Brooklyn Nobody Knows

William B. Helmreich is the author of many books, including The New York Nobody Knows (Princeton), which won the inaugural 2014-15 Guides Association of New York Award for Outstanding Achievement in Book Writing. He is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City College of New York's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership and at CUNY Graduate Center. The Brooklyn Nobody Knows is the first of five planned walking guides, one for each borough of New York City.

"Helmreich's chatty Baedeker is a hefty, multifaceted deep dive into New York's popular and most populous borough. He trekked 816 miles from Greenpoint to Cypress Hills, organizing the borough's 71 square miles into 44 communities along the way. New Yorkers and tourists alike can discover the borough's only Cambodian temple, a 1652 farmhouse described as the city's oldest surviving structure and a former mansion transformed into an inn in Bedford-Stuyvesant."--Sam Roberts, New York Times "Even Brooklyn residents will learn something new in this inclusive book, the first of five planned New York City walking guides... Helmreich's narrative focuses on the unusual and unknown, providing street maps ... of Brooklyn's 44 distinct neighborhoods, equaling 71 square miles... Crisp pictures, such as those of Mrs. Maxwell's Bakery--New York's largest party cake store--safety tips, and an impressive bibliography are welcome additions to an appealing work for locals, tourists, and urban explorers."--Library Journal "Both a sit-and-read title and one to consult on the go, Helmreich's guide is chock-full of Brooklyn-insider details from the author's own extensive walking explorations. It's the first of five planned volumes, one for each New York City borough."--Booklist "Helmreich's upbeat book is built around walking Brooklyn's streets day and night, and also talking to people he encounters. He sees Brooklyn as diverse and ever changing... From Greenpoint to Coney Island, every section is given a chapter, with Helmreich focusing on less known aspects of these neighborhoods."--Leonard Quart, Berkshire Eagle "[Helmreich] knocks around all forty-four neighborhoods, all seventy-one square miles, and may well have wished a good day to each of the borough's 2.6 million inhabitants. Helmreich is smitten with Brooklyn; I'll even take the liberty of saying he loves the place, loves the whole city. He's the kind of guy who asks questions... He knows there are parts of Brooklyn that can only be disarmed by common decency--not that he isn't commonly decent... That takes a special, radiant aura of street credibility. He also knows the power of laughter, and when to laugh."--Peter Lewis, Barnes and Noble Review "Professor and historian William Helmreich follows up his successful tome The New York Nobody Knows--for which he canvassed every single NYC block, covering 6,000 miles--with a Brooklyn-specific edition, sharing stories of the unlikely characters and places he met along the way. (And yes, more books about the other four boroughs are coming, too)."--Amy Plitt, Curbed

• Introduction ix Greenpoint 3 Williamsburg 15 DUMBO 33 Vinegar Hill 39 Brooklyn Heights 43 Cobble Hill 51 Downtown Brooklyn 57 Boerum Hill 63 Carroll Gardens 71 Red Hook 81 Gowanus 89 Park Slope 97 Windsor Terrace 107 Fort Greene 117 Clinton Hill 125 Prospect Heights 135 Bedford-Stuyvesant141 Crown Heights 151 Prospect Lefferts Gardens 161 Bushwick 171 Cypress Hills181 Brownsville187 East New York 195 Canarsie203 East Flatbush 213 Flatbush 223 Prospect Park South 231 Midwood 237 Flatlands 245 Marine Park 253 Bergen Beach 261 Mill Basin 267 Sunset Park 277 Borough Park 289 Bay Ridge 299 Dyker Heights 309 Bensonhurst 315 Bath Beach325 Gravesend 333 Sheepshead Bay 339 Gerritsen Beach 349 Manhattan Beach 357 Brighton Beach 363 Coney Island 371 Acknowledgments 381 Appendix 383 Notes 387 Bibliography 391 Index 397