Trying to crown one neighborhood as New York City's best is kind of a silly exercise, but if you were to concentrate on the criteria of culture, community, diversity and architecture, there certainly is a good case to be made for Fort Greene. "In all my days and nights of walking neighborhoods and asking people why they live where they live, I have never encountered a place that has this much heart, soul and pride," write Daily News correspondent Jason Sheftell. "More than ever, I found people who said they could never live anywhere else but right here." Unfortunately for those just hearing about Fort Greene's charms, the days of finding a real estate deal are long gone (though they may return soon enough!), but it's still worth it. (The writer naively claims that the Brooklyn nabe is as expensive as the West Village. Not!) “People here do not like any fakeness in their neighborhood and they pay higher rents for that,” said Denis DuPreez, co-owner of the Dekalb Avenue restaurant Madiba. “We have beauty, and we have the good people.” It's hard to argue with that.
Fort Greene: The best neighborhood in New York? [NYDN]
Photo by atomische.com
