Boerum family, which occupied most of the area during early Dutch settlement. Most of the housing in Boerum Hill consists of three-story row houses built between 1840 and 1870 and are more plain than the housing in Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights as the neighborhood historically hosted many working class families, especially iron workers in the late19th/early 20th century.  Boerum Hill was home to a significant Mohawk community who came to NYC to work on the cities booming skyscrapers.  From the early 1970s until about the early 2000s, Boerum Hill was populated mostly by working & middle-class African-American and Puerto Rican families. But by the late 1990s the neighborhood had largely gentrified and became one of the wealthiest neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. Thankfully this is still a minority majority neighborhood as many working class families were able to stay in the community thanks to the high number of stabilized rentals in the district.

Other than the high housing prices, Boerum Hill is a top notch urban district and arguable one of the best in America. It has excellent public transit access, located just south of Dwtn Brooklyn and an easy subway ride to Manhattan, has quality schools, great retail and cultural amenities all making it very walkable community. Other than the need to provide more affordable housing (especially ownership options) I would like to see are more park amenities and some more dessert joints and bakeries. 

Click here to view my Boerum Hill Neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent density at 58K residents per square mile. This is accompanied by excellent transit access to 8 subway lines. Also has excellent access to Dwtn Brooklyn located just north of the neighborhood and a train ride to Lower Manhattan and Midtown are 25 & 30 mins, respectively.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and plenty of bike rentals.
* Generally excellent sidewalks and modern ADA curbs, but still several curb cuts that have not been updated. * Great connectivity with gridded, generally small blocks.
* Urban form is really solid with only a handful of surface parking lots and modern public housing bldgs set back from the street. Streetscaping is also solid but a bit outdated on the biz districts.
* Historic architecture is also generally very attractive but does includes some industrial warehouses abutting Gowanus and the brownstones are not as ornate as Brooklyn Heights. Modern infill generally has solid urban form.
* Good tree canopy but not as full as neighboring Cobble Hill or Brooklyn Heights.
* Very safe community with limited blight except some in the transition zone with Gowanus.
* Solid racial and economic diversity. Much better than surrounding Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights.
* While market rents are certainly very high, lots of Stabilized rentals in Boerum Hill helping it to remain a diverse neighborhood after it gentrified.
* Solid array of walkable schools including a nice mix of public and private. Public schools are generally rated well but a couple of poorly rated ones. The Brooklyn High Schools of the Arts is located in Boerum Hill and highly rated.
* Good amount of rental product as well but also very expensive. Studios lease in the 2Ks 1-beds btwn 3K-4K, 2-beds btwn 4K-7K. Only a handful of 3-beds. However, there are a fair amount of rent stabilized units as over half of all units rent below 2K.
* Decent park access including several small but efficient parks. Good access still the expansive park amenities running along the East River.
* Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, a comedy club, several art galleries, a handful of live music venues & community theaters, a couple of local museums, and the several theaters that make up the Brooklyn Academy Music just  east of Boerum Hill and the Cobble Hill Cinema is nearby.
* Excellent retail amenities including several supermarket, a couple drug stores, several department stores including a target, two Marshalls, and much more sit just North of Boerum Hill. including many name brand clothing stores in Dwtn Brooklyn. Also a great # of boutiques/gift stores,/home good stores, a couple book stores, a couple hardware stores, several churches a public library & post office, several doctor’s offices are located within Boerum Hill and  a major hospital & lots is only 10-15 min walk.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Decent parks including several small but efficient urban parks. Only large park within 20 min park is Fort Greene Park.
• A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. Fair amount of studios and 1-beds selling btwn 330K-650K. But most of these units sell btwn 700K-1.5M. 2-beds range btwn 850K-3M with most units selling btwn 1M–2M. Good # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 1.8K-4M with most product selling btwn 1.8M-3 M. A lot 4-bed product generally selling btwn 2M-5M.
• Only a handful of dessert stores & bakeries