Brooklyn

Brooklyn, the most populous of all The Counties, was at one time an independent city and has a strong native identity. It ranges from a modern business district downtown to large historic residential neighborhoods in the central and southeastern areas. It also has a long beachfront and the Coney Island Amusementplex, famous as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country.

If it were still a separate Metroplex, Brooklyn would be the fourth largest in the UCAS – but until as recently as the early 1800s it was no more than a group of autonomous towns and villages distinct from the already thriving Manhattan. Robert Fulton's steamship service across the water first changed the shape of Brooklyn, starting with the establishment of a leafy retreat at Brooklyn Heights. What really transformed things, though, was the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883.

Thereafter, development spread deeper inland, as housing was needed to service a more commercialized Manhattan. By 1900, Brooklyn was fully established as part of the newly incorporated New York City, and its fate as Manhattan's perennial kid brother was sealed.

Brooklyn Heights (A: Middle Class Residential) (#2, #3, #4, #5, #M, #N, #R, or #W to Court St– Borough Hall, or simply walk from Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge) one of New York City's most beautiful neighborhoods, has little in common with the rest of the borough. The peaceful, tree-lined enclave was settled by financiers from Wall Street and remains exclusive. Such noted literary figures as Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Norman Mailer lived here. Although there isn't much to see as you wander its perfectly preserved terraces and breathe in the air of civilized calm, students of urban architecture can have a field day. Begin your tour at the Esplanade – more commonly known as the Promenade – with its fine Manhattan views across the water. Pierrepoint and Montague streets, the Heights' main arteries, are studded with delightful brownstones, restaurants, bars, and shops.

Farther into Brooklyn, Flatbush Avenue (B: Middle Class Commercial) leads to Grand Army Plaza (A: Middle Class Residential) (#2 or #3 train to the eponymous subway station), a grandiose junction laid out by Calvert Vaux late in the nineteenth century as a dramatic approach to their new Prospect Park (B: Middle Class Commercial) just beyond. The triumphal Soldiers and Sailors' Memorial Arch was added thirty years later, topped with a fiery sculpture of Victory – Frederick William MacMonnies' rider, chariot, four horses, and two heralds – in tribute to the Union triumph in the Civil War.

The enormous swath of green that rolls forth from behind the arch is Prospect Park. Landscaped in the early 1890s, the park remains remarkably bucolic, providing an ideal place for exercise, picnics, and family gatherings. During the day it's perfectly safe – though in light of several after-hours attacks in recent years, it's best to stay clear of the park at night. The adjacent Brooklyn Botanic Garden (April– Sept Tues– Fri 0800–1800 Hours, Sat & Sun 1000–1800 Hours; Oct– March Tues– Fri 0800–1630 Hours, Sat & Sun 1000–1630 Hours; 26.25¥, students 15.75¥, free Tues & Sat before noon; LTG# 1718 [23-7200]), one of the city's most enticing park and garden spaces, is smaller and more immediately likable than its more celebrated cousin in the Bronx.

Though doomed to stand perpetually in the shadow of the Met, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, 200 Eastern Parkway (#2 or #3 train to Eastern Parkway; Wed– Fri 1000–1700 Hours, Sat & Sun 1100–1800 Hours, first Sat of every month 1100–2300 Hours; 31.50¥, students 15.75¥; LTG# 1718 [38-5000]), is a major museum and a good reason to forsake Manhattan, Inc. for an afternoon. Highlights include the ethnographic and metahuman departments on the ground floor, the arts and applied arts from Oceania and the Americas and the classical and Egyptian antiquities on the second floor, and the evocative American period rooms on the fourth floor. Look in on the top-story American and European Painting and Sculpture Galleries, where the eighteenth-century portraits include one of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Pastoral canvases by William Sidney Mount, alongside the heavily romantic Hudson River School and paintings by Eastman Johnson (such as the curious Not at Home) and John Singer Sargent lead up to twentieth-century work by Charles Sheeler and Georgia O'Keeffe. European artists on display include Degas, Cézanne, Alone, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Dufy, and Rodin.

Generations of working-class New Yorkers came to relax at one of Brooklyn's farthest points, Coney Island (B: Middle Class Commercial District), reachable from Manhattan, Inc. on the #Q, #W, #F, or #N subway lines; allow 45min to 1hr for the ride. 700,000 people come here daily; now, however, it's one of the city's poorer districts. The Coney Island Amusementplex has undergone extensive and successful renovation since the Night of Rage, and, if you like down-at-the-heel seaside resorts, there's no better place on earth on a summer weekend. An undeniable highlight is the nearly hundred-thirty-year-old wooden roller coaster, the Cyclone – it's way more thrilling than many modern rides. The beach, a broad swath of golden sand, is beautiful, although it is often crowded on hot days and the water might be less than clean. In late June, catch the Mermaid Parade, one of the country's oddest and glitziest small-town fancy dress parades, which culminates here. Meanwhile, the New York Aquarium on the boardwalk opened in 1896 and is still going strong, displaying fish and invertebrates, normal and paranormal, from the world over in its darkened halls, along with frequent open-air shows of marine mammals (Mon– Fri 1000–1700 Hours, Sat, Sun & holidays 1000–1730 Hours; 57.75¥, students 36.75¥; LTG# 1718 [65-3474]).

Farther east along the boardwalk, Brighton Beach (E: Slum), or "Little Odessa," is a slum filled with black market bazaars, abandoned buildings, corporate housing enclaves for the Russian Jewish factory workers (the largest minorities being Orks), and stuffer shacks was once home to the country's largest community of Russian émigrés – around 20,000, who arrived in the 1970s – and a long-established and now largely elderly Jewish population who, much to the surprise of visiting Russians, still live as if they were in a 1970s Soviet republic. Seedier than Coney Island, it's also more dangerous, especially along its main drag, Brighton Beach Avenue, which runs underneath the #Q subway line, once a hodgepodge of food shops and appetizing restaurants, is now Home Turf to the Brighton Boys (reminiscent of The Warriors from that pre-sim flick). In the evening, the gang wars really heat up, becoming great draw for the slum-dwellers.