Tag: Brooklyn

Kensington- the Epitomy of a Brooklyn Neighborhood to me

When I think of Brooklyn, Kensington in many ways epitomizes what I picture Brooklyn to be… ethnically diverse but with a large Orthodox Population, dense walkable neighborhood served by great subway access (even an elevated heavy rail line), and turn of the century neighborhood with an eclectic mix of housing including single family homes, duplexes, brick rowhouses from basically every decade of the first half of the 20th Century, some late 19th century brownstones, and of course plenty of large 1920s brick apartment buildings. The main commercial streets of Kensington are Coney Island Avenue, Church Avenue, Ditmas Avenue, and McDonald Avenue. Ocean Parkway bisects the neighborhood from north to south with two lovely pedestrian promenade running down the center.  Kensington was first developed in 1885 after the completion of Ocean Parkway, named after the famous West London neighborhood.  Kensington was first built up during the turn of the 20th century as a mixture of attached rowhouses, single family woodframe homes, duplex’s, and small apartment buildings. But when the subway line came in the 1920s the area was rezoned allowing large apartment buildings to be built, especially along Ocean Parkway and on the neighborhood’s periphery between the 1920s-1940s. My sense is zoning made it difficult to continue building apartment buildings in the post War Area although some were still built along Ocean Parkway in the 50s and 60s. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Kensington was considered to be West Flatbush. But this changed in the 1950s as eastern Flatbush became increasingly populated by African American and Afro-Caribbean families. Kensington adopted its new name as a way of distinguishing it from eastern Flatbush. Yet this name change did not completely insulate Kensington from the effects of urban decline and White Flight. By the mid-70s Kensington’s allure had waned as many young professionals choose the suburbs instead. Yet this era of decline was relatively shorted lived for Kensington as the area became in demand by the 1980s welcoming young professionals displaced by gentrifying lower Manhattan and Inner Brooklyn and many Orthodox Jews, African Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans spilled over from Borough Park. New apartments and mixed-use buildings have incrementally been built since the 1990s across the neighborhood. More recently Kensington has welcome large numbers of  immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Even with its resurgence Kensington has managed to be a relatively affordable neighborhood compared to other more gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhoods to the north and north west.

One can still buy an attractive 1-bed condo for 400K or rent even a 2-bed in the 2Ks. Kensington is also one of Brooklyn’s safest communities and has a plethora of well rated walkable schools. For this to be a top notch Brooklyn community Kensington needs better urban infill is needed along Coney Island Ave & McDonald filling in lots of autocentric uses. I would also like to see more bike infrastructure, more cultural amenities and the road dieting of the excessively wide Ocean Parkway.

Click here to view my Kensington album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent density around 60K sq miles per person.
* Overall excellent connectivity and street grid.
* Good access to Dwtn Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan being 40 mins by train and about 45-50 mins to Midtown.
* Great diversity metrics especially racial and economic. There is a White minority of about 44% and large Hispanic and Asian populations here. Good number of families as well.
* Very safe community. One of the safest in Brooklyn. Some grit, esp. along Coney Island but not too bad.
* Solid ADA and sidewalk infrastructure. Some missing ADA curb cuts but not too bad.
* Decent historic architecture but certainly more plain than Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods.
* Solid tree canopy but certainly some holes.
* Good walkable schools with well rated public schools. Not much private school diversity as they are almost all Orthodox Jewish Institutions.
* Good park access in the northern half of Kensington with walkable access to the southern edge of Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery.  A handful of smaller parks throughout the neighborhood but would like to see more.
* Solid retail amenities including several supermarkets especially Kosher ones and ethnic grocerias, plenty drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of clothing/home goods/furniture stores, a couple bookstores,  some gyms and dessert joints, a couple bike shops, tons of salons & barber shops a  public library and  post office. No hospital here but plenty of doctor’s offices and medical centers. Lots of other more working class serving stores like 99 c stores, laundromats, mobile stores, etc.
* Good # of rentals  and pretty affordable for Brooklyn standards. Studios, 1 beds, and 2-beds all lease in the 2Ks,  and a decent # of 3 -bed rentals hat lease in the 3Ks. Decent amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 4/5s of rental product lease under 2K.
 * Lots of modestly priced smaller condos. Good # of studios that sell btwn  200K-400K, tons of 1-bed condos that sell btwn 200K-600K , 2-beds condos range btwn 300K-1.2M. 3-beds btwn 550K- 2M. 4&5  beds range anywhere btwn 1M and 2M. 

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • Urban in-fill is a mixed bag. Some good urban mixed-use buildings but not a ton of it. Decent amount of autocentric infill along Coney Island Ave., McDonald Ave, and 36th St.
  • Dedicated bike stations are only located on the northern half of the neighborhood and not enough east to west dedicated bike lanes.
  • Decent but not great cultural amenities, at least for Brooklyn standards. Good number of restaurants (esp. ethnic restaurants), bars, and cafes. Also a cinema located just south of the neighborhood, but not much else.
  • Lots of unattractive auto serving uses along Coney Island. Also limited boutiques and higher end specialized gift stores. Likely a sign that Kensington has not gentrified like other inner city Brooklyn neighborhoods.

Windsor Terrace- An Inner Brooklyn Neighborhood with a Small Town Feel

Windsor Terrace was originally developed in the mid 19th century as a small village maybe a 100 modest cottages. The village remained rural in feel until around 1900, when row houses began to be built throughout the area, at first along Prospect Park. The rest of the neighborhood filled in during the 1920s as the neighborhood was soon to be connected by the New York City Subway. Interesting the neighborhoods surrounding Windsor Terrace (Park Slope and Kensington) were already built out by this time. The neighborhood is a mixture of single-family homes, duplexes, rowhouses and incrementally throughout the decades larger apartment buildings. Many of the new occupants of Windsor Terrace were Irish-Americans, many of whose families remain there. To this day Windsor Terrace has the feel of an isolated neighborhood with a quiet small-town feel.  Gentrification came to Windsor Terrace in the 1980s as families who could not afford the prices in Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope moved in. The neighborhood has stayed in a similar state since with the exception of recent multi-family housing around Machate Circle at the SW corner of Prospect Park.

Overall Windsor Terrace is a solid urban neighborhood from most angles although less dense than most Brooklyn neighborhoods at around 45K residents per square mile. There is a modest commercial district along Ft. Hamilton Parkway and a more complete one along Prospect Park with a decent amount of mixed-uses throughout the district. Windsor Terrace has solid retail amenities but has less stores and shops than surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods and lacks walkable access to a hospital or doctor’s office. But the Windsor Terrace is in demand thanks to its convenient access to Prospect Park, great schools, safe environment and convenient access to Dwtn Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Click here to view my Windsor Terrace Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

  • Excellent ADA and sidewalk infrastructure with few missing ADA curb cuts.
  • Great density at 45K per square mile but this is actually on the lower side for Brooklyn.
  • Attractive Pre WWII architecture including a nice mix of 2-story brownstones and brick rowhouses and large apartment buildings.
  • Other than some limited autocentric uses along Coney Island, the SE extreme of the district Windsor Terrace has great urban form and streetscaping.
  • Solid tree canopy throughout most of Windsor Terrace.
  • Very safe community with limited amounts of blight.
  • Excellent access to Dwtn Brooklyn , Lower Manhattan, and Midtown being only 30 & 40 minutes by subway.
  • Good generational diversity and lots of families here.
  • Good bike infrastructure with plenty of dedicated bike share stations but could use some more dedicated bike lanes esp. north to south routes.
  • Solid walkable school options with well rated public schools across all age groups and good # of private and charter school options.
  • Great park access being located in-between Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery. Also plenty of smaller parks within the neighborhood.
  • Good cultural amenities including a good # of restaurants, bars, & cafes and several art galleries. Also a couple local performing arts theaters, and a Cinema. Good access to better cultural amenities in neighboring Park Slope.
  • Okay # of rentals . Pretty limited for Brooklyn standards and generally very expensive. Studios are very limited. 1 beds lease btwn 2.4K-4K, 2-beds btwn 3-5K, and 3 & 4 bed rentals are very limited. Decent amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 3/5s of rental product lease under 2K.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Modern infill is very limited but that doesn’t take away from the urbanity of Windsor Terrace.
* Prospect Expressway cuts through the neighborhood. Connectivity would excellent if it wasn’t for the highway.
* Majority white neighborhood with ok racial diversity. Economic diversity is a bit better.
* Solid retail amenities but below average for Brooklyn. Amenities include several medium and smaller supermarkets, several drug stores, a couple hardware stores, a handful of boutiques/clothing/gift stores, a local bookstores, a couple bakeries, several gyms and dessert joints, a local public library and post office, and several churches.
* no major hospital and limited medical centers and doctor’s offices here.
 * For sale housing are pretty expensive but not as expensive as the Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods but less housing diversity. Really no studios for sale. 1-bed condos sell btwn selling btwn  400K-850K, 2-beds condos ranging btwn 500K-2M. 3-beds btwn 1M- 3M. 4 beds range anywhere btwn 1.2M and 3.2M. 

Flatbush- A very Diverse Brooklyn Neighborhood Located south of Prospect Park and containg New York’s Little Haiti

Flatbush remained primarily a Dutch town with rural character until the latter half of the 19th century, when increasing rail and road connectivity to other parts of New York made it an attractive suburb. A stream of Irish and some German immigrants first arrived to the area, in the 1860s. Flatbush built a Town Hall in 1875  but only remained an independent town until it consolidated into the City of Greater New York in 1898 and was further connected to the rest of the city by the New York City Subway in the early 20th century. Flatbush’s population really took off in the 1890s and was largely built out by 1915. A significant amount of single family homes and rowhouses were rebuilt with larger apartments in the 1920s and 30s. After WW II Flatbush underwent tremendous demographic shifts, becoming home to increasing numbers of immigrants from the Caribbean, Asia, and Puerto Rico and saw a large influx of African Americans. This was especially the case along the  Nostrand Avenue corridor where the subway offered access to job opportunities, while middle-class African Americans bought up row houses to the west. Modern day Nostrand hosts New York’s largest Haitian Community.  The population of the neighborhood shifted from 89% white in 1970 to 30% white in 1980 accelerated by racists blockbusting practices. Parts of the neighborhood in the west and to the south of Prospect Park remain stable thanks to the large detached SF homes that attracted a sizable number of wealthier homeowners. By the mid-1980s Flatbush however, had numerous abandoned  buildings and the eastern parts of Flatbush were particularly affected by poverty and the crack epidemic. Yet by the late 20th century and 21st century Flatbush began to change its poor reputation as more affluent renters and buyers were attracted by its cheaper prices, attractive housing stock, and convenient walkability and accessibility to Manhattan and other parts of Brooklyn.

The Ditmas Park subdistrict is used to describe several neighborhoods comprising the larger area of Victorian Flatbush. It is an eight-block historic district consists of 2,000 to 2,500 residential restrictions built  between 1902 and 1914.  Prospect Park South also contains a large Historic District of freestanding homes exceeding 3,500 square feet. South & West Midwood is on the southern edge of Flatbush and is mostly filled with early 20th century structures including a mix of single family homes. attached brick rowhouses and large apartment buildings. While Flatbush has certainly gentrified is retains a good number of affordable stabilized rentals and reasonably priced for-sale options. Given its good walkability, access to Prospect Park, quality schools, and general safety, its a good value in Brooklyn.

Click here to view my Flatbush Album and here to view my Little Carribean album

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Very large and dense Brooklyn neighborhood containing around 150K people at 65K per square mile.
* Overall good sidewalk and ADA curb cut infrastructure but a good number of intersections (say 40%) are out of date.
* Solid access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Midtown only 30-45 Mins by subway.
* Good bike infrastructure as well with plenty of dedicated bike lanes and a solid bike sharing system but the southern edge of the neighborhood is without dedicated bike stations.
* Goo diversity indicators especially economic but also solid racial diversity as about 1/2 the population is Black with large White, Hispanic, & Asian populations and a good # of families live here.
* Decent range of rentals although listed rentals are very expensive. Studios lease btwn 1.8K-2.8K, 1 beds lease btwn 1.8K-3.6K, 2-beds btwn 2.5-5K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 2.8K-5K. Good amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 4/5s of rental product lease under 2K. Most expensive rents are the northern edge. Rents in the southern half of Flatbush are pretty modest for Brooklyn.
* Solid schools with generally well rated public schools and good age diversity. Schools along the eastern edge of Flatbush in the more Caribbean section are not as well rated. Good number of private and charter schools as well.
* Great architectural diversity including your typically Brooklyn mi of large 1920 apartments and late 19th century rowhouse. But also many large single family homes in the subdistricts of Midwood, Ditkas Park, and Prospect Park South. East of Nostrand Ave there is an even more eclectic mix of 2-story Italianate rowhouses, brick duplexes, and more modest SF homes.
* As the neighborhood gentrified there is more and more quality urban infill especially in Prospect Park South but also increasingly along Flatbush Ave.
* Solid Tree canopy throughout the district, especially in the Single Family subdistricts.
* Good pedestrian activity but a touch sleepier than other Brooklyn neighborhood’s due to the large SF areas.
* Great park amenities for those on the Northern edge of Flatbush with good access to Prospect Park and the countless sport fields on the Parade grounds. However park amenities are a bit sparse for residents of Flatbush living more than a 10 minute walk to Prospect Park  limited to a handful of playgrounds, basketball courts, a YMCA and small parks.
* Solid cultural amenities but a bit underwhelming compared to other nearby neighborhood. Large # of restaurants, bars, and cafes, a couple art galleries, several performing arts theaters (including the historic King Theater), and a couple night clubs.
* Solid retail amenities including several supermarkets and a handful of ethnic grocerias, 2 targets, several brand named clothing stores, plenty drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of boutiques/clothing/gift stores, a couple bookstores, several home goods and furniture stores, plenty of gyms and dessert joints, a couple libraries  post offices, several churches, NYC Hospital sits on the NE corner of Flatbush and many doctor’s offices.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Flatbush is generally a pretty safe community but with some gritty and sketchier areas starting at Ocean after and moving east ward towards Flatbush Avenue and Nostrand Ave. Coney Island Ave the western border is pretty gritty and autocentric at times but doesn’t feel dangerous.  Neighborhood certainly seems safer than it was a decade ago due to continued gentrification pressure.
* Flatbush still suffers from some negative perception from those who are stuck in the 1990s and early 2000s when Flatbush was legitimately a more dangerous place.
* A handful of autocentric spots and more industrial uses along the eastern edges of Flatbush but not terrible.
* Streetscaping on Flatbush’s business districts is functional but feels dated and gritty.
* For sale housing are expensive but much more reasonable that many other Brooklyn neighborhoods. There are some moderately priced studios selling btwn 300K-450K, plenty of moderately priced 1-beds selling btwn 250K-750K, Really good diversity of 2-beds condos ranging btwn 250K-1.2M with good representation in each price range. 3-beds btwn 450K- 2M including a good mix of condos, attached homes, and rowhouses. 4 beds range anywhere btwn 600K and 2M. Plenty of 5 bed options too thanks to all the SF homes. Top of the market is 3.5M.
* Limited live music options

Prospect Lefferts Gardens- An Eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood just east of Prospect Park and Home to a Large Carribean-American Population

Prospect Lefferts Gardens is a residential neighborhood that many refer to as the broader Flatbush community. Prospect Lefferts Gardens is a combination of the names of three nearby locations which was coined in the late 1960s with the creation of the  Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that the area was built up starting with the development of the Lefferts’s estate in 1893 by  James Lefferts. In order to ensure that the neighborhood would contain homes of a substantial nature, Lefferts attached land-use deed restrictions to the lots dictating that each lot contain a single family residence built of brick or stone at least two stories in height. These restrictions exist to this day and explain why a good portion of the neighborhood’s historic brownstones remain in tact.  The land restrictions became more formalized with the Lefferts Manor Historic District in 1992. Through the decades Prospect Lefferts Gardens developed a very eclectic mix architecture from gorgeous brownstones, to ornate single family homes, to 1920s and mid century apartment bldgs, and even brick/tudor rowhouses and more working class rowhouses on the eastern edges. There is some modern in-fill scattered through the neighborhood (esp. along Clarkson) but the neighborhood has only begun to see gentrification since the 2000s and it seems to be spreading relatively slowly. Since after WW II the neighborhood became more and more ethnically diverse first welcoming African Americans during the Great Migration and then large Caribbean families. Caribbean immigrants have also settled in surrounding areas such as East Flatbush, Flatbush, and Crown Heights. The overlapping sections of these neighborhoods is often referred to as Little Caribbean.

From an urban Prospect  Lefferts Gardens is yet another turn of the century Brooklyn neighborhood with great public transit access and walkability. It also has great park amenities thanks to its convenient proximity to Prospect Park, solid cultural and retail amenities, and still contains good racial and economic diversity. Since gentrification got underway in the early 2000s I sense the school quality has improved and crime has dropped. The business districts however ( Nostrand, and Rogers Ave) remain gritty with a fair amount of vacancies and there is a good amount of autocentric uses and surface parking lots along the neighborhood’s eastern and northern edges. The neighborhood  needs more dedicated bike lanes and a major supermarket and more boutiques. I hope Prospect Lefferts Gardens can keep its racial and economic diversity moving forward. This will largely depend on whether it can retain its stabilized rental units and expand affordable housing options.

Click here to view my Prospect Lefferts Garden album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

  • Solid sidewalks and ADA infrastructure. Most intersections have modern ADA curb cuts.
  • Great urban density at 56K residents per square mile.
  • Very eclectic architecture from gorgeous brownstones, to ornate single family homes, to 1920s and mid century apartment bldgs, and even brick/tudor rowhouses and more working class rowhouses. Some modern in-fill scattered about the neighborhood.
  • Good access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Midtown 30-40 mins by subway but not as good as the Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods.
  • Nearly before urban grid and connectivity.
  • Good bike infrastructure including plenty of dedicated bike stations but only a handful of bike lanes, much less than other surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.
  • Solid tree canopy except the southern and eastern edges of the neighborhood.
  • Good racial diversity and still a Black Majority neighborhood with larger Hispanic and growing White populations. Excellent economic diversity.
  • Pretty good age diversity thanks to the diverse array of housing types.
  • Decent range of rentals although listed rentals are very expensive. Studios and 1 beds lease btwn 2K-3.5K, 2-beds btwn 2.8-4.2K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 3-5K with a handful of more expensive options. Good amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 3/4s of rental product lease under 2K.
  • Solid school amenities with a good number of public schools that are generally well rated and pretty good choice of charter and private schools.
  • Great park access thanks alone to the neighborhood’s proximity to Prospect Park where no resident is more than a 10 min walk from. Also a handful of small and medium sized parks sprinkled throughout the district.
  • Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, several art galleries and local music venues, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Zoo, and Brooklyn Museums are short walk to the west.
  • Solid retail amenities including several medium and smaller grocery stores, plenty drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of boutiques/clothing/gift stores (but mostly concentrated on the more gentrified Flatbush Ave), a couple bookstores and florists, several home goods and furniture stores, some gyms and dessert joints, a couple public libraries and post offices sit just outside the neighborhood boundaries. tons of churches, and NYC hospital is along the neighborhood’s eastern edge. An urban home depot and a 5 Below stores are located just south of the neighborhood boundaries along Flatbush Ave.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • Streetscaping along the business district are fine with often wide sidewalks but very gritty and outdated.
  • Overall solid urban form along the main biz districts of Flatbush, Nostrand, and Rogers Avenue but good amount of surface parking and some autocentric uses here and along the northern border of Empire Blvd.
  • Prospect Lefferts Gardens is generally safe but the gentrified western half is certainly safer than the gritter eastern half.
  • For sale housing are expensive but much more reasonable that many other Brooklyn neighborhoods. There is a decent # of moderately priced studios selling btwn 200K-550K, 1-beds sell btwn 300K-850K, 2-beds range btwn 400K-1.2M, 3-beds btwn 700K-3M. 4 beds range anywhere btwn 800K and 4M.
  • Missing a major supermarket within the neighborhood, a larger Home goods stores, and banks are limited. Also limited # of boutiques and locally owned creative stores more plentiful in other more gentrified Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods.”

Prospect Heights- Dense Brooklyn Neighborhood just North of Prospect Park and host of the Famous West Indie Day Parade

To better line up with the NYC Times Neighborhood survey I extend Prospect Slopes eastern boundaries to Grand Avenue. The neighborhood name Prospect Heights can be traced as far back as 1889. The neighborhood is a small sliver between the larger neighborhoods of Park Slope to the West, Clinton Hill to the north, and Crown Heights to the east. In general the interior portion of the neighborhood consists mostly of brownstone-style residential rowhouse buildings built mostly in the 1890s and blocks just north of the Eastern Parkway and south of Steering consist of a solid blocks of larger multi-unit apartment buildings built in the 1910s and 1920s. A prosperous commercial district developed along Vanderbilt Ave, which cuts through the heart of the neighborhood. Prospect Heights became a diverse ethnic neighborhood in the 1910s through the 1960s, combining Italian, Irish, Jewish, German, and  Greek residents. After WWII Prospect Heights welcomed a large number of African Americans and Caribbean immigrants as the neighborhood became a spill over for these populations from neighboring Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, and Bed Stuy. Since the 2000s Prospect Heights has been on a gentrification track as residents seeking lower rent spilled over from the affluent Park Slope and Clinton Hill neighborhoods. The neighborhood currently has a decent mix of black and white residents and still hosts the famous West Indian Day Parade.  Thanks to the resident gentrification there are a good number of quality in-fill condos and apartments especially along the neighborhood’s northern and eastern edges. Defunct bakeries and factory spaces concentrated along the districts eastern edge are being renovated and converted into lofts. Along the southern boundary, Eastern Parkway, is Brooklyn’s version of Manhattans Fifth Avenue  “Museum Mile” as the Brooklyn Library, Brooklyn Museum, and Brooklyn Botanical Garden are all concentrated here.

From an urban perspective not much to complain about other than some autocentric uses concentrated along Atlantic, Grand, and Washington Avenues. As the gentrification process depends Prospect Heights is slowly loosing its racial and economic diversity. There needs to be strong attempts to built permanent affordable housing to keep the neighborhood’s rich diversity. Overall Prospect Heights is a wonderful urban neighborhood with one of Brooklyn’s densest populations, great access to several subway lines, great bike infrastructure, and convenient park, retail, and cultural amenities all within a 10 minute walk. Most of the stylish late 19th century brownstones remain, and the neighborhood hosts solid well rated walkable schools and a high level of safety.

Click here o view my Prospect Heights Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* One of the denser neighborhoods in Brooklyn at nearly 70K people per square mile.
* Excellent public transit and great access to Dwtn Brookly and Lower Manhattan only 25-30 mins but subway and 40 mins to Midtown.
* Great street grid and connectivity throughout Prospect Heights.
* Some narrow sidewalks and missing ADA curbs along Atlantic and Washington Ave but overall great sidewalk infrastructure.
* Great bike infrastructure with several bike lanes and plenty of dedicated bike stations.
* Solid tree canopy esp. for such a dense urban neighborhood.
* Excellent urban architecture including attractive late 19th century brownstones still to Park Slopes and a lot of attractive urban infill, espeically along Atlantic and Washington Ave. Large more basic 1920s apartments near Prospect Park and more warehouses along the eastern border along Grand Ave.
* Overall a very safe community. Along a touch of blight along the eastern edge of the neighborhood along Washington and Grand Aves.
* Solid urban form and streetscaping.
* Great access to Prospect Park no more than a 8 minute walk from any portion of Prospect Heights. A couple smaller parks within the neighborhood and a private pool. Convenient access to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Zoo as well.
* Decent range of rentals although listed rentals are very expensive. Studios lease btwn 2.3K-3.8K, 1-beds btwn 3K-4.8K, 2-beds btwn 4.5K-7.8K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 4.5-8K. Good amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 2/3s of rental product lease under 2K.
* Solid schools that are well rated but smaller and less umbiquitous than other surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods.
* Great array of cultural amenities including tons of bars, restaurants & cafes. a handful of art galleries, several live music venues, a couple performing arts theaters, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Barclay Center, Botanical Gardens are nearby, and Brooklyn Academy of Music with a Cinema & several theaters are in walkable nearby areas.
* Excellent retail amenities many small and medium grocerias (no supermarekts within Prospect Heights), several drug stores,  good # of boutiques/gift stores,/home good stores, a couple book stores and  hardware stores, several gyms, a good # of dessert joints, a couple bike shops and florists, several churches, the main Brooklyn Library, a local post offices, several doctor’s offices and medical centers. On the northern edge there is a Target & Marshall’s, Best Buy, Burlington, and many other stores in the Atlantic Terminal Mall.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • Decent racial diversity. Less economic diversity as the neighborhood is pretty affluent.
  • Some autocentric uses along Atlantic, Grand and Washington Avenues.
  • Decent #s of family households her but also a disproportiant # of young adults.
  • For sale housing is expensive but decent # of moderrately priced studios and 1-beds. Studios and 1-bed condos sell btwn 300K-1.3M, 2-beds range btwn 600K-2.6M, 3-beds btwn 850K-4M. A handful of 4-beds sell for more than 4M.”

Crown Heights- Historic home to the Weeksvilles African American Settlement and Present Day Diverse Neighborhood Sitting on the Eastern edge of Prospect Park

Crown Heights was largely rural until the late 19th century with the exception of the  “Weeksville” settlement, founded by free slaves in 1838. The majority of Crown Heights began seeing development thanks to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 and the subsequent creation of subway lines.  into the Borough. Development continued to boom into the early 20th century. The western half of Crown Heights became known for its elegant architecture show casing Victorian, Italianate, and Renaissance Revival styles, especially along the  main thoroughfare of Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Crown Heights quickly became a very fashionable  neighborhood and a second home for Manhattan’s growing bourgeois class .  However, as the neighborhood continued to push eastwards the character of the streets became very working class with many rowhouses constructed without ornamentation. While the neighborhood initially had a predominantly white population, by the 1930s large numbers of Ashkenazi Jewish families moved in the neighborhood along with many African American thanks to the Great Migration. By the mid-20th century, Crown Heights had become one of the most significant African American communities in New York City and also attracted many immigrants from the Caribbean. While Crown Heights still contains a sizable African American and Jewish population, it like many other Brooklyn neighborhoods has witnessed a significant amount of gentrification, especially in its western section. Currently the neighborhood has great economic and racial diversity. We shall see if this continues in the upcoming decades.

From an urban perspective this is a solid neighborhood with great walkability thanks to the 5 subway lines that service the neighborhood, convenient access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, and Midtown, great bike infrastructure, and several business districts (Washington, Franklin, Nostrand, Kingston, Utica, and Empire Avenue) serving the neighborhood. Crown Heights also has a plethora of walkable well-rated schools, great access to Prospect Park and other recreational amenities, and continues to see its crime drop. The eastern half of the neighborhood is still quite gritty which makes sense as gentrification forces are mainly coming from the west and this section of the neighborhood was built with much less elegant housing stock as the western half. Crown Heights has a significant # of permanent affordable housing units in its many mid-century housing towers and a large number of stabilized rental units. Hopefully these restrictions are strong enough to keep this  a diverse community. Atlantic Avenue, the northern border, could use much better urban in-fill as the corridor hosts many autocentric and industrial uses.  

Click here to view my Crown Heights album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid density at nearly 60K residents per square mile.
* Solid ADA and sidewalk infrastructure but about 35% of curb cuts are not ADA standard.
* Excellent connectivity.
* Great access to 3 Dwtns only a 30 Min subway ride to Dwtn Brooklyn, and 40 mins to both Lower Manhattan and Midtown.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including plenty of dedicated bike lanes and bike share stations.
* Great racial and economic diversity. Crown Heights is still holding on to a large African American population and middle class households even after gentrification.
* Really solid schools with a great array of generally well rated public and charter schools covering all age groups and tons of smaller private schools.
* Solid park amenities thanks to Prospect Park on the neighborhood’s western edge with convenient access to the Brooklyn Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Decent number of small and medium parks spread through the neighborhood and a recreation center with an indoor pool.
* Solid urban form throughout most of Crown Heights. Atlantic Ave has the worst urban form with a significant amount of autocentric and industrial uses. All the north-south biz district where pretty solid. Urban form along Empire was generally good with a couple rough blocks.
* Good historic architecture especially the ornate brownstones in the western half of the neighborhood and in the Crown Heights Historic District. The eastern half of Crown Heights is characterized by much more working class rowhouses and is generally grittier. Modern In-fill generally has solid urban form but not particularly cutting edge in Crown Heights and lots of bland mid-century residential towers here.
* Lots of business districts running through Crown Heights creating great mixed-use fabric and plenty of residential corners filled with storefronts.
* Good cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, several art galleries. The food & beverage amenities tend to be focus in the more gentrified western edge. Also a good array of museums including the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the Weeksville Heritage Center, and the Brooklyn Art Museum. Also some live music venues and night clubs, and convenient access to the Botanical Garden and Zoo.
* Great range of rentals although pretty expensive. Studios lease btwn 1.8K-3K, 1-beds btwn 2K-4.5K, 2-beds btwn 2.3K-7K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 2.7K-7K. Significantly amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 4/5s of rental product least under 2K.
* Solid retail amenities including several supermarkets (concentrated in the gentrified western half) and plenty of small and medium grocerias (concentrated in the eastern half), plenty drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of boutiques/clothing/gift stores, several bookstores, several home goods and furniture stores, plenty of gyms and dessert joints, a local public library and several post offices, tons of churches, no major hospital but plenty of medical centers and doctor’s offices here. 

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • Street canopy is better in the most historic western half of Crown Heights and thins out in the eastern half of the neighborhood, which historically is the more working class section.
  • Crown Heights has come a long way the past decade or so with safety. Likely still rougher than Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods, especially the eastern edge of the neighborhood. Also a fair amount of grit in this section of Crown Heights.
  • For sale housing is expensive but relatively reasonable compared to Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods. Studios and 1-bed condos sell btwn 300K-1.5M, 2-beds range btwn 350K-2.5M, 3 & 4-beds are quite reasonable comparatively selling anywhere btwn 650K-3M with a handful selling btwn 3-4M. Higher end product is concentrated along the western edge of Crown Heights.”

Bedford-Stuyvesant- Historic Brooklyn Neighborhood with New York City’s Largest African American Community

I generally followed the Google Maps borders except the eastern edge where the newer subdistrict of Ocean Hill lies. This is a pretty well recognized neighborhood on the ground for New Yorkers. I only carved out from Bed-Stuy the smaller section east of Ralph Ave and south of Fulton St. I also deviate slightly from Google by using Franklin as the western border.

Bed-Stuy was largely rural until the mid 1880s as real estate development began slowly at first and then accelerated in the late 19th century. Bedford–Stuyvesant has the largest collection of intact Victorian architecture in the United States, with roughly 8,800 buildings built before 1900. Its building stock was developed for the expanding upper-middle class in the turn of the 20th century. Since the late 1930s, the neighborhood has been a major cultural center for Brooklyn’s African American population especially after the construction of the Fulton Street subway line (A and ​C trains) in 1936. The combined migration of Blacks from the overcrowded Harlem and immigrants from the American South and the Caribbean brought the neighborhood’s black population to around 30,000, making it the second largest Black community in the city at the time After WW-II African Americans began moved into the surrounding areas of Brooklyn, such as East New York, Crown Heights, Brownsville, and Fort Greene.  making this section of Brooklyn the largest concentration of African Americans in the United States with nearly 1 M people. Since the early 2000s, Bedford-Stuyvesant has undergone significant gentrification, resulting in a more diverse and larger White Population.  However, Bedford–Stuyvesant’s population has experienced much less displacement  than other areas of Brooklyn, such as Williamsburg and Cobble Hill. This is thanks to a large number of affordable and stabilized rental units and an influx of more upwardly mobile middle class African American families, as well as immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. Bed-Stuy still has a majority minority number of Black residents, followed by a large number of White and even Hispanic families. The northern edge abutting Williamsburg is very much a largely Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

While Bed-Stuy does not have the same level of high end retail amenities as inner Brooklyn neighborhoods it is still a highly walkable community with most retail amenities and excellent cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars, cafes, and lots of jazz clubs and art galleries. The neighborhood also has excellent transit connections with convenient access to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, and Midtown, excellent bike infrastructure, a good array of walkable schools and becomes more and more safe every year. While for sale prices are generally very high there is a good amount of studios, 1-beds and event 2-bed condos selling between 250K-600K. As the neighborhood gentrifies Bed-Stuy’s historic grid will continue to become less and less moving west to east. I just hope the neighborhood can retain its great racial and economic diversity as this process occurs. While there are some areas of autocentric and underutilized uses along Broadway and Flushing, Atlantic Avenue needs the most redevelopment and quality in-fill as it contains a significant amount autocentric uses and ugly industrial grit.

Click here to view my Bedford-Stuyvesant Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent density at around 60K residents per square miles.
* Good ADA and sidewalk infrastructure but  the sidewalks are warn and dirty and about 40% of all curb cuts are outdated.
* Solid access to 3 major NYC CBDs. By subway 30 mins to Dwtn Brooklyn and 40 mins to Lower Manhattan and Midtown.
* Excellent public transit access along with plenty of dedicated bike lanes and bike share stations. Completed with the many business district and mixed-use streets Bed-Stuy is a solid walkable neighborhood.
* Currently great economic and racial diversity as the neighborhood is in transition to gentrifying. Hopefully Bed-Stuy can retain this diversity moving forward.
* Solid urban architecture but not as good as more gentrified neighborhoods to the west. A good number of browntowns ad rowhouses but generally not a ornate or well maintained as Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods. Significant amount of unattractive autocentric uses below the elevated lines running along Broadway and Atlantic. As the neighborhood gentrified from the west, quality urban in-fill is being built. Mid-bag for the 1950s-1970s in-fill located on many neighborhood blocks.
* Decent tree canopy depending on the block.
* Lots of walkable schools well distributed throughout the neighborhood. Ratings are generally at least average but a handful of poorly rated schools. There many not be the number of prestigious private schools in more inner-Brooklyn neighborhoods but lots of good options here.
* Solid park amenities: While there aren’t any major parks here lots of small and medium sized parks well dispersed throughout the neighborhood with good amenities.
* Good urban form and streetscaping and good occupancy along the more western and gentrified business districts on Bedford, Nostrand, and Tompkins. More grid, tired street scaping, some autocentric uses, but still decent form along the eastern non gentrified business districts along  Marcus Garvey Blvd, Lewis, Malcom X,  Ralph, Flushing and the eastern half of Fulton. Broadway, which has a raised train line is gritty but still have good urban form. Not so with Atlantic. It is gritty, has the raised train and has lots of industrial and autocentric uses. Its quite ugly.
* Good cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, several art galleries, several jazz clubs and night clubs, a couple theaters, and a couple local museums.
* Solid retail amenities including plenty of some and medium sized groceries stores, several drug stores and hardware stores, a decent # of boutiques/clothing/gift stores, several bookstores, several antiques and furniture stores, a Home Depot, plenty of gyms and dessert joints, a couple local public libraries and post offices, tons of churches, a major hospital in the Northeast corner of the neighborhood and plenty of doctor offices.
* Great range of rentals although pretty expensive. Studios lease btwn 2K-3K, 1-beds btwn 2K-4.5K, 2-beds btwn 2.5K-6K, and plenty of 3-beds leasing btwn 3.5K-7K. Significantly amount of the rental supply is dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 2/3s of rental product least under 2K.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • For sale housing is expensive but relatively reason compared to Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods. Studios and 1-bed condos sell btwn 250K-3M, 2-beds range btwn 250K-3M with most units selling btwn 750K-2, 3 & 4-beds are quick reasonable comparatively selling anywhere btwn 500K-3M with a handful selling btwn 3-4M.
  • Some safety concerns remain but overall Bed-Stuy is not currently an unsafe area and continues to get better and better. Still a good amount of grit as certainly not all the neighborhood has been revitalized.

Clinton Hill- home to Pratt Institute and one of Inner Brooklyn’s best Urban Neighborhoods

Clinton Hill received its name  in honor of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton and due to its slight elevation above the surrounding area. Clinton Hill’s European roots began with the Dutch who cultivated tobacco plantations in the 1640s The area remained largely rural until the 1830s when the tree-lined Clinton Avenue was laid out as a boulevard along the crest of the hill in 1832. By the 1840s, Clinton Hill and neighboring Fort Greene had become fashionable neighborhoods for those who could commute to Manhattan by way of a stage coach to the Fulton Ferry. By the 1880s Clinton Hill was largely built out with mostly rowhouses attracting middle class professionals and more and more working class families. Oil executive Charles Pratt founded the Pratt Institute in 1887 as a private college which remains to this day. By 1920 several apartment buildings were built on Clinton Avenue and Washington Avenues. The1940s-1950 brought the construction of several affordable high rises raising the blocks surrounding the Platt Institute. Fortunately Clinton Hill retained its urban cohesion and most of its browntowns and rowhouses in time for the 1970s preservation movement, which lead to the restoration of many of these gems. In 1985 a significant portion of the neighborhood was included in the Clinton Hill Historic District.

From an urban perspective this is a top tier urban district with excellent walkability thanks to the neighborhood’s robust public transit and bike infrastructure, retail and cultural amenities running along Fulton, Myrtle, and Atlantic. Clinton Hill also has convenient access to 3 major Dwtns in New York, great schools, dense tree canopy, and a high level of safety. While the neighborhood has certainly gentrified in the last several decades, it has managed to hold on to much of its economic and racial diversity thanks to a sizable number of affordable housing and rental units. But as always there are still small ways the neighborhood could improve. More infill and road dieting is needed to tame the autocentric thoroughfares of Atlantic and Flushing Avenues. Significant effort should also good towards maintaining affordable rentals and creating new affordable condos likely through a Community Land Trust structure.
 

Click here to view my Clinton Hill album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density at around 53K per square mile.
* Great access to 3 top CBDs including a 15 min subway ride to Dwtn Brooklyn and 30 mins to both Lower Manhattan & Midtown. Quicker to bike to Dwtn Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan in most cases.
* Other than the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway running along the north edge of the neighborhood, connectivity is nearly perfect.
* Solid ADA Curb and sidewalk infrastructure throughout but about 40% of intersections have outdated ADA curbs.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and a good number of share stations, although not as many as most Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods.
* Solid urban architecture with a nice variety of styles ranging from mid-late century rowhouses & brownstones, SF mansions, 1920s brick apartment buildings and modern in-fill. Other than the crummy autocentric/industrial uses along Flushing and Atlantic urban-infill is pretty good.
* Pretty excellent tree canopy for an urban neighborhood.
* Generally a very safe community.
* Great economic diversity and racial diversity.  Also solid age diversity and lots of families here.
* Great walkable schools really across all categories but a mix of ratings for the public schools are well rated. Just north of Clinton Hill are tons of private Jewish Schools.
* Excellent retail amenities including a supermarket & several groceries, a couple drug stores, several  boutiques/gift stores,/furniture stores, a couple  a  hardware stores, several gyms and a couple of dessert joints, a bike shops, a couple florists, several churches a public library, a couple post offices, plenty of doctor’s offices and a couple hospitals in nearby Clinton Hill and Bedford Styuy.
* Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, a couple breweries, tons of art galleries, a performing arts theaters, a couple live music venues, and a couple local museums.
* Good amount of rental product especially along the western boarder with Dwtn Brooklyn. But market rentals are very expensive. Studios lease btwn n the 2.5K-3.5K,1-beds btwn 3.5K-4.5K, 2-beds btwn 3K-6K. Not a ton of 3-bed product. Good number of rental stabilized units however and the number of rentals below 2K exceeds far exceeds the # above 2K.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Missing any bookstores or big box stores.
* Good array of several small playgrounds and ball fields but not major parks or public pools.
* Flushing’s and Atlantic are both wide boulevards with a fair amount of unattractive and autocentric uses along them. Also a good amount of industrial uses along the Brooklyn-Queens Highway along the north edge of the neighborhood.
* A lot of for sale condo product and while expensive more moderately priced condo options that other Inner Brooklyn neighborhoods. Decent # of studios that sale btwn 400K-800K, tons of 1-beds with great range of prices btwn  but plenty of 1-beds selling btwn 350K-1.5M. Most 2-beds product sells btwn 500K-2.5M. Good # of 3-beds with most product selling btwn 600K-3M.  Some 4-bed product too but selling in the same price range.

Fort Greene- Brooklyn’s Historic African American District and now Top Tier Urban Neighborhood

Fort Greene was named after an American Revolutionary War era fort built in 1776 under the supervision of General Nathanael Greene.  Fort Greene Park, originally called “Washington Park”, is Brooklyn’s first park and in 1864 was redesigned by none other than Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.  In the 1850s, Fort Greene’s growth spread out from stagecoach lines along Myrtle Avenue and Fulton Street and became home to many prosperous professionals, second only to Brooklyn Heights in prestige. The mid 19th century brought many  Italianate brick and brownstone row houses as Fort Greene continued to grow. The neighborhood is also the historic African-American heart of Brooklyn where many professional Black families began to settle in the mid-19th century. By 1870, more than half of Brooklyn’s Black population lived in Fort Greene, most north of the Park.   By the 1870s, Fort Greene was virtually built out but slowly densified and transportation connections improved. Fort Greene is also  a haven of the arts thanks to the relocation of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1908. Increasingly in the 20th century Fort Greene lost its prestige as more and more wealthy families moved further east. The New York City Housing Authority also built 35 brick project housing in the 1940s and by the 1960s Fort Greene struggled with issues of poverty, crime, and the eventually the crack epidemic in the 1980s. Yet by the late 1980s artists, preservationists and Black professionals began to claim and restore the neighborhood and by the early 2000s Fort Greene was welcoming many new residents & businesses and was well on its way to gentrification. Sadly this partially resulted in a significant drop in the neighborhood’s Black population which decreased from 42% in 2000 to 23% in 2020. While the neighborhood has welcomed more and more affluent White families it has also grown in its Hispanic and Asian Population, which both now comprise about 11% of the population. Fortunately much of the economic diversity has been preserved thanks to a large number of dedicated affordable units and stabilized rentals.

Given its proximity just east to Dwtn Brooklyn, a 25 min subway ride to both Lower Manhattan and Midtown, and excellent walkability and urban amenities, this is a top tier American urban district lined with gorgeous historic brownstones. Fort Greene also has excellent park, retail, and cultural amenities, great schools, and is one of Brooklyn’s safest communities.  The only areas to improve the neighborhood is to encourage more urban infill and road dieting along the autocentric thoroughfares of Atlantic and Flushing Avenues. Significant effort should also good towards maintaining affordable rentals and creating new affordable condos likely through a Community Land Trust structure.
 

Click here to view my Fort Greene Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density at 50K per square mile.
* Excellent access to CBDs being just east of Dwtn Brooklyn a 25 min subway ride to Lower Manhattan and 30 mins to Midtown.
* Greet ADA Curb and sidewalk infrastructure throughout. About 15-20% of intersections have outdated ADA curbs.
* Solid connectivity  and urban grid as well including some diagonal streets too providing smaller blocks. The street grid gets disrupted a bit on the norther edge thanks to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and several housing projects.
* Excellent bike infrastructure including several dedicated bike lanes and tons of bike share stations.
* Excellent urban architecture including an extensive amount of stately late 19th century  Brooklyn rowhouses along most residential streets, a handful of good urban infill buildings, quality Dwtn modern infill along the western edge. The only poor architecture is along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway there is a large unattractive mid-century project and a some low quality industrial uses.
* Very thick tree canopy for such a dense and urban district.
* Other than a couple throughfares (Flushing’s & Atlantic) urban form and streetscaping is excellent.
* Very safe community, one of Brooklyn’s safest.
* Good economic diversity and even better racial diversity. Also solid age diversity and lots of families here.
* Great walkable schools really across all categories and most of the public schools are well rated.
* Solid cultural amenities including plenty of restaurants, bars & cafes, a couple art galleries, several performing arts theaters (mostly included within the Brooklyn Academy of Music), a couple Indie Movie Theaters, the Barclay Center, a couple live music venues, and a couple local museums.
* Solid retail amenities including several supermarket, grocerias, and co-ops, several drug stores,  several # of boutiques/gift stores, a couple book stores and hardware stores, a couple gyms and several dessert joints, a couple of florists, 3 public libraries, a local  post offices & public library, and a major hospital,  On the southern edge of Fort Green there is a Target & Marshall’s, Best Buy, Burlington, and many other stores in the Atlantic Terminal Mall.
* Solid park amenities including the expansive & historic Ft. Greene Park, several well dispersed playgrounds, ball courts, and parklettes, and a public pool.
* Good amount of rental product especially along the western boarder with Dwtn Brooklyn. But market rentals are very expensive. Studios  lease btwn n the 2.5K-4.0K,1-beds btwn 2.5K-5.5K, 2-beds btwn 3K-7 K. Not a ton of 3-bed product. Good number of rental stabilized units however and the number of rentals below 2K exceeds far exceeds the # above 2K. 

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

  • Few churches here.
  • Flushing’s and Atlantic are both wide boulevards with a fair amount of unattractive and autocentric uses along them.
  • A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. Limited # of studios but plenty of 1-beds selling btwn 500K-2M. . 2-beds range btwn 650K-2.5M with most units selling btwn 1.2M–2.5M. Decent # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 850K-3.5M. Lots of 4-bed townhouses generally selling btwn 2M-4M.”

Park Slope- One of America’s Best Urban Communities Sitting on the edge of Olmsted’s Prospect Park

I used the expanded Google Map Boundaries for Park Slope. There is also a smaller South Slope District on the southern edge of Park Slope starting by most accounts at 15th Street and running south across the Prospect Expressway. This likely predated the highway. For simplicity sake I am breaking this up in my evaluations between Park Slope and Greenwood Heights. Sadly the highway has kinda obliterated this historic neighborhood running right through the middle of it.

Generally, the neighborhood is divided into three sections from north to south: North Slope, Center Slope, and South Slope. The neighborhood takes its name from its location on the western slope of neighboring Prospect Park. The area was mostly farms and woods until the early 19th century, when the land was subdivided into rectangular parcels. The western section of Park Slope was occupied in the mid-19th century, being located near the industrial Gowanus Canal and ferries. After the completion of Prospect Park, numerous mansions and rowhouses were developed in Park Slope’s eastern section in the 1880s. By 1883, with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Park Slope continued to boom and subsequent brick and brownstone structures pushed the neighborhood’s borders farther. The 1890 census showed Park Slope to be the richest community in the United States.  Park Slope gradually became a more working class neighborhood. Large and opulent brownstones were subdivided and large apartment buildings were constructed. Park Slope experienced decline for a couple decades after WWII but this was not to last as the an influx of young professionals recognized the value and beauty of its brownstones and rowhouses. In 1973  much of the neighborhood was included in the Park Slope Historic District. The neighborhood quickly popularized and once again the upper class of Manhattan began moving back into Park Slope. However this time Park Slope has a wider variety of housing types as many small apartments and condos still remain and many  units are stabilized rentals, allowing a good number of working and middle class residents to continue living here.
From an urban perspective this is likely one of American’s top 5 urban neighborhoods thanks to its proximity to the expansive Prospect Park, perfectly gridded streets, excellent subway and bike access & infrastructure, 30 min subway ride to Dwtn Brooklyn, Lower Manhanttan, and Midtown, great schools, top notch cultural & retail amenities, and several biz districts cutting thru the neighborhood (4th, 5th, & 7th Aves, 9th St, and Flatbush Ave).  The biggest area for improvement is more racial and economic diversity. This can mainly be achieved through providing more affordable housing. In order to achieve this, the Park Slope Historic District regulations need to be loosening a bit to allow new denser development.

Click here to view my Park Slope neighborhood on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Excellent residential density at just over 60K residents.
* Convenient access to 3 NYC CBDs. 30 mins subway to Dwtn Brooklyn and 40 mins to Midtown & Lower Manhattan.
* Nearby perfect street grid besides a couple blocks on the southern edge of the neighborhood.
* Great public transit access with several subway lines servicing the neighborhood. Also outstanding bike infrastructure include many dedicated bikes lanes and several of them are protected. Great access to bike share stations as well.
* Park Slope is one of the safest communities in Brooklyn with only a touch of blight along Flatbush and 4th Avenue.
* Good ADA and Sidewalk in structure but a good 35% have outdated curb cuts.
* Excellent historic architecture. Really only a handful of American neighborhoods are better.
* Some modern-infill (especially along 4th Ave). Generally of very high urban quality except for a couple of blocks along 4th Avenue that still have some autocentric/industrial uses where Park Slope borders Gowanus.
* Solid tree canopy especially as one moved further from Gowanus.
* Good # of young families living here and pretty good age diversity.
* Excellent array of walkable schools including a good mixed of private & public and generally highly rated public schools. Also a good mix of elementary, middle and high schools.
* The massive Prospect Park itself provides Park Slope excellent and varied park amenities including the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Prospect Park Zoo to name a few. Also several small parks within the neighborhood a community pool and the expansive Greenwood Cemetery to the south.
* Great array of cultural amenities including tons of bars, restaurants & cafes. several art galleries, several live music venues, a couple performing arts theaters, an Indie Theater, and the Brooklyn Museum, Barclay Center, and Botanical Gardens are nearby.
* Excellent retail amenities including several supermarket, grocerias, and co-ops, several drug stores,  great # of boutiques/gift stores,/home good stores, several book stores and hardware stores, several gyms and tons of dessert joints, several bike shops and florists, tons of churches, 3 public libraries, a couple post offices, an ambulatory center is located within Cobble Hill and  a major hospital and many doctor’s offices nearby. On the northern edge there is a Target & Marshall’s, Best Buy, Burlington, and many other stores in the Atlantic Terminal Mall.
* Good amount of rental product as well but also very expensive. Studios 2.5K-3.5K, 1-beds btwn 2.5K-6K  2-beds btwn 6K-7.5K. Some 3-beds. ranging btwn 4K-9K. Good number of rental stabilized units however and the number of rentals below 2K exceeds the # above 2K. 

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Not great racial diversity and so so economic diversity but still a good # of rent stabilized units. Likely close to 50% of all units.
* A lot of for sale condo product but generally very expensive. A good number of studios selling anywhere btwn 250K-1M, an extraordinary number of  1-beds selling btwn 400K-3M. But most of these units sell btwn 400K-2M. 2-beds range btwn 650K-4M with most units selling btwn 850M–2.5M. Good # of 3-beds but very expensive ranging anywhere from 500K-5M with most product selling btwn 1.25M-3 M. A lot 4-bed product generally selling btwn 1M-7M. I saw some under market sales as well which makes me think there is likely a Community Land Trust operating in the Neighborhood on a small $ of units.