New York City / Brooklyn, New York

Almost every Brooklyn resident you ask about the best part about living here brings up the people. While it gets dinged for the hipster takeover that has happened in many neighborhoods, it remains the 3rd largest city in the U.S. (it’s not technically a city anymore but it functions like one) so Brooklyn is for sure not any one thing. Families, singles, couples, LGBTQ communities(particularly lesbian), white, black, Hispanic, Chinese, Russian, Jewish, Indian, Pakistani -- seriously the diversity in the communities is amazing, and a reported 800 languages are spoken here. There’s great food, and the neighborhoods and housing can be wonderful in price and size relative to Manhattan but for most, it comes down to the people and the feeling in real communities.

Getting back to the hipster issue -- there are very few places in the world where the rise in hipster population has been blamed for a city’s fall from grace more than Brooklyn. It started for the most part in the 2000s when prices in Manhattan pushed lots of younger people across the bridge to neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Park Slope, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Red Hook, Dumbo, and a heck of a lot more. Part of the issue is just housing prices. Brooklyn was affordable, it now is much less so. All the young newbies and families moving in pushed up the prices and pushed out the historic locals. Another part of the issue is the impact these rising prices and new people had on local commercial areas. Historic retail was priced out and precious boutiques took their place. This is tricky because for many it turns Brooklyn into a version of Manhattan that they might have sought to escape.

As noted, virtually every type of lifestyle is available in Brooklyn. Families out in Bay Ridge or Park Slope live suburban-ish lifestyles (by New York standards) and neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy are dense city-centric neighborhoods. Posh, gentile lifestyle exists in old-line wealthy neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights, or newer wealth like Dumbo or Park Slope. Huge parks provide green options for locals but for the most part, Brooklyn is a brick-and-concrete borough that for some is too much in terms of density but for others, it is an escape from the madness of Manhattan.

If you want to see some of the things to do in Brooklyn check out the calendar of events.

Brooklyn, like any major metro, has a big mix of amazing schools and others that lag in areas like standardized scoring. Elementary and Middle Schools are aligned with your neighborhoods/geo-zones. High Schools are a lottery system with specialized high schools, like Brooklyn Technical and Brooklyn Latin, setting the pace for high rankings on sites like niche.com. The borough has several neighborhoods known for higher-ranking schools at the elementary level. These include:

Park Slope: Park Slope is a hugely popular neighborhood known for excellent public schools, like P.S. 321 and P.S. 107. The neighborhood also offers a variety of private school options.

Brooklyn Heights: Brooklyn Heights is a historic neighborhood with highly rated schools, including P.S. 8 and P.S. 307. It is known for its tree-lined streets, proximity to the waterfront, and some of the most beautiful homes and buildings in the five boroughs.

Cobble Hill: Cobble Hill is another neighborhood with good schools, including P.S. 29. It has some of the same types of tree-lined streets and beautiful architecture as Brooklyn Heights and a strong sense of community.

Carroll Gardens: Carroll Gardens is a charming neighborhood that lines up next to Cobble Hill and also has excellent schools, including P.S. 58. It has beautiful townhouses, brownstones, and newer buildings on the rise along the waterfront.

Windsor Terrace: Windsor Terrace is a residential neighborhood that runs alongside Prospect Park, so wonderful outdoor culture, and has highly rated schools, including P.S. 154. Locals love it because it's a quieter alternative to some of the busier Brooklyn neighborhoods.