Bedford-Stuyvesant and Flatbush

Understand

• Bedford-Stuyvesant is a major African-American neighborhood with some African presence. It is the second largest African-American neighborhood in the country after the city of Detroit. Bed-Stuy, as it is called by most New Yorkers, has been gentrifying lately. However violent crime is still a concern along with the other social problems in the community.
• Flatbush used to be a Jewish, Italian, and Irish neighborhood, and before that settled by members of the Dutch Reformed Church. It is now a largely West-Indian neighborhood, and is the home of Brooklyn College, one of the most beautiful campuses in the area. In the very center is the 18th century Dutch Reformed Church at the corner of Flatbush and Church Avenues, and its original school house dating to 1787 and originally called Erasmus Hall. Now it is the administration building of the public Erasmus Hall High School, whose own building is over 100 years old. The neighborhood's eponymous commercial main street, Flatbush Avenue, goes from the Manhattan Bridge on the north to the Gil Hodges Marine Parkway Bridge leading to the Rockaway Peninsula section of Queens on the south.
• Crown Heights is largely a mixture of West Indians and Chasidic Jews. Part of the neighborhood is near the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and the Brooklyn Museum. Violent crime is still a concern along with the other social problems in the community, so use caution.
• Midwood is a quiet residential area with some commercial streets, located on the other side of the Brooklyn College campus from Flatbush and extending for some ways to the south. The neighborhood is ethnically mixed, but includes a substantial population of Modern Orthodox Jews and some Chasidim, and many shops are closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. The area has one of New York City's largest concentrations of beautiful free-standing hundred-year-old Victorian and Edwardian homes. An interesting example of this is the Avenue H station house on the Q subway line, which was first built a century ago as the local real estate office selling these homes. It is a historic site and a unique fixture of the city's subway system.
• Brownsville is another mainly African-American neighborhood. It is just to the west of East New York, and like East New York, it remains among the more dangerous neighborhoods in New York, though crime statistics have declined. It does not merit a visit from most tourists. Beware passing through here on your way to JFK Airport on the B15 bus.

Get in

By subway

The 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Weekdays only) all go to Franklin Avenue and then split. The 2 and 5 go down Nostrand Avenue into Flatbush, while the 3 and 4 continue into Crown Heights.

It's possible to get to Bed-Stuy by taking the A and C trains or the G train.

The B and Q also stop in this district near Prospect Park, Flatbush, and continue through Midwood to the south.

Finally, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle (marked S) connects all these lines except the G to each other, making this a good method for changing between these trains.

By LIRR

The Long Island Railroad's Atlantic Branch has a single stop in Bed-Stuy: Nostrand Avenue. Trains that stop here are either headed to or originate from Atlantic Terminal.

By bus

The BM1, 2, 3, and 4 express buses all pass through here.

Stay safe

Compared to the 1980s and 1990s, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Flatbush aren't as dangerous as they used to be. Since the late 1990s, the area has been gentrifying and is more patrolled by the NYPD. Of course, when going anywhere, be careful of your surroundings. The neighborhood has its fair share of odd people, and may be more dangerous at night.