Neighborhoods?
I’m moving to Brooklyn from Philadelphia in a month to attend grad school. What can you tell me about Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and Bed Stuy? All are rather easy commutes to school and I have heard good things, but have never been. Could someone give me a rundown on the aforementioned neighborhoods and maybe…
I’m moving to Brooklyn from Philadelphia in a month to attend grad school. What can you tell me about Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and Bed Stuy? All are rather easy commutes to school and I have heard good things, but have never been.
Could someone give me a rundown on the aforementioned neighborhoods and maybe a good place to walk around to get a feel of things?
My apologies. I was thinking of the CUNY building on the UES. To get to Times Square, anyplace in Brooklyn is fine. For “a little more than $300 month”, well, that’s another story.
Thanks for the Philly comparisons hershey d. Queens was always in the back of my mind and I liked Long Island City the times I was there, but always assumed it was expensive. I’ll check it out.
I’m sure Williamsburg is out of the question. I’m prepared to pay more for rent than I do in Philly, but not that much. I’m paying $300 a month for a room in a rowhouse – a price so absurdly cheap it shocked me when I moved in.
So far, Bushwick and PLG seem like worthy contenders. Bushwick seems nice and cheap as does PLG and both are close enough to bars/restaurants/parks of varying size. I assume I’d have to transfer if I lived in Bushwick, from the L to the C, but that doesn’t seem too bad.
Brooklynista, I agree, the whole reason I heard about PLG in the first place was because my roommate in Philly, a Brooklyn transplant, suggested I live by the Q [calling it “the best train ever”].
hershey_d make some great points. . . except for the one about the commute from PLG not being the easiest. In fact, from PLG, the commute to the Times Center/Times Square in Midtown Manhattan is super easy! Straight run on the Q train to 42nd/Times Square and you’re right there; or take the B and walk one block to Times Square. If you’ve got other considerations about PLG, ok. But public transport need not be one of them. 🙂
I moved to Fishtown from Prospect Heights a few years ago. All of the neighborhoods you mentioned in NY are more diverse than almost all in Philly, so if that’s what you liked about West Philly, they’d be a good fit. Prospect Lefferts Gardens is probably the most west Philly-like of the neighborhoods discussed here, but probably not the easiest commute. As far as housing stock, Prospect Heights is much more similar to Art Museum but with E. Passyunk-like nightlife. It’s a great neighborhood with easy subway access, though you would have to transfer to get to CUNY. The neighborhood with the best music scene (most comparabale to Fishtown) is probably Williamsburg, but it’s likely out of your budget at this point. All of that said, if you’re going to CUNY, why not consider Queens? Long Island City would be a super-easy commute & you’d definitely get cheaper rent in Astoria, Woodside or Sunnyside than most of these Brooklyn neighborhoods. (Sorry, Brooklyn, I love you, but you’ve gotten expensive!)
Depends what your priorities are: parks, commute, music, affordability… I don’t think any of these neighborhoods meets all of those criteria, but they’re all great neighborhoods.
I also live by the Myrtle JMZ and Really like it. No real parks to speak of but the area around Maria Hernandez in Bushwick is cheap and right on a park. I theory when the M train starts going uptown in June you could take it from our Bushwick/North Bedstuy/Bedwicky neighborhood straight to Midtown.
You might want to look at Bushwick also. Because you are 25, there is an active nightlife and music scenefor 25 year olds there, (unlike the other suggestions — or mostly unlike, anyways), and it is cheap. Look around Maria Hernandez Park, (I think — I am not an expert). It isn’t as pretty and West Philly-like as PLG/Prospect Heights/Bed Stuy, but there is probably more to do there.
Thanks, that NY Mag profile was super helpful. A lot of those neighborhoods I had heard of, but had no idea where they were or what they were like.
Thanks for all the suggestions too. I am not only choosing between Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Bed Stuy, they were just three affordable neighborhoods that I heard good things about/ seemed an easy commute to midtown. [I’m sure there are plenty more neighborhoods, I’m just used to Philly’s abysmal transportation system].
I guess it just comes down to whats available when I’m looking…
I saw some geographical info for PLG, anyone else have a particular part of their neighborhood that captures its character well?
Hi. I’m around your age. If you are only debating between those two, I’ll cast my vote for Prospect Heights. It seems younger and more diverse than Park Slope, and it has a better restaurant and bar scene than Crown Heights or PLG. I’d suggest staying close to Flatbush Ave or Vanderbilt Ave – it’s a pretty big neighborhood. Also, have you seen New York Mag’s recent profile on the best places to live in NYC? It kind of gives a run down of all the different neighborhoods.
If I were 25, I’d want to be in Ft Greene.
There are a lot of summer sublets available. I’d do that if I were you. It’s hard to find a place and harder to do it from afar. Some local colleges rent dorm space for the summer. NYU does. The dorms near me in Brooklyn Heights are run by StudentHousing.org. They have signs up about summer availability. No idea about rates.