Bedford-Stuyvesant

Comprised of townhouses, Bedford Stuyvesant is a lively combination of two old Brooklyn Communities: Bedford, and Stuyvesant Heights. Its history and charm have been well preserved – best illustrated by long rows of bay-fronted townhouses in the lovely twelve-block Stuyvesant Heights Historic District.

From a New York Times article: “Bedford-Stuyvesant is like a tale of two cities in itself,” said City Councilman Albert Vann, a lifelong resident whose district takes in most of the neighborhood. The article continues: “Bedford Stuyvesant's most exclusive blocks, tree-lined rows of century-old brownstones, contrast with Gates Avenue in the middle of the area, which is lined with decades-old low-income housing.”

With the drop in crime and rising housing prices all over Brooklyn, outsiders are looking more closely at the neighborhood. “Bedford-Stuyvesant has been rediscovered by both black and white folks who are looking to purchase and/or rehabilitate,” Councilman Vann said. “The trend has always been for people who do well to move out to Queens, Long Island, Staten Island. But for the last 10 years or less, the trend has been reversed.”

Appealing to potential buyers are well-preserved brownstones that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars less than similar ones closer to Manhattan. Many blocks in the south of the neighborhood, including those in and near the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District, have well-kept rows of brownstones similar to those in Fort Greene, Park Slope or Boerum Hill.

Farther to the north, scattered fully-intact brownstone blocks are interspersed among blocks with fewer brownstones and a greater number of smaller buildings, vacant lots, vinyl-sided buildings and one-story commercial structures or garages.