If you believe the cliché, Park Slope Brooklyn & Prospect Heights is the home of housewives in New York City. It’s one of the most perfect areas to raise kids in a big city like this one.
It is said that there are more prams and families on the streets than cars. Between the listed brownstone houses, you actually meet the feisty mothers who are proud to be part of this great area. Park Slope’s charm is convincing and you can definitely imagine living here as a visitor.
In Park Slope, you can go for a walk and admire the brownstone houses next to the beautiful Prospect Park with a coffee. But who lives here? The man is a high earner on Wall Street, only 15 minutes away, the woman is a proud housewife and mother. But you also see people of retirement age. More and more young people are also drawn to Park Slope.
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Over the years Park Slope, which is located west of Brooklyn, has developed into a hip neighborhood. Park Slope is bordered by Prospect Avenue to the south, 4th Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and Prospect Park to the east. Park Slope is one of the most desirable areas in Brooklyn. In 2010, New York Magazine even named Park Slope the number 1 neighborhood in New York.
There are many reasons for this. There are a number of great shopping areas, countless cute cafes, first-class restaurants. You can find here good schools and the perfect connection to Manhattan.
Nearby are Brooklyn’s attractions. Botanical Gardens, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Green-Wood Cemetery. More and more tourists are coming to the area. But you don’t feel as cramped as in the bustling Manhattan – much more often you have the feeling that you can easily pass through as a local.
Over the years, the area’s popularity has also resulted in rents, which were once considered humane by New York standards, soaring into utopian proportions. Everyone would like to live in one of the great brownstone houses. The demand determines the price and the wheat was quickly separated from the chaff. Park Slope is no longer affordable for everyone. What stayed are those who were so clever and never sold their brownstone treasures.
The retirees live here in their old age with a front yard and enjoy the pleasant peace and quiet. They find everything here despite the proximity to Manhattan. Our absolute highlight in Park Slope, however, is 5th Avenue in the late afternoon/evening. The many bars, restaurants, and cafes are very popular, especially in summer. Accordingly, we can stay here in the midst of the locals. Park Slope has a very special charm that you simply have to experience.
If you take a stroll through the beautiful area in Park Slope, you will find that there is great shopping there. The main shopping streets of 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue are more popular than ever.
H&M and other large shopping chains are not found here. Here you will find rather small boutiques, second-hand stores, and local designers who have settled here.
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In Beacon’s Closet, a hip second-hand store, you can find designer fashion at bargain prices. The Cog & Pearl sells handcrafted jewelry and art from local designers. You can find super trendy, sometimes hard-to-find sneakers in Premium Good. Further recommendations on our part are the Housing Thrift Shop and Summer Stoop Sales, i.e. private individuals who sell their clothes on their doorstep. Yes, that’s what they do here in Brooklyn.
All those who could no longer afford the skyrocketing prices of Park Slope have discovered the neighboring equally idyllic Prospect Heights for themselves. The triangular quarter on the border with Fort Green and Clown Heights is therefore often mentioned in the same breath as Park Slope Brooklyn.
At the moment, it seems that a small area called Gowanus is developing adjacent to Park Slope Brooklyn and Prospect Heights, and the canal of the same name defines the area and its smell. Art galleries and music clubs crowd out the musty smell of the canal this area is more than known for. The Gowanus’ underground scene is not easy to find: Walk west on 9th Street from Park Slope and you walk into the mix of industrial buildings and simple row houses, which offers plenty of space for the growing creative scene of this district.
Summer in the park
It is the green heart of the district and a MUST SEE in Prospect Heights: Prospect Park. In summer there are many concerts and events here where you can relax and mingle with the New Yorkers.
A somewhat unusual sightseeing location, we have to admit that, but still really worth seeing, is the Green-Wood Cemetery.
Near Prospect Park you will find New York’s most famous cemetery, which houses around 600,000 graves on 1.9 km². The admirable place extends on the hill Battle Hill with great views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Brooklyn.
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The neo-Gothic style entrance gate was designed in the 1860s by the architect Richard Upjohn – many of the other buildings in the cemetery were also designed by him. The Warren and Wetmore designed cemetery chapel was completed in 1911. The cemetery consists of valleys, mountains, countless small ponds, and paths and is a special collection of statues and mausoleums from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Brooklyn Nets now have their fourth club name – always based on moving to other parts of the city: first, they were called New Jersey Americans, then New York Nets, followed by the New Jersey Nets and since 2012 the basketball team has been known as the Brooklyn Nets.
They have their new home in the beautiful Barclays Center, opened by none other than Jay-Z. He was the investor in the Barclays Center and is himself a big fan of the Nets – he often sits in the front row and cheers with his team.
The Brooklyn Museum is the answer from the other end of the Brooklyn Bridge to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
In Brooklyn, the building, designed by McKim and Mead & White in 1897, houses the seventh-largest art collection in the United States with more than 2 million objects.
Special highlights are the Egyptian collection on the fourth floor and the pre-Columbian collection on the first floor. In the so-called Period Rooms, which are also on the fifth floor, more than 20 living and dining rooms from New England houses from 1675 to 1830 are on display.
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