
With 2.5 million inhabitants, a million more than Manhattan, Brooklyn is the largest of the five boroughs in terms of population. Many visitors get no further than elegant Brooklyn Heights, unless they take a trip to Coney Island or Brighton Beach, but the borough’s attractions are well worth exploring.
There was a time when residents of Manhattan, if they thought about it at all, regarded Brooklyn as no more than an urban dormitory on the opposite shore of the East River. Not any more. Brooklyn has come to be recognised for what it has, in fact, always been: a lively community with an identity uniquely its own, some handsome and highly desirable residential areas, and a vibrant mix of ethnic and cultural heritages.
Its neighbourhoods have managed to retain their individuality.
Brooklyn Heights, the historic district with its very pretty streets, has a clear identity but you have only to move a few blocks to find something totally different.
At Cobble Hill, for instance, bits of Yemen, Syria and Lebanon have been dumped along a stretch of Atlantic Avenue – a Middle East bazaar of restaurants serving kebabs, hummus, couscous and the like, and shops rich with the scent of spices, roasting coffee and baking bread. Further along the ethnic spectrum Court Street reflects the lifestyles of Italy and Spain, with stores selling olives and olive oil, fresh pasta, cheeses and salt cod.
