168 to date querulous, dissenting and contentious comments. That's New York. Love it.
I moved to Brooklyn from the Heights 1-1/2 years ago. I am so sorry to say this but my wife and I could together have written a better piece. Brooklyn has far more to do at less cost then is shown here. For starters, Italian eateries in Bay Ridge, Prospect Park itself, Coney Island, Red Hook (more than Fort Defiance), Owls Head and Sunset parks, the ethnic eats along the B/Q line, Fort Greene, Pratt Institute ... the MTA's Transit Museum. ...
1
Pray tell more! I'm visiting Brooklyn in May and would love to get as many insider tips as possible!
Was your safety a concern for you? Based on what I read, you did nothing more than visit the already white enclaves of Brooklyn. You missed many other lovely neighborhoods and dipped into only those that already have a title of being "gentrified" or "hipster" and are certainly overpriced (both now and before your article.
2
Yep, AirBnbs are illegal. How about Veterans Memorial pier @ 69th St. and Shore Rd., with stunning views of Manhattan. Only cost is Subway fare or Express bus pass. Then visit the Narrows Botanical Garden-free and two short blocks away:-)
1
I rarely get to Brooklyn anymore. Nowadays it's for a funeral at Greenwood where my family has two plots. After the rituals I spend the rest of the time until dark looking at the amazing statuary and mausoleums. No one seems to be building any new. The prices to do anything there today require a small fortune at best. The folks who come for the first time are always surprised when I show them the plot plan and they see that people are buried in layers of three.
We didn't own a car when I was a boy and we walked everywhere. From Wyckoff Heights one block from Queens wwe would go to Prospect Park and the
We didn't own a car when I was a boy and we walked everywhere. From Wyckoff Heights one block from Queens wwe would go to Prospect Park and the
1
I paragraph 1 I hope the author is talking about elevation not altitude. If you are gaining altitude you may as well go for broke and get a real view. Just avoid air traffic.
I'm a little confused by the NYT. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that there would be someone working there who checks these articles? Or is that just what I gleaned from my english classes and my love of TCM? Maybe the people working at the NYT are hipsters also; therfore this article seemed to cover the ground? Perhaps the NYT is changing, as well as Brooklyn...
1
Gentrification: if you own it's great, if you rent it's bad.
2
"Traditional hotels aren’t really Brooklyn’s strong suit" is so wrong, on so many levels, it's impossible to begin to say.
And, incidentally, many Airbnb rentals are illegal here.
Go back to the Times offices and try again.
And, incidentally, many Airbnb rentals are illegal here.
Go back to the Times offices and try again.
6
Greenwood Cemetery is a great stop if you are on a “Hamilton” tour of NYC. Our troops were fighting from the ground this cemetery sits on and they are singing about the Battle of Brooklyn during the Rise Up song. “BOOM go the canons see the blood and the sh,t spray, BOOM go the canons we’re abandoning Kips Bay”. Washington abandoned NY after this battle, and the British kept so many troops in NY harbor that they were undermanned at subsequent battles. There is a lot of history in Kings County, not just cool stuff.
2
Ughhh. Seriously? This article of the "cheap" and "real" Brooklyn could be a parody piece in "The Onion" .
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The cheap and real are far away from the places the author visited. Sunset Park Asian food. Mid Eastern food in Midwood, boats in Sheepshead Bay, Golf by Floyd Bennett Field. Etc
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For years I drove across the Gil Hodges Bridge (who lived on Bedford Avenue in Midwood, near where I grew up) from Brooklyn to Fort Tilden Beach (Queens). It was a serene nature path with quiet views of the ocean. Just steps away from Riis Park. Part of the Gateway National Park nsture preserve. . Today??...
The empty beach and quiet path are over run by thousands of hipsters. The dunes are trampled. . All because Riis Park Beach, a 5 minute walk away has actual "real" people from Brooklyn & Queens, not hipsters. . The Gateway path's abandoned army baracks and gun turrets from WWII (back then, they thought German U-boats would land in Rockaway peninsula to attack NYC) are covered with graffiti art. Sigh....
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The cheap and real are far away from the places the author visited. Sunset Park Asian food. Mid Eastern food in Midwood, boats in Sheepshead Bay, Golf by Floyd Bennett Field. Etc
.
For years I drove across the Gil Hodges Bridge (who lived on Bedford Avenue in Midwood, near where I grew up) from Brooklyn to Fort Tilden Beach (Queens). It was a serene nature path with quiet views of the ocean. Just steps away from Riis Park. Part of the Gateway National Park nsture preserve. . Today??...
The empty beach and quiet path are over run by thousands of hipsters. The dunes are trampled. . All because Riis Park Beach, a 5 minute walk away has actual "real" people from Brooklyn & Queens, not hipsters. . The Gateway path's abandoned army baracks and gun turrets from WWII (back then, they thought German U-boats would land in Rockaway peninsula to attack NYC) are covered with graffiti art. Sigh....
5
So many posts about the "Real Brooklyn". Like Manhattan, Queens and the rest of the city, those places are gone. Just because the target demographic of this article is not advised to travel there doesn't mean it still exists. The old Brooklyn is gone just like our youth. Things change, especially in this city. My wife (who is from Texas) is tired or hearing me describe to her what the old New York was like. It's gone. Some things about the "new" New York are better and some are worse but gentrification wasn't the cause, evolution was.
7
This article made me laugh. I left Brooklyn in the 80's and recently went back to visit. Back then it was a drab craphole, now it's an overpriced drab craphole.
7
I had an almost magical experience one winter morning in Brooklyn which I would recommend to anyone. For reasons long forgotten in 1973 I emerged from the subway where Prospect Park meets Flatbush early one morning just after a heavy snowfall and walked alone before anyone else through the Japanese zen gardens and other landscaping delights before ending up at the Brooklyn museum. A visitor may not be able to duplicate the effect of snow covering the trees and exhibits, but the gardens and architecture are surely still there. To be surrounded by such beauty was unforgettable.
7
STATUS REPORT
No Brooklynites
Live in Brooklyn Heights.
No Brooklynites
Live in Brooklyn Heights.
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Or in Park Slope!
6
Park Slope, maybe. Brooklyn Heights, definitely no.
1
Check out Joe's of Avenue U in Gravesend. Awesome food!
2
Hi, I can sum up the take away from this article and every article like it for anyone that doesn't have time to read it...
Welcome to New York. This is the city that always changes. It was different 20 years ago, 20 years before that, and will be different 20 years from now. Get over it.
Welcome to New York. This is the city that always changes. It was different 20 years ago, 20 years before that, and will be different 20 years from now. Get over it.
5
You seem to be unaware that the landmarked McKim Meade White Brooklyn Museum No longer fits your description and that the emphasis is on the feminist wing of Elizabeth Sackler. Yes the sports photo exhibit was excellent. Perhaps it's not important to want to go to a museum to be moved by the paintings by the way they restructured the American wing
1
Endless reasons to not feel bad for not yet having toured Brooklyn! Given the choice of forcing myself to stuck in the rain listening to an African praise Thatcher and Merkel or be soaked I guarantee you I'd take the shower rather than the depressing lecture. For the record, the occurrence of a food truck is not culture, it's overpriced eating without a seat and $300 "tasting menus" are not a point of pride, they are shameful evidence of excess. You really know where you are when you are suggested to visit a cemetery for the atmosphere.
5
Um - where was Brooklyn in this piece? Where was the Junction, at the end of the IRT line? It is where Brooklyn College students mix with locals -- the real locals -- for shopping and a sports bar. Where is Ocean Parkway's broad boulevard, lined with benches occupied by the retired and the babysitting while kids bike back and forth to the shore? Where is Sheepshead Bay for fishing and seafood? Coney Island for roller coasters? Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach... for swimming and nighttime trysts? Where is the Verrazano Bridge? Honestly, this article thinks Brooklyn is anyplace within earshot of Manhattan. But Brooklyn is a real place for all kinds of people -- apartment building people, big and little detached houses people, supers from countries with different alphabets let alone different languages, teachers and civil service workers and mattress factory workers. It's the place where until not long ago, the seltzer man still came to your apartment, lugging his wooden crates of real seltzer bottles, made of thick glass and heavy handles, and where the carnival ride flatbeds would come around and stay for a half hour while every kid in the neighborhood ran home to get a dime or a quarter, and where the corner candy store sold at least a half dozen newspapers and sold real egg creams that have no egg and no cream and taste like heaven.
Please someone write an article about the Brooklyn that has stayed Brooklyn.
Please someone write an article about the Brooklyn that has stayed Brooklyn.
17
You're so right! But... if someone writes that article, then the rest could get overrun too. Shhhhhhh!
2
Either one must be a young white hipster or some old white person from 1955 who moved away to know anything about the 'real brooklyn.' The perspective is always through the lens of affluent yuppies from somewhere else or nostalgic elders who have gone somewhere else. Neither knows anything about Brooklyn today. The author didn't speak to a single Brighton Beach Ukrainian construction worker, Crown Heights Lubavitcher housewife, or Black public school teacher in Canarsie or Italian public servant who works at the records room on Court st. The real Brooklyn people. Next time the NYT should use more imagination when 'discovering' Brooklyn.
54
Touche, Derek! And let's not forget Bensonhurst, my 'hood:)
2
your point is good, but the types you cite are so old brooklyn and i mean old by at least 50 years old. Brighton Beach ukrainians - they have been there for decades. and so for all your examples.
Where are the new populations of immigrants going in Brooklyn?
Where are the new populations of immigrants going in Brooklyn?
1
I'm sorry, but the "real" New York (regardless of the borough) is constantly changing and always has been. I have never known a city more quick to bulldoze its past and carry on, nor have I ever listened to more of a city's citizens (myself included, full disclosure) complain about what is clearly and obviously inevitable: change, and not just change, but fast and unrelenting change. I expect that change will only speed up in the coming years, so love it (whatever "it" may be for you) while you still can.
YO! SParkly Bartender from Flowers for all Occasions here :D your friend James is lame, Flowers may be new in the neighborhood but it is owned by the same couple behind Happyfun Hideaway, Secret Project Robot (~10 yrs) & before that, Monster Island in Williamsburg! They have been cultivating a genuine radical art scene in Brooklyn for many many years (NOT "3rd wave hipster", whatever that means, which I assume is what stuff around Bogart is referred to). These spaces have been home to many a freak, drag queen, clown, and trash fairy like myself, & has helped employ some of the most amazing artists in the city, maintaining a New York underground scene that is otherwise rapidly getting bulldozed over and turned into shiny cardboard condos, so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss these spaces if I were you! WEE!
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That "botanic garden adjacent to the museum" is Brooklyn Botanic Garden founded in 1910 and comprised of 52 acres. It was originally laid out by the Olmsted brothers and today is resplendent no matter what time of the year. Please correct your story to include the correct reference!
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Brooklyn BotanicAL Garden
8
It's the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (no "al"). It is one of the great gardens of the world, and people come from all over the world to visit it.
http://www.bbg.org/. No AL in Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The AL is for New York Botanical Garden.
1
Thanks for the comment about Papelón con Limón we appreciate the time and dedication to make it only a small observation direction Papelón con Limón is Broadway with Dekalb come and enjoy the best Venezuelan food flavor
1
I've lived in Brooklyn for 10 years. For what you can learn in a long weekend, I'd say you nailed it. Bravo.
You failed to mention the best scenery relative to price for a meal / snack / cup of coffee - Fairway Red Hook has a sitting area adjacent to their snack / coffee bar. Wonderful views of the harbor and Lady Liberty at a very reasonable price.
10
With all the trouble with Airbnb being illegal, why do you condone it in your article?
10
AirBnb is not generally illegal. If you are a renter and your Lease prohibits sublets then you shouldn't use AirBnb.
If you own your apartment and the rules and bylaws don't prohit you from renting out your own place, rent away.
If you own a house and the zoning laws do not prohibit you from renting your property go right ahead.
If you own your apartment and the rules and bylaws don't prohit you from renting out your own place, rent away.
If you own a house and the zoning laws do not prohibit you from renting your property go right ahead.
6
AirBNB is perfectly legal if you're hosting someone in your house or condo and reporting the income. What's not legal is renting out a vacant rent stabilized apartment on a regular basis.
3
Is it legal to book at Airbnb in Brooklyn now? I can't remember. If not, then the Times should take note of the behaviors it's promoting.
6
Once again, Lucas shows his bias by not visiting every neighborhood and giving them all equal coverage.
9
It seems NY Times editor in charge of this colum's comment section don't know what real Brooklyn is. There are many long time residents of Brooklyn in the southern part of Brooklyn. Many residents of hipster Brooklyn parts are transplants from Manhattan. Brooklyn is more culturally and economically diverse.
17
I thought AirBnB was illegal in NYC?
8
i love the idea of "on" coney island
5
Once again a nice article but the onerous new Airbnb user agreement will have me seeking other lodging providers. It won't make any difference to the masses of Airbnb customers that won't read it but it sent me packing.
1
It says you can't break local laws or in general discriminate. You find that onerous? Oh yeah - "Floigia."
AirBnB is promoting racism to fester worldwide by failing to acknowledge implicit bias and by snuffing out legitimate claims of discrimination using a ripoff arbitration clause.
I have wondered about the "bridge and tunnel crowd" label since the hipsterization of Brooklyn and sections of Queens. Maybe that moniker will now be applied to those living in Manhattan (which does not a New Yorker make).
5
if you were not born and raised there, you have no right to call yourself a brooklynite.
17
Don't know if I can be called a "real" Brooklynite as I have lived here only 33 years. LIve in the lower Slope and have watched the gentrification happen. I could not now afford the apartment that I live in or many of the expensive restaurants that consume 5th Avenue. Hardly ever go to Williamsburg, but love Brooklyn's Chinatown where there are few tourists and great shopping and food. Have lunch at Fairways Market in Redhook on the water and watch the boat races on a Sunday in Summer. Have walked Prospect Park (Olmsted designed and thought it better than Central Park.) Walked Jamaica Bay National Park especially during the bird migrations. Love "Moscow on the Hudson" Brighten Beach where I can get the food of my childhood. And on and on. Best of all, I love the diversity of the people. And the different neighborhoods. Your author only saw a bit and maybe not the real Brooklyn.
19
You forgot to update us on what people are wearing at Whole Foods in Williamsburg.
18
I grew up around New York, but in the 60's and 70's, Brooklyn certainly felt like an afterthought. Nice cheesecake at Junior's, and for me, interesting trips to Caribbean record stores on Nostrand Avenue (which sometimes were dicey). I know it is a much more dimensional place now, and yet it still remains riddled with streets that are honestly just eyesores. It would seem like a lot has happened for the better, but when you learn that it now costs the same as the Upper East Side, you have to laugh. And that's when you don't care for the Upper East Side? I was just wandering yesterday in Downtown L.A., in the Arts District, where the kids are starting their breweries and whatnot -- feels exactly the same. Good luck and Godspeed --
3
This article would have benefitted from an AND not a BUT in the title. "Brooklyn is a bona fide cultural capital — *and* you don’t have to spend a lot to appreciate it." (It's a rare opportunity when we can get away with an AND which is preferable to a BUT any day of the week, so when an opportunity like this one is missed when it could have fit so well, it jumps out at me.)
6
Why do Times writers spend so much time in bars? I lived there for 35+ years and maybe spent 10 hours in bars total...And I (used to) like to drink, with my friends, not the public.
Does all that alcohol go on expense?
Lots to do in Brooklyn, stone cold sober.
Does all that alcohol go on expense?
Lots to do in Brooklyn, stone cold sober.
17
I am a life long New Yorker and spend plenty of my time in bars. The author is not an alcoholic with an expense account, you just do not drink which is your choice. Frankly, in Brooklyn, as a person who does not drink you would likely be deemed a pariah and likely untrustworthy.
1
I was born and raised in Brooklyn. It's in my DNA; Brooklyn brew runs through my veins. Granted, there are some..."ugly, run down and generally crummy" places, but it will always be home and it calls every now and then.
I appreciated the article.
I appreciated the article.
4
What's the point of including information on wonderful, affordable AirBnb lodging when the Governor and Mayor and Hotel lobbyists have now made it illegal and unavailable to your readers?
3
The people who complained to their legislators about having to live in a hotel with Sven and Gunter are who made it illegal. Rightfully so, as well.
Having a Brooklyn born wife is the best thing that ever happened to this Seattle born architect. JGAIA
10
Regarding the mention of the controversy over gentrification in Brooklyn, it seems that the author completely missed the development of Boro Park and Flatbush where many single family homes have been renovated or rebuilt as multimillion dollar mansions. Additionally, the market has driven the prices for even small semi detached homes fairly close to the million dollar range. True, anyone who wants to live there complains about the price, but no one seems to be complaining too bitterly about the changes adversely impacting small busineses. For anyone just visiting interested in seeing urban mansions, they can head down Bedford Avenue between Ave. I and Ave. O to see a few of these homes.
7
"I zigzagged down to the corner of DeKalb and Myrtle,....'
These two streets don't intersect in Brooklyn
These two streets don't intersect in Brooklyn
3
The two streets intersect near Bushwick.
2
5$ for a modelo and 7$ for an Arepa? You got ripped off, man, in an article who's headline says to "go cheap."
8
Real Brooklynites know that Airbnb is bad for Brooklyn and all of NYC.
4
In my opinion, the title of the article should have been "Want the Hipsters' Brooklyn?" The "real" Brooklyn exists in the many neighborhoods the writer completely ignored.
21
As an ex Brighton Beacher (Lincoln High) I note that the author's Brooklyn doesn't exist south Of Prospect Park. The best of Brooklyn (IMO) is near the warrr-ter, I.e., Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Mill Basin Ft Hamilton, Bay Ridge....
Ah, to relive those days of Jackie, Pee Wee and Gil.................
Ah, to relive those days of Jackie, Pee Wee and Gil.................
11
My Brooklyn is not that Brooklyn. Mine expired 30 years ago........
6
Some more areas to add. wander the area around fort Greene park, Brooklyn tech and that whole myrtle Ave/dekalb ave corridor, down by Pratt institute, eaten at cellars rest ( if it still exists) or Kum-kau Chinese ( if it still exists) plus some really nice brownstone blocks in that area to look at. If you're out by Coney Island, Brighton beach area is worth looking at also.
4
Check out The BRKLYN House hotel located in Bed-Stuy. I stayed there with my wife when visiting family. Great place for $130 a night. Walking distance to great food, drink, and street art.
2
Thank God they haven't discovered Queens yet : ) !!!
8
Oh yes they have....glass/steel condos up along East River in LIC & Astoria (those areas perked up long ago) & many other parts of Queens coming along...new trams being proposed, built. Only drawback now is fewer subway lines than Brooklyn but there's still many nice areas. You'll see.
Have you been to certain neighborhoods in Queens lately? It's ground zero for this stuff.
Travel the length of Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn's main thoroughfare. Is there anything nice about it?
12
The rehabilitated gem, that was, and is the Loew's Kings, to begin with! Then again, you're a Yankee fan! Figures.
2
I love taking the bus down Flatbush from Downtown Brooklyn. Riding it makes me proud that Brooklyn has been my home for the last 19 years.
2
Coney Island is ugly, run down and generally crummy. It's the kind of place you visit once. The beach, however, is fine.
Look at pictures of Coney Island when it had Luna Park, like 100 years ago. That was nice. We can't do that now?
Look at pictures of Coney Island when it had Luna Park, like 100 years ago. That was nice. We can't do that now?
13
No reason. The beach is there. The transit is there; the Stillwell Avenue terminal was rebuilt a few years back. It will come in time. Bushwick-by-the-Sea.
1
Obviously, you haven't seen the rehabilitated, Stillwell Avenue station, a gem, that leads to The Aquarium, those Nathan's Hot Dogs and Fries, and that iconic beach and Boardwalk! More gems.
7
That's funny because my cousin from leafy Central Florida always has the goal to go to Coney Island when he comes. He loves the history of it. He doesn't see the hipsters as the attraction.
3
Hate to say it but I have been all over Brooklyn. It's got some charm but it's mostly crummy.
13
It appears that in the author's quest to find the "Real Brooklyn", he skipped large parts of the real Brooklyn.
33
As a Finger Lakes resident, I always smiled when my beloved New York Times would write about the region as if they had just arrived in a foreign land or a distant planet. To see this same discovery that "Brooklyn discovered" tone for the next borough over again made me smile. The centrifugal force of life in Manhattan is so strong. I have several beloved relatives who haven't traveled off the Island for 60 years. They think of Brooklyn as Mesopotamia. Alas, I would like to lash back at Manhattanites, but in the end, they are right. All other places are a bit strange.
13
This is the "Real Brooklyn?" What about Brooklyn below Prospect Park? What about Interesting and beautiful neighborhoods like Ditmas Park, and beautiful but dull neighborhoods like Marine Park? This article is nothing but more of the usual, ignoring the Brooklyn where the bulk of us live for the neighborhoods where millennials live six to a studio.
46
" . . . and beautiful but dull neighborhoods like Marine Park?"
But Marine Park isn't dull -- not when you have a salt marsh with thousands of fiddler crabs at low tide.
But Marine Park isn't dull -- not when you have a salt marsh with thousands of fiddler crabs at low tide.
3
It's still pleasant to drive down Ocean Parkway, or to ride a bike along its bike path as I did as a child in the 60s. There's a major proportion of Brooklyn that has held up well over the years. I nearly choked on my coffee, though, when I read a piece in this paper a few years back which used "Franklin Avenue", "barista" and "artisanal" in one sentence. Things change and will continue to change. Brooklyn was by and large a safe and decent place and more and more of it will continue to become that way again
in response to economic and housing pressure.
in response to economic and housing pressure.
3
"...neighborhoods where millennials live six to a studio..."
And pay $1600, EACH for their very own closet.
And pay $1600, EACH for their very own closet.
4
I read this article since I was born in Brooklyn and lived there for many years. Left Brooklyn for Manhattan in 1971.
Found the article a total waste as there was nothing about why people would want to live in Brooklyn. You can go to bars and eat food without having to live in Brooklyn.
The prices for living in New Jersey are now lower than living in Brooklyn and there are NJ trains that will get you into Manhattan for work faster than many of the subways trains in Brooklyn.
Williamsburg was a great place in the 1970's for artists to live since the rents were low and you could get large spaces for work. The subway would get you to the 14 Street station in Manhattan very quickly and faster than NJ trains.
Now the rents are high and the subways are slow and there is not much reason to move into Brooklyn.
Found the article a total waste as there was nothing about why people would want to live in Brooklyn. You can go to bars and eat food without having to live in Brooklyn.
The prices for living in New Jersey are now lower than living in Brooklyn and there are NJ trains that will get you into Manhattan for work faster than many of the subways trains in Brooklyn.
Williamsburg was a great place in the 1970's for artists to live since the rents were low and you could get large spaces for work. The subway would get you to the 14 Street station in Manhattan very quickly and faster than NJ trains.
Now the rents are high and the subways are slow and there is not much reason to move into Brooklyn.
15
The difference today is that it's not about 'going to Manhattan' or how fast you get there any more.
The value of a place, for me, is not based on space for money.
2
To discover the real Brooklyn get a time machine.
25
Is it not weird how people want to identify with places they have little or no real connection to? I grew up in Berkeley, CA where there is a "How Berkeley Can You Be" parade put on and participated in by people who have no clue what it was like in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. The atmosphere of those days is long gone as are most of the people. Many of whom are also real estate refugees.
6
Although the article was more about how Brooklynites live than about tourist sites, I think a shout out to the New York Transit Museum is still in order. It's near Brooklyn Borough Hall. It's literally located in an old subway station (so I repeatedly walked past the entrance because I didn't know it was the museum entrance -- I thought it was a subway entrance).
Aside from old cars and engines (which are much more interesting than you might expect, because the museum has put vintage advertisements in them and you can walk around in them and sit in them) another highlight is a set of old turnstiles showing how they've evolved over the decades. This includes a modern one which is described as having a lot of diagonal angles, instead of vertical and horizontal surfaces, to make it harder for fare-jumpers to find handholds and footholds.
Which pretty much dares the museum visitor to give it a go and see if they can vault over the turnstile. I was able to resist the temptation but a young woman who seemed to be with her parents took the challenge -- and got over the turnstile with ease.
Aside from old cars and engines (which are much more interesting than you might expect, because the museum has put vintage advertisements in them and you can walk around in them and sit in them) another highlight is a set of old turnstiles showing how they've evolved over the decades. This includes a modern one which is described as having a lot of diagonal angles, instead of vertical and horizontal surfaces, to make it harder for fare-jumpers to find handholds and footholds.
Which pretty much dares the museum visitor to give it a go and see if they can vault over the turnstile. I was able to resist the temptation but a young woman who seemed to be with her parents took the challenge -- and got over the turnstile with ease.
12
I think Brooklyn is great!
6
I heard there's a cute new pizzeria out in Brooklyn called Roberta's. You should check it out.
10
When our daughter moved to Brooklyn, she gave us a copy of Walking Brooklyn, by Adrienne Onofri, consisting of many walking tours throughout the borough. We covered most of them. It was a treat for these Manhattanites to see so many neighborhoods of Brooklyn we otherwise never would have considered visiting. After all, Brooklyn is across the river!
4
How could the changes not be good? When my family fled Brooklyn in 1950 in search of new housing after e housing shortage of WWII the real Brooklyn was still very much attached to the sea. MY father and grandfather word at the navy yard, the Bush Terminal was in full swing, Fort Hamilton had huge coastal guns and there were still communities of Scandinavian sailors.
THe increased white flight from Brooklyn left its fine neighborhoods ghettos and one was ashamed to say you were born in Brooklyn. Now my daughter lives in a mostly black neighborhood where whites would have feared to go fifty years ago. Integration and great food and bars and wonderful brownstones - what's not to like?
THe increased white flight from Brooklyn left its fine neighborhoods ghettos and one was ashamed to say you were born in Brooklyn. Now my daughter lives in a mostly black neighborhood where whites would have feared to go fifty years ago. Integration and great food and bars and wonderful brownstones - what's not to like?
27
How about the destruction of working class and lower middle class communities from Flatbush to Sheepshead?
A small business is displaced everytime a Starbucks pops up. Entire commercial are destroyed by Target (which has built two new locations in the past five years.)
As someone who grew up in South Brooklyn, went on to one of the specialized high schools, and then Georgetown, I see a lot of Brooklyn's blooming in my own family's economic advancement, and am incredible glad that the streets of my childhood neighborhood are much safer to walk, but let's not be fooled, it always comes with trade-offs. The oh-so-vaunted Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO area has become unaffordable for all but the %1, and the residents there don't aren't exactly fond of the most popular basketball courts in the city being located on "their" turf.
A small business is displaced everytime a Starbucks pops up. Entire commercial are destroyed by Target (which has built two new locations in the past five years.)
As someone who grew up in South Brooklyn, went on to one of the specialized high schools, and then Georgetown, I see a lot of Brooklyn's blooming in my own family's economic advancement, and am incredible glad that the streets of my childhood neighborhood are much safer to walk, but let's not be fooled, it always comes with trade-offs. The oh-so-vaunted Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO area has become unaffordable for all but the %1, and the residents there don't aren't exactly fond of the most popular basketball courts in the city being located on "their" turf.
16
Tell me where there are Starbucks in south Brooklyn. Midwood? Coney Island? Marine Park? Gravesend?
Lots of affordable neighborhoods still. You just have look.
Lots of affordable neighborhoods still. You just have look.
4
Destruction? Those you quoted in your first paragraph are still working, and lower middle class! Still, relatively safe, and stable neighborhoods! Only significant difference between the old iconic and legendary days of yesteryear, is that today, it's hard to find many folks who speak English in southern Brooklyn, let alone, with a Brooklyn accent! (They're all in places like California, Florida, New Jersey, Arizona, and North Carolina, getting a kick over clueless articles like these, of their beloved former homeland!!!)
6
If Brooklyn became an independent city again, it would be the 4th largest city in the country by population. Just behind Chicago, and people acknowledge Chicago is a place of many things. That Brooklyn has a lot going on and a lot of places to eat and things to see should be obvious.
And in the end, all this author did was reinforce the worst stereotypes about Brooklyn, by going to the places where young hipsters hang out. That's fine - hipsters deserve to have fun too - but there is a lot more to the place than street fairs, dive bars, and concert halls.
And in the end, all this author did was reinforce the worst stereotypes about Brooklyn, by going to the places where young hipsters hang out. That's fine - hipsters deserve to have fun too - but there is a lot more to the place than street fairs, dive bars, and concert halls.
61
Do tell, I'm seriously curious what the non-hipster destinations might be
5
Sunset Park. I real slice of life on every corner.
1
Everyplace not mentioned in this article - and there's plenty of it to go around.
1
Good piece. As a Brooklyn resident, I think the author has covered a good swath of the interesting parts of the borough. (There are a lot of rough and unsightly parts too, which he wisely avoided.) One of the real pleasures of the borough, which I'd also put in a plug for, is wandering the brownstone blocks of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Park Slope. They may not be as exciting as Williamsburg or Bushwick, but they really encapsulate Brooklyn's quieter charms.
23
What a terrific example of exactly the kind of person who is ruining Brooklyn. This person should spend more time in Cos Cob or Greenwich rather than trying to bring it to Brooklyn.
4
Here's a chance to see more: https://parkslopewindsorterraceartists.wordpress.com/
"Rough and unsightly" that's the essence of what makes New York the city it is. Only foreigners (transplants from other states) would find that term disparaging. The city is grand and beautiful and alluring precisely because of its rough and unsightly mix of grand $100m apartments within sight and Marathon jogging pace of parks, neighborhoods, bars, and people, everywhere. That's city living. If you want pristine and cutter cutter get back to the suburbs, everywhere with the boring sameness.
Rugby? Give me a break! How pretentious.
I grew up in the neighborhood adjoining East Flatbush, had friends there and went to school there. So I can guarantee that, between the 1940s and, well, until I read this article, I'd never heard the area called Rugby.
Rugby Road? Sure. Rugby. Pleez.
I grew up in the neighborhood adjoining East Flatbush, had friends there and went to school there. So I can guarantee that, between the 1940s and, well, until I read this article, I'd never heard the area called Rugby.
Rugby Road? Sure. Rugby. Pleez.
23
Brooklyn resident 15 years and counting--I can attest, this traveler kept it real! Greenwood Cemetery as a scenic locale is one of the best kept secrets of the neighborhood. Close to Prospect Park and no crowds. Thanks for bringing attention to the community action that kept the condo development from blocking the view between Minerva and Lady Liberty. Even as wealth floods into certain pockets of Brooklyn, longtime residents who get involved can still make a difference in shaping their neighborhood.
2
Anyone who thinks this is the 'real Brooklyn' isn't really from Brooklyn.
The NYTimes can't find someone who went to grammar school and high school in Brooklyn who can take you there?
This bit bugged me: "Brooklyn denizens are fiercely protective of it; many who have left are highly critical of it."
Many who have left can't afford to move back, for one. And we love Brooklyn -- it's in our hearts, our minds, our accents, our families, our friends, our treasured childhood memories, our quick wits, our fast reflexes, our 1970-s era subway survival skills, our street smarts. And our ability to spot a phony a mile off.
The real Brooklyn cannot be found not in some hipster bar in Bushwick, no matter how much you paid for that beer. sorry.
The NYTimes can't find someone who went to grammar school and high school in Brooklyn who can take you there?
This bit bugged me: "Brooklyn denizens are fiercely protective of it; many who have left are highly critical of it."
Many who have left can't afford to move back, for one. And we love Brooklyn -- it's in our hearts, our minds, our accents, our families, our friends, our treasured childhood memories, our quick wits, our fast reflexes, our 1970-s era subway survival skills, our street smarts. And our ability to spot a phony a mile off.
The real Brooklyn cannot be found not in some hipster bar in Bushwick, no matter how much you paid for that beer. sorry.
118
Spot on!
10
Spot on to his spot on!
7
For a true Brooklynite that hasn't left, can't leave..Brooklyn is in my blood, sweat and tears..but can't afford the neighborhood I grew up in but now wouldn't even want to return to (Park Slope: the "Brooklyn UWS"). Not only is there gentrification but yuppification of neighborhoods. Whose moving into these Ratner skyscrapers all along Atlantic/Flatbush? Only The 1% can afford these million dollar apartments in the sky, yet Spike Lee filming his Netflix remake amongst these glass monstrosities will only increase their value... with all their glory and no grit. I'm happy to call Bay Ridge home... one of the true melting pot neighborhoods left in Brooklyn.
6
An article about the "Real Brooklyn" in The New York Times, and the whole focus is essentially, legendary Greenwood, and locales in Brownstone, and its northern reaches?! Shocking! Absolutely shocking...I guess mentioning On? Coney Island and visiting Lenny's pizza ( I taught one of his grandsons years ago, and you couldn't have found a more lazy and obnoxious kid!) where Travolta meandered is enough to take in what is most of Brooklyn's geography?! Please! While everything boils down to one's perception of memory, truth be told, Brooklyn is actually a beloved icon because places like Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay, Bay Ridge, the old Borough Park, and yes, Bensonhurst, and Coney Island on the Atlantic, which indeed represent most of Brooklyn's Real Estate, produced an unusually large number of America's Best and Brightest, and most talented ( simply look at their public high school alumni rolls between 1940, and the early 1980's!), certainly and ironically compared to the areas, which have now become gentrified! And outside of Coney Island, they've always been the relatively safest! And you missed the now, almost three hundred and fifty thousand Russians and Ukrainians!
(Don't tell Putin.)
(Don't tell Putin.)
42
Don't forget Greenpoint/Williamsburg...a few places...if you are a drinker...
Amarin Thai food..inexpensive, .generally considered some of the best Thai food in Brooklyn and it's byob, they give you the glass and open the bottle, no fee.
Same for Juniper in Williamsburg, some of the best southern type cajun food, very inexpensive and byob weekdays.
Amarin Thai food..inexpensive, .generally considered some of the best Thai food in Brooklyn and it's byob, they give you the glass and open the bottle, no fee.
Same for Juniper in Williamsburg, some of the best southern type cajun food, very inexpensive and byob weekdays.
2
Not for nothing, but when I saw "real Brooklyn," I was sure the author would be telling us to walk down Avenue N in Mill Basin and check out the selection of cheese and olives at Landi's, the ravioli at Pastosa's and the biscotti at Moretti's. I thought we'd be encouraged to take a ride over the Gil Hodges Bridge to Riis Park and then head on over to Emmons Avenue for a Roll and Roaster in Sheepshead Bay. But it looks like the author's notion of Brooklyn (-lite) stops at the neighborhoods and stoops appropriated by transplanted out of towners. My advice? Take the D or Q out to King's Highway, and then transfer to any of the B-line buses, see where you land, and have a look around. It's not artisanal, but it's definitely real.
106
Hipster Williamsburg and environs may be trending but they're anything but the "real" Brooklyn. Your writers need to get off the trend-wagon and hit the subway to points south and east to see the real-deal where the other 80% of the population lives. They just might discover some very "real" people and neighborhoods.
14
Careful what you wish for! Then those neighborhoods will gentrify with well-to-do young people seeking authenticity, and everybody else will be priced out.
5
There is nothing in this review you couldn't find in Fodor's. I am a relative newcomer to this borough (moved here only 20 years ago. and not from the midwest, tyvm.), but where is bensonhurst? brighton beach? flatbush? kensington? The article is fine; just don't call it the "real" Brooklyn.
52
... Traditional hotels aren’t really Brooklyn’s strong suit ...
What? Just check a map of downtown Brooklyn to find plenty of "traditional hotels" Unless Marriott and Holiday Inn are not traditional enough.
What? Just check a map of downtown Brooklyn to find plenty of "traditional hotels" Unless Marriott and Holiday Inn are not traditional enough.
33
I cry for the lost Brooklyn. Thousand dollar strollers; 90 minute waits for pizza joints (for pizza!) deemed trendy; $100 barber cuts; I could go on. It is better now, than in the 70's with the departure of abandoned cars and random street crime, and I am enjoying the benefits of another city undergoing gentrification so who am I to complain? But another poster is right, the writer does not venture into real Brooklyn, and that is just fine.
30
"I cry for the lost Brooklyn."
Not lost. Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope always housed the gentry, and as late as the early 1970s, Prospect Heights also was a safe, solid neighborhood -- lots of Greeks there. More neighborhoods than not are middle and working class. You just need to get out more. Try 18th Avenue. Try 86th Street. Head over to Marine Park.
Brooklyn is a large place.
Not lost. Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope always housed the gentry, and as late as the early 1970s, Prospect Heights also was a safe, solid neighborhood -- lots of Greeks there. More neighborhoods than not are middle and working class. You just need to get out more. Try 18th Avenue. Try 86th Street. Head over to Marine Park.
Brooklyn is a large place.
1
Great, there goes my quiet weekend walk in Green-Wood.
11
And my shopping for Asian staples at Fei Long! :(
4
"Supercool" Brooklyn is suffocating original inhabitants (especially home/business owners of color) out of existence.
24
'' It was late when I checked into my Airbnb...''
Of course you can go cheap when you join the ''sharing economy'' and skirt the law, while depriving the local economy of much needed tax dollars.
If we continue to promote visiting all these wonderful places in the world, while giving back nothing, then eventually there won't be any left.
Of course you can go cheap when you join the ''sharing economy'' and skirt the law, while depriving the local economy of much needed tax dollars.
If we continue to promote visiting all these wonderful places in the world, while giving back nothing, then eventually there won't be any left.
34
Did you notice he said the apartment owners were in the house he rented?
That is not skirting the law - renting out rooms in your home - when the owner is present is 100% legal in NYC. It is the best way to see and experience this amazing city and stay in a real NYC apartment!
That is not skirting the law - renting out rooms in your home - when the owner is present is 100% legal in NYC. It is the best way to see and experience this amazing city and stay in a real NYC apartment!
1
Airbnb renters are giving back big time to local businesses and longtime home owners in the borough
How did your reporter manage to spend at least a couple of days in Brooklyn without, it would seem, encountering a single Jew or site of Jewish interest? He even went to Williamsburg, Satmar hassidim are hard to miss, but he did. Quite a feat.
50
The overwhelming majority of Jews that count, the one's that helped make Brooklyn, the beloved icon it really is, are not there anymore! Now you find essentially cultists, who have been hijacking our eternal faith.
3
I thought he was going to cover more of Brookly then he did. I agree with the other writers, he seemed to only go to the hipster techie areas. I live in CA, and most of the people I know from Brooklyn are fromFlatbush or Bay Ridge. Nothing about them? I guess not fancy enough.
40
Why is everyone crowing on about other 'authentic' parts of Brooklyn? Yes, there are other great neighborhoods to live in, but honestly if you're a TOURIST, places like Bay Ridge and Marine Park are not all that exciting to visit. Also, some parts of "old-school" Brooklyn still have old-school attitudes about race and religion that make for an uncomfortable visit for those who don't share those kind of values.
Coney Island, the Prospect Park Carousel, Prospect Park all over, and Brooklyn Heights, are all worth a visit.
13
A spring evening circa 1961. Dinner is just finished. Head to the basement of my apt. to "the bicycle room". Mount my trusty "English racer" (outfitted with a generator powered light, raccoon tail and pirate flags). Head down Ditmas Ave. to Ocean Parkway and the bicycle path, armed with my trusty (baseball-shaped) transistor radio...listening to the Yankee broadcast (how about that!). Leisurely (or not) ride down towards the water, quick glimpse of the beach and ocean and the return ride home. No horses on the bridal path, but there would always be a few on the weekends.
21
Got that exactly right, right down to the bicycle room.
3
I was born (1955) and raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn College. I have visited every neighborhood and site; I have ridden every subway line and eaten at every by gone deli, bakery, coffee shop and hot dog stand. When I was 15 and 16 I rode my bicycle over every street and avenue in the borough. I never knew then that my overarching experience with Brooklyn would make me such a cultural icon today !!!
28
Brooklyn is now uber cool because legions of bored Midwestern wannabes have descended and declared it thus. The borough had all the same architecture, museums, and food as it did back when cabbies in Manhattan refused to cross the river. Except back then, the rents were 90% cheaper and those of us who lived there were dismissed as the "bridge and tunnel crowd." One of the perils of actually thinking for yourself.
73
I now live in the Midwest but I grew up in Brooklyn and I was a prosecutor there. Some nights in the 1990's I traveled to three or four different brand new homicide scenes. I saw a mother discover her child bleeding and dead on the ground. I saw children who had been abused to death. Those things still happen but not at the rate they did back then.I loved Brooklyn despite all that but I don't sneer at transplants and hipsters and wish for the good old days.
9
Your good old days, obviously were never in Bensonhurst, ,the communities that straddle Flatbush, especially to its west, Bay Ridge, Sheepshead Bay, and yes, the old Borough Park! Pity.
6
As usual, it's as if nothing exists south or east of Prospect Park. That's where the "real Brooklyn" is. Sheepshead Bay, Canarsie, Midwood, Flatbush, How about actually going into Crown Heights or Bergen Beach? Brighton Beach? Sea Gate? East New York? Bay Ridge? Borough Park? Bensonhurst? Cypress Hills? There is so much more to Brooklyn than the part that's already been "discovered."
91
It is a bit like saying Manhattan, and meaning only what is south of 57th street, for example...
The Times needs some New York writers.
Where is the new Pete Hamill or Jimmy Breslin?
The Times needs some New York writers.
Where is the new Pete Hamill or Jimmy Breslin?
5
Wow! Who knew that all of Brooklyn appears to be only where "hipsters" and young newcomers think are important? I grew up in Brooklyn, and I could swear there are about 100 more neighborhoods where everyday people live, work, and even "bicycle" without a CitiBike, like the bike paths along Eastern Parkway, Ocean Parkway. There is Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Sheepshead Bay, Dyker Heights, East New York, Canarsie, Marine Park, Bay Ridge, Brownsville, Crown Heights, Gerritsen Beach, Mill Basin, Georgetown, Flatlands, Gravesend, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sunset Park, Bath Beach, and many more? Incredibly, all those neighborhoods have families (surprise!!!) restaurants, homes (that are neither brand new or former factories), kids who still play in the street, regular historical cemeteries (like Washington) off Ocean Parkway), bakeries of all types (Korean, Italian, Kosher, Spanish). Some even have hotels and even B&Bs in actual houses!!! This was another "real Brooklyn" article which missed about 80% of the borough.
120
Whenever one sees an article like this telling you a place is still real it should immediately tell you that the the place is not real and has crossed over into Disneyland status, or in the case of many parts of Brooklyn, into a haven for wealthy white folk and trust fund hipsters. While there are clearly many real neighborhoods left in the borough and some vibrant immigrant areas, Brooklyn itself has become a brand being sold to white gentrifiers who seek to erase all the things that made it a great place in the first place. Brooklyn attitude and personality has been replaced with affect and pretense. In the old days people defined the neighborhoods they lived in but in the new Brooklyn it's just the opposite - people move there to define themselves. They flaunt their Brooklyn brand like wearing a brand of chic clothing or driving an expensive car, as if simply living there is the thing that defines them the most as people and gives them some elevated social status and the right to look down on others that live in lesser places such as Queens or The Bronx or Staten Island. Yes there are real places left in Brooklyn, but the Disneyfied Brooklyn 'brand' is slowly consuming the real places while displacing the real people, and leaving in it's place a theme park for wealthy white permanent tourists far more concerned with image than with creating any kind of real community.
76
Yeah - funny that I heard a girl from Bushwick look down on The Bronx as somewhere dangerous. I was saying to myself - who is this clown? She doesn't know Bushwick burned just like the South Bronx did (she probably has no idea the whole borough wasn't like that). The Bushwick I remember from the 90's had heroin addicts nodding against the walls. The arrogance of people who don't even know the history of the places they live is annoying.
13
I am tired of people referring to Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island as "lesser" boroughs! NYC is made up of five boroughs and no one borough is greater than the other. If you grew up here you learned that in first and second grade.
28
Not myself referring to them as lesser places - I also live in Queens. I was speaking only of all the fake transplant gentrifier hipster Brooklynites who have over the years sneered at and looked down at me and many others because we live in a place they judged to be thoroughly uncool, lesser, and beneath them. And I'm thankful every day that I live in a real neighborhood in Queens populated with real people and that there are no hipsters to be found in my neighborhood.
5
Boss Tweed didn't have a "whiskey-soaked voice." He rarely drank alcohol, as Pete Hamill pointed out back in 2005 when he wrote a review of a Tweed biography for the NY Times. Does New York history need embellishing?
33
Citi Bike and Spinlister are as Brooklyn as Taylor Swift: not one bit. And it's probably not a great idea to encourage tourists to ride bikes through a city they don't know.
51
They do it often without encouragement--and without helmets!
3
Some good trauma hospitals in Brooklyn, BTW.
2
There are plenty of things off the beaten path in every borough. Somehow the style makers are behind the trends. No reason Greenwood cemetery is more noteworthy of a visit than Woodlawn cemetery up in The Bronx. Other than maybe there are not enough hipsters up there...?
In any event as noted in my first sentence there are plenty of less expensive and interesting places to visit in all 5 boroughs. NYCTV has a show called "$9.99" that catalogues a lot of them.
In any event as noted in my first sentence there are plenty of less expensive and interesting places to visit in all 5 boroughs. NYCTV has a show called "$9.99" that catalogues a lot of them.
8
Brooklyn has so much to offer.. glad some protest that this condo didn't completely block Minerva the statue views of Lady Liberty. its amazing how this architects thought that out..
4
But the somewhat shiny gray/white/silver(?) facade material is very distracting to the eye when looking out toward the harbor from the hill. An earth tone would have been much more suitable.
Looks like the author is writing about the new Brooklyn. All of us that that grew up here would have enjoyed an article on the 'real' Brooklyn. And by that I mean the Brooklyn of the 60's and 70's. There's lots to enjoy in those old neighborhoods. That's where you can find the real gems of the borough.
40
@Eric, I just want to add that you should include us in the 'real' Brooklyn - the Brooklyn of the 30's, 40's and 50's! (Especially those of us whose hearts were broken when the Dodgers left.)
7
This is a great introduction to what Brooklyn has to offer. I also recommend a book called "Walking Brooklyn," by Adrienne Onofri; it has 30 self-guided walking tours. Some of the content is obsolete (I hear a second edition is in the works), most is not. And if you're headed to Green-Wood Cemetery, she has a nice walking tour of it.
7
Uh, I think you might be one of the transplants from somewhere else if you feel this way. No real Brooklynite would even glance at a contrived, touristic book like "Walking Brooklyn", just as no true Parisian wears a T-shirt bearing the Eiffel Tower (even ironically).
19
Judge a book by its cover? I think you've judged it even without that. What makes you think it's a "contrived, touristic book"? It is written by a native New Yorker and includes many neighborhoods that other commenters here have mentioned as the REAL "real Brooklyn" (such as Flatbush, Midwood, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Dyker Heights, East New York, Canarsie, Marine Park, Bay Ridge, Crown Heights, Gerritsen Beach, Mill Basin, Gravesend, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sunset Park, Bath Beach) as well as the brownstone & "hipster" neighborhoods. Unless you define a "real Brooklynite" as someone convinced they know all there is to know about an entire borough (or not actually interested in it), you are very wrong about the book and who would use it.
7
Hi, Patou. I hope this finds you well? I've lived in Brooklyn since Gulf War 1. I don't know when that exactly started, but there was no cable on the block, we'd just moved in, and we were painting the place with the BBC on the radio on as Gulf War 1 was beginning. Do you want to see tattoos or something for bona fides? What kind of shibboleth, exactly, are you looking for? What "makes" someone from Brooklyn?
I will tell you this, that Brooklyn has always welcomed me. And I, myself, welcome everyone.
Should a couple with a newborn come to you, I hope there will be room at the inn.
I will tell you this, that Brooklyn has always welcomed me. And I, myself, welcome everyone.
Should a couple with a newborn come to you, I hope there will be room at the inn.
2