Brighton Beach

Summer’s officially on its way. If you’ve got a substantial craving for the beach but can’t bear to leave Brooklyn, here are five beach-bound rentals that just might float your boat.

Brighton Beach may get its name from an English resort town, but a large portion of its population hails from a colder climate.

In a moment in Brooklyn history that testifies to both the powers of man and Mother Nature — and foreshadows today’s concerns about global warming and flooding — the former Brighton Beach Hotel was saved from erosion by being hauled 600 feet inland.

Three years into the recovery from superstorm Sandy, multimillion-dollar north Brooklyn prices are creeping down to southern Brooklyn. Brighton Beach is known for being the oceanfront community bordering Coney Island, home to a large Russian Jewish immigrant population. The housing stock ranges from mansions to more classic New York apartment building fare to bungalows.

Tucked away in an oft-forgotten corner of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay are the weathered remains of Brooklyn’s once prosperous summertime bungalow communities. Built in clusters near the coast, these low-lying colonies have fared poorly as both the seas and new development rise around them, casting shadows and bringing floodwater. Nathan Kensinger recently photographed the surviving…