Hi Lynn....Funny I should catch this. I don't usually read the OT folder. I'm fourth generation Brooklyn on one side and second on the other.
I'm in Brooklyn frequently. Amy's info about commute is right on...but be aware that she's talking mass transportation...not cab ride. If you want info on cars and routes from neighborhood x to neighborhood y for a "chase" scene or something, let me know.
Brooklyn "downtown", which includes Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and some of Clinton Hill is the high-end brownstone end of Brooklyn. Upwardly mobile careerists rent/buy coops and condos, and Kennedy relations live in Brownstones. Many of these Brownstones have historical pedigrees based upon who lived there. The big coup is a view of the harbor with the Statue of Liberty. (Think Moonstruck).
Carroll Gardens is just south of there...very trendy, very multi-cultural, but all upscale.
Park Slope is south of there and slightly east....along the edge of Prospect Park, Brooklyn's main park, nature preserve etc. Again, this is very expensive living, and very charming turn-of-the-century brownstones and limestones.
Northeast of downtown (where the other bridges...Manhattan and Williamsburgh connect Brooklyn to Manhattan) there is Dumbo (down under the manhattan bridge overpass) where former factories have been turned into high end lofts for Yuppies...very funky.) And Williamsburgh, which is still a Jewish, Polish, African American ghetto type place--sort of run down. But up and coming as the next funky area VERY VERY FAST. (I say ghetto with love...I have roots in Williamsburgh and on the other side of its bridge on Manhattan's Lower East Side...so I see charm where others see decay.)
Moving EAST of downtown is Clinton Hill and Bedford Styvesant. Just south of there is Crown Heights. Here's where it gets fun.
Clinton Hill is home to lots of upscale black urban professsionals. Note that I use "black" and not African American. That's because there is a HUGE and upscale population of West Indians who keep their island culture a smidge distinct from the African American culture. Clinton Hill is more African American. Moving further east into Bedford Styvesant is an amazing gentrification by ALL ethnic groups to revitalize what was once a slum (Billy Joel: "I walked through Bedford Sty alone") It's positively beautiful now...and expensive. It is the "new" upscale black urban professional place to be.
Further East, Bushwick and on out...it becomes less affluent.
Now...Just North of Prospect Park is Crown Heights, where Hasidic Jews and West Indians live on top of one another. If there weren't the occasional racial incident, it would be a very funny place to be most of the time. These two groups cooexist far better than the press makes out. The Brooklyn Museum is also right in the middle of their area.
Note for logistics...in the middle of Brooklyn is an enormous cemetery called Greenlawn. If you don't know it's there and think you're on a through street, you get a rude awakening. But it's very very pretty.
South of Prospect Park is Sunset Park...fairly Asian but with a crossover of Italian from south in Bay Ridge and young urban everything from Carroll Gardens.
Jutting out into the harbor at the corner of Brooklyn (Think Saturday Night Fever and the Verrazano Bridge) is Bay Ridge. It's still hugely Italian. Big shopping streets. The pizza really *does* taste better there. Lots of apartment coops and condos; some fabulous old mansions (the kind with 13 rooms and a bridge view)
Just east of Bay Ridge is Dyker Heights. This is the hill where the "expensive" houses are. This is where the "families" live. (You know of what families I refer yes?) Overdone tile, too many statues in the front yard. You'd think it was a parody if it didn't cost $2,000,000. Everyone drives a Mercedes.
East of that (and south) is Middle class Bensonhurst Italian. North of that is Borough Park, which is middle class orthodox Jew (and Hassidic).
Oy...and I'm only through Western Brooklyn!!!! It's a big place.
Coney Island is the amusement park and minor league ballpark (Kingspan Park... home of the Cyclones) off the mainland to the south. You can see the famous "Cyclone" wooden rollercoaster. Lots of Italian catering halls nearby.
East of Ocean Parkway. (Parkways in Brooklyn are literal..they are divided by very wide medians containing grass, trees, benches and walking paths.) Life is very middle class. In the south, there is a mix of non-religious Jews, Italians and assorted caucasians....Sheepshead Bay, Kings Park etc.; as you move north on Flatbush Avenue (which disects Brooklyn) the population is mostly West Indian. Not only have they revitalized the entire Flatbush area, but they've build very strong communities around the church etc. For fiction purposes, they would be identified by speaking accented English of a Jamaican variety...Ya mon. As opposed to hip hop accents--that would be African American ---second or third generation from the south. Everyone else would just sound like "New Yawk".
East of Flabush goes into lower middle class Canarsie and East New York...towards the Queens border. This was suburbia until after WWII and the lack of interesting architecture shows. While Western Brooklyn has lots of 100 year old structures that are well cared for, eastern Brooklyn has a less attractive mass-produced feel to it.
Eastern Brooklyn also has lots of high rises and subsidized housing...which is unlike downtown Brooklyn, which is all 3 stories (except the landmark "Clocktower" building--the Williamsburgh Bank building)
The area in the middle...where the tip of Bushwick meets East New York (Pennsylvania Avenue) has an interesting parkway that winds through a nature preserve and two large cemeteries connecting Brooklyn to Queens (it ends at Queens Boulevard). It used to be called the "Interborough" and now the "Jackie Robinson Parkway" (named for the player who integrated major league baseball). There's a running gag that, unless you use it, you have no idea of where it goes.
I have no idea if this is at all useful, but can you tell that I LOVE Brooklyn USA?
Sherry
P.S. If you were stretching it, you could call Windsor Terrace "Irish". But, in truth, the Irish Immigration of the 19th century really brought them to the eastern middle of Manhatttan (what is now Alphabet City and Styvesant/Peter Cooper Village) and to Throgs Neck in The Bronx. It is the Italians who made their mark on southern Brooklyn and the Eastern Europeans who flavor Williamsburg (note no "h"). And now, the Western Indians who have revitalized so many areas in Brooklyn.
Oh, how could I forget the Russians in Brighton Beach! Whether Jews or Catholics...south of Bensonhurst and just East of Coney Island (sort of) is an enormous Russian population. They came to the US to escape the Soviets and have continued to build and bring their families here. They are all over the south...from Brighton Beach to Sheepshead Bay to just west of Flatbush.
