Crown Heights

Below Eastern Parkway, forget about it. There's noise assaults at every turn. Car alarms, sirens, parties, bad neighbors, forget about having any control over your life. Good access to parks and gardens but that stops being appealing when your home environment is a constant assault of noise and to get there you need to wade through a barrage of noise and unmaintained streets. Affordable, but for how long?

Living from abroad since 2013 in Crown Heights, it has changed a lot, new restaurants are moving in, neighbors are nice and welcoming. Some blocks are still missing Street Trees, lots of garbage on the sidewalks on some blocks. Easy access to other interesting neighborhoods.

Crown Heights is great in the winter but if you live around President Street the noise is deafening. Forget about keeping your windows open in the night, the extremely loud music, fireworks and loud talking never ends. If you work overnight and can sleep during the day then go for it, otherwise find another neighborhood.

Much of the hipster/young professional noise is for Franklin Ave, the epicenter of Crown Heights gentrification. East of Nostrand Ave remains largely Afro-Caribbean and African-American, which many new comers are not excited about, and is often described by new transplants as the "sketchy" part of town. The neighborhood as a whole still experiences questionable levels of crime, while retaining a strong community vibe.

Crown Heights is not exactly the kind of place you would escort your grandmother from out of town, but as far as residencies go it's not a bad place. It's rather inexpensive, as it is far from being the Upper East Side, but I would pack up and move here if it came down to it. It's close to Park Slope, which is a nice neighborhood for shopping and going out.

As far as shopping and eating in this area, don't expect much unless you are a huge proponent of Popeye's and Footlocker. However, there are highlights to be had - just as in every New York neighborhood. There are many Caribbean eateries, and many cater to vegans, though I doubt there are a ton living in the area. Crown Heights is one of those neighborhoods that is slowly being gentrified as residents are outpriced from neighborhoods like Park Slope, so cafes and bars are beginning to spring up.

For some strange reason, this random neighborhood in the middle of Brooklyn is very, very vegan friendly. Being a vegan, I can pretty much vouch for New York as generally pretty supportive of vegans – but there seems to be a plethora of them here. However – this isn’t exactly a neighborhood that you’d want to be a tourist in after daylight hours, or possibly even at all. That being said, the neighborhood is full of Caribbean vegan places, though they tend to be very small and usually feature bullet-proof windows. My recommendation would be for D’Ital –though you should get your food and make a run for it.