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Ronald

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I first visited NYC last June. I immediately fell in love with this city and knew it should be my home so I can have all this "urbanism on steroids" in my backyard. Few cities I've visited have left such an impression (and indeed, desire to return) on me as NYC.

... and so I moved to the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Fort Greene last week from Rotterdam, Holland, to start graduate studies in City & Regional Planning at the Pratt Institute. I've been really busy with setteling in, and finding an internship, but so far I've spent every spare moment exploring this vast sea of urbanity. From Midtown Manhattan to the Battery to Prospect Park.
Without further ado, some pics of my 'backyard', the borough of Brooklyn.

Starting with Fort Greene, a neighbourhood that, in its entirety, is on the Natrional Register of Historic Places.

Fort Greene park (downtown Brooklyn in the distance)
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The bike lanes are relatively new to Brooklyn, but biking around still equals putting your life on the line.
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Fort Greene is the home of the Brownstone.
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The view from the sidewalk in front of my house: the Brooklyn Masonic Temple and (to its right) the Queen of All Saints
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Mi casa
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Traffic rushing through Lafayette Ave
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More Lafayette Avenue
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Lafayette (cont.)
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Brooklyn's tallest, the Williamsburg Savings Tower. Used to house offices, but has recently been converted into condos. Not exactly selling great, because of the recession.
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Looking towards downtown Brooklyn
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Looking towards Atlantic Terminal (a mall)
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Now let's take a walk to Brooklyn Heights, another gem of a neighbourhood. On our way we pass Downtown Brooklyn:
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Looks a lot like Fort Greene, but more peaceful and quiet
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Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more out of New York City.
 
Thanks!
The term "Brownstone Brooklyn" pertains to no one neighborhood in particular, but more so to those areas in which brownstones make up the majority of the housing stock. Most often, it is used to refer to the stretch of neighborhoods that runs from Brooklyn Heights in the northwest along the Hudson River, to Windsor Terrace, at the southwest corner of Prospect Park.
 
Great thread Ronald! Such great old-school urban bones in Brooklyn. Some parts of Brooklyn actually remind me a lot of Toronto, but not the parts you've captured. Looking forward to more and best of luck at the Pratt Institute!
 
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Residential rowhouses are such an alien form, even now, in Toronto. When those brownstones were going up we were building a Victorian city on a different scale - paired semi-detached homes with walkways between. And later, when we built taller, we still maintained breathing space - all those co-ops, spaced out along the Esplanade, for instance, with courtyards.
 
Thank you for the pictures Ronald, and best wishes in your studies.

As Shocker points out, little of this resembles Toronto, although one or two of the structures you show could be Victorian, in Cabbagetown or the Annex. I think one of the appealing things about NYC is that so many of the streetscapes are virtually unique and set a distinct tone, seldom seen elsewhere.
 
Considering blocks of residential rowhouses - with their enclosing, wall-like form - as a module for building major cities, I think NYC has more in common with a place like London than with us. We've a quasi-rural lack of them in the old residential parts of our city, and only see them crop up here and there - as contemporary infill projects downtown, for instance, or those white faux things near Casa Loma. Where Victorian Toronto built some rowhouses, mostly for the working class, New York's brownstones - and the row houses that surrounded all those famous London squares with their private gated gardens, were for the well-heeled.
 
Congratulations, Ronald. Fort Greene is one of the best neighbourhoods in America and Pratt is one of the best art schools. Your after-school life will resemble the lyrics of a Vampire Weekend song.
 

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