Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the second most popular borough in New York City after Manhattan, home to 2.5 million people, a growing number of whom range from wealthy citizens looking for stately mansions in Carroll Gardens to young band members lured by cheap rents in Williamsburg. According to many, this peripheral, self-governed urban neighborhood has long been Manhattan’s successor in terms of steepness and livability. From sandy beaches and breezy sidewalks on one side to gourmet cafes and restaurants on the other, a large number of ethnic neighborhoods, world-class entertainment, representative architecture and endless shopping, Brooklyn rivals Manhattan.

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Video: Brooklyn

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Coney Island and Brighton Beach

A popular pair of beach neighborhoods, about a 50-minute subway ride from Midtown, calls for a great day out. Coney Island’s wide, sandy beach retains a nostalgic, kitschy and somewhat scruffy appeal, despite recent amusement park upgrades (many rides have been added) and developers’ plans to turn the place into a glamorous residential area with high-rise hotels: there’s a sidewalk of wooden bridges and the famous 1927 Cyclone roller coaster. New York Aquarium (Tel: 718-741-1818; www.nyaquarium.com; Surf Ave, between 5th and W 8th Sts; adult/child $15/11; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon-Fri, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun. 00 Sat-Sun) is an exceptional hit with kids, as is baseball in the early evenings at KeySpan Park (Tel: 718-449-8497; 1904 Surf Ave), the waterfront stadium of the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league team.

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A five-minute walk north past the handball courts, where the world’s best players compete, brings you to Brighton Beach (“Little Odessa”), where chess is played, meat and vegetable pies are enjoyed, and a shot of vodka is tipped in the sun at several sidewalk cafes. Then head to bustling Brighton Beach Ave to explore the many Russian stores, bakeries and restaurants.

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Park Slope and Haight Neighborhood Avenue

Park Slope is known for its classicist mansions, the sheer number of cafes, restaurants, and boutiques (especially along Fifth Avenue: the local boutiques are more modern than their counterparts on the other street, Seventh Avenue), lesbian residents, and stroller-walking couples reminiscent of couples on the Upper West Side (though there are courtyards behind their houses). The two-kilometer-long Prospect Park, created in 1866, is considered the greatest achievement of landscape architects Olmsted and Vaux, who designed Central Park. Stroll along the tree-lined paths, run along the over 5km long county path or take a boat ride on the lake (May to October); a new ice rink is open in winter. Next door is the lovely Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Tel: 718-623-7200; www.bbg.org; 1000 Washington Ave; adult/child $8/free, free on Tues; 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri-Fri, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat & Sun), where you can enjoy a spectacular display of cherry blossoms in spring. Behind the garden is the Brooklyn Museum (Tel: 718-638-5000; www.brooklynmuseum.org; 200 Eastern Pkwy; recommended admission fee $10; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wed, Sat & Sun, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wed, Sat & Sun, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Fri & Fri), with an extensive collection of African, Islamic, and Asian art, as well as the Elizabeth A Sadder Center for Feminist Art.”

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Brooklyn Heights and Business Brooklyn

When Robert Fulton’s steamboats began regularly ferrying passengers across the East River in the early 19th century, wealthy Manhattanites began building “star houses” in Brooklyn Heights in Victorian, Gothic, Romanesque, Neo-Greek, Italianate, and other styles. You can spend the day strolling the tree-lined streets and admiring the mansions; don’t miss the prominent 1881 Queen Anne-style building, home to the Brooklyn Historical Society (Tel: 718-222-4111; tel. : 718-222-4111; www.brooklynhistory.org; 128 Pierrepont St; admission $6; 12 noon to 5 p.m. Wed-Fri, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat), which houses a library (with some 33,000 digitized photos from bygone eras), a conference room, and a museum dedicated to the borough. The historical society also runs several tours.

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Follow Montague St, the borough’s main shopping street, to the riverbank until you reach the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which juts out over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and offers stunning views of Lower Manhattan. Beneath the freeway is Brooklyn Bridge Park, with green spaces and pathways built on the piers stretching from the Brooklyn Bridge south to Atlantic Ave.

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A fine arts center built in 1848, Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon St) belongs to both Brooklyn Heights and business Brooklyn, distinguished by a variety of courts. The small but very interesting New York Transit Museum (Tel: 718-694-1600; www.mta.info/mta/museum; Boerum Place, off Schermerhorn St; adult/child $5/3; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fri-Fri, 12 noon-5 p.m. Sat & Sun) has a curious collection of the first subway cars and memorabilia related to urban transportation, dating back more than a hundred years. The long-delayed and controversial construction of the Barclay’s Center, the future home of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, across the street from the Atlantic Center mall in downtown Brooklyn, is finally moving at a rapid pace. Surrounding neighborhoods are expecting changes, as well as worsening traffic after the team moves here in 2012.

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Dumbo

The neighborhood’s name is an acronym for its location, “Dumbo – Down Under the Manhattan – Brooklyn Bridge Overpass,” and while this waterfront north side of Brooklyn was formerly given over exclusively to industry, it is now an area of high-end condos, furniture stores, and art galleries. The cobblestone streets are home to several respected performing arts centers, and Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park overlooks the water for postcard-like views of Manhattan.

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Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook

Families and generations of people of different nationalities, mostly Italians, as well as former Manhattan residents looking for a break from the city, live here. Tree-lined streets – and rows of beautifully restored mansions. Smith St and Court St are the main arteries connecting the neighborhoods to the southernmost, Carroll Gardens. The first of the streets is called “restaurant row” and the second has more of the old-style establishments: grocery stores, bakeries and restaurants. A block west of here is Cobble Hill Park, a lined green space with benches and picnic tables where locals hang out. Farther west (and south) is Red Hook, a coastal area of cobblestone streets and nondescript industrial buildings. Though it’s a long walk from the subway, there are a handful of bars and restaurants, as well as a huge waterfront branch of the gourmet grocery store Fairway (Tel: 718-694-6868; 480 Van Brunt St), which offers breathtaking views of New York Bay and the Statue of Liberty. There’s also a Swedish furniture hypermarket called Ikea, which has made the waterfront a wonderfully landscaped and recreational area.

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Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick

Here’s what the average Williamsburg resident looks like: skinny jeans, numerous tattoos, moderate piercings, shaggy hair if male, and some sort of retro headdress if female. The shabby and rowdy residents of the neighborhood across the East River, accessible by subway on the L (the L train), seem to have both the time and money to hang out in cafes and spend all night in bars; immigrants (in their early 30s) from Manhattan and Europe are considered old people. The main artery is Bedford Ave between 10th Street and Metropolitan Ave, with boutiques, cafes, bars, and cheap eateries. But cool spots can also be found on 6th Street and Berry St. Perhaps the peculiarity of the times is that the superfashionistas think the end of Williamsburg is near, and have long since gone to colonize the nearby Greenpoint, a traditional Polish neighborhood, as well as former warehouses further into Bushwick.

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Brooklyn Brewery (Tel: 718-486-7422; www.brooklynbrewery.com; 79 N 11th St; admission free; 6 a.m.-3 p.m. Fri, 12 noon-5 p.m. Sat) offers weekend tours (every hour from 12 noon-6 p.m.), special events, and pub nights.

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Fort Greene

This residential neighborhood of late 19th century mansions and evangelical churches is home to young professionals and working families. The gem of the neighborhood is the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Tel: 718-636-4100; www.bam.org; 30 Lafayette Ave), a performing arts complex plus a movie theater. The Pratt Institute, a school of art and architecture, is also in good standing. Most dog walkers and sunbathers don’t know that under the grassy hills of Fort Greene Park are buried more than 11,000 Continental Army POWs from the War of Independence.

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