Forest Hills- Home to the Gorgeous Forest Hills Gardens Tudor Enclave and a Queens Neighborhood well Connected to the Subway

The development of adjacent Forest Park, a park on the southern end of Forest Hills, began in 1895 designed by the famous firm Olmsted Firm. The neighborhood began its development about 1910 and took its name from the new part to the south. The most well known part of the neighborhood, Forest Hills Garden was designed by the renewed architect Grosvenor Atterbury. Forest Hills Garden was planned on the model of the garden communities of England resulting in many brick and Tudor-style homes. The Long Island Rail Road opened in 1911, and the Queens Boulevard trolley line two years later connecting the lines to Manhattan spurring the development of the neighborhood. The famous Forest Hills Tennis Stadium which hosted the U.S. Open until 1978 was built in the early 1920s. By the late 1920s in anticipation of the arrival of the NYC subway, developers bought land surrounding the planned subway and Zoning laws were changed to allow fifteen-story apartment buildings. Queen Blvd was also widened at the time to make way for the expansion of the car in New York. With the increased density Forest Hills’ population doubled from about 9K to 18K in 1930. The population doubled again by 1940, reaching 33K. During the 1970s and 1980s, Forest Hills began welcoming a significantly number of immigrants especially Hispanic, middle Eastern, and Asian moving to a minority majority neighborhood.

This is a great neighborhood from an urban perspective thanks to its great subway access and convenience to Manhattan and Long Island City, excellent school and park amenities, high levels of safety, gorgeous architecture especially in Forest Hills Gardens, and extensive retail amenities thanks to 3 distinct business districts. But there are still areas the neighborhood could improve as it lacks bike amenities and the 10-lane Queens Blvd should be tamed and receive a road diet. Some autocentric and surface parking lots exist along Queens Blvd. and Metropolitan Ave.

Click here to view my Forest Hills Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid density at 36K people per square mile but certainly less than most Brooklyn neighborhoods.
* Very good and consistent sidewalk infrastructure. While all intersections have curbs most have outdated ADA cuts.
* Good subway access to both Long Island City (dwtn Queens) and Midtown both about 30 min subway ride. About 50-1 Hr. subway ride to other major hubs (Lower Manhattan, Dwtn Brooklyn, and Flushing).
* Solid public transit access including access to 4 subway lines including Queens main trunk lines.
* Good diversity indicators esp. generational as there is a nice mix of families, young professionals, and empty nesters and good racial diversity here with large white, Hispanic, and Asian populations. Also pretty good economic diversity.
* Really solid walkable schools including a plethora of well rated public schools and 3 good sized high schools. Not a wide diversity of charter and private schools but some.
* Solid park amenities with several smaller parklettes, playgrounds, and medium sized parks pretty well spread throughout out. The expansive Corona Park and Forest Park sit on the eastern and southern edges of Forest Hills providing expansive recreational space to residents unfortunately they are seperated by highways from the neighborhood with only a handful of connection points.
* Forest Hills is one of Queen’s safest communities with very limited amounts of blight.
* Solid tree cover especially the more historic southern half of the neighborhood. Decent in other parts of the neighborhood too.
* Some incredible historic architecture especially the Forest Hills Gardens section laid out by Fredrick Olmsted’s Company. But also very lovely mix of SF and attached brick and tudor rowhouses from the 1920s & 1930s surround here. Plenty of larger 1920s & 1930s apartments along Queens Blvd.
* Great urban form along Austin St for several blocks hosting some of the most vibrant blocks of the neighborhood. Metropolitan Ave is more streetscape in feel w/ generally good massing but some gaps.
* Good cultural amenities esp. restaurants, bars, and cafes concentrated along Austin St., major concert venue at Forest Hills Stadium, a couple movie theaters, a couple performing arts theaters and dance schools.
* Excellent retail amenities including several supermarkets and smaller ethnic grocery stores, a plenty drug stores and hardware stores, several brand name clothing stores and a couple dept. stores, a target, decent # of boutiques/home goods/furniture stores, several florists, several gyms and a ton of dessert joints, a couple bike shops, tons of salons & barber shops, a public library and post office, and plenty of churches. Also a major hospital and plenty of doctor’s offices.
* Good # of rentals & modestly priced of NY standards. Studios & 1 beds, lease btwn 1.8K-3.2K, 2-beds all lease btwn 2.5K-4K, and a decent # of 3-bed rentals that lease btwn 3-5K. Decent amount dedicated affordable rentals or rent stabilized as 1/2 of rental product lease under 2K.
* Lots of modestly priced smaller condos. Good # of studios and 1-beds that sell btwn 150K-700K, 2-beds condos range btwn 200K-1M with lots of condo options below 500K. 3-beds btwn 400K- 2M with a decent # of condos btwn 400K-700K, 4&5 beds range btwn 750K-2.8M.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

Not a lot of modern infill. Some more suburban looking homes built in the 1950s-1970s in the Northeastern corner of Queens which are urban enough in form but kinda of bland.
Streetscaping is good but kinda dated and nothing special about it.
Bike infrastructure is very disappointing in Forest Hills. The massive Citibank system ends just north of the neighborhood and there are only a handful of dedicated bike lanes. A neighborhood this urban and dense deserves better.
Queens Blvd, while having good massing is about 10 lanes and not very pedestrian friendly. 108st has good 1-story massed commercial bldgs but angled parking.
Generally good connectivity but plenty of curvilinear roads and odd alleyway parking configurations.”

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.