Brooklyn Totally Explained

Brooklyn (named after the Dutch town Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. An independent city until its consolidation into New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with nearly 2.5 million residents. Brooklyn is coterminous with Kings County, which is the most populous county in New York State, and the second most densely populated county in the United States (after New York County, which is the borough of Manhattan).
Though a part of New York City, Brooklyn maintains a character of its own. Brooklyn is characterized by cultural diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods, and a unique architectural heritage.

History

The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle the area on the western edge of Long Island, which was then largely inhabited by the Canarsie Native American tribe. The first Dutch settlement was Midwout (Midwood), established in 1634. The Dutch also purchased land in the 1630s from the Mohawks around present day Gowanus, Red Hook, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Bushwick.. It has many commercial towers and a rapidly increasing number of residential buildings.
   The northwestern neighborhoods between the Brooklyn Bridge and Prospect Park, including Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Clinton Hill, Vinegar Hill, DUMBO (an acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass"), Fort Greene, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Red Hook, are characterized by many nineteenth century brick townhouses and brownstones. These neighborhoods include some of the most gentrified and affluent neighborhoods in Brooklyn, along with ample subway lines, cultural institutions, and high-end restaurants.
   Further North along the East River lie Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Traditionally working class communities with a vibrant cultural mix, many artists and hipsters have moved into the area since the late 1990s. Further changing the area, the city completed an extensive rezoning of the Brooklyn waterfront in 2005 which will allow for many new residential condominiums. As prices have risen, redevelopment has moved eastward away from the waterfront into Bushwick along the L subway line.
   Central and southern Brooklyn contains many more architecturally and culturally distinct neighborhoods, some of which grew rapidly in the late 19th and early 20th century as upwardly-mobile immigrants moved out of tenement buildings in Manhattan neighborhoods like the Lower East Side. Borough Park is largely Orthodox Jewish; Bedford-Stuyvesant is the largest black neighborhood in the country; Bensonhurst is historically Italian. Dyker Heights is an affluent Italian neighborhood. East Flatbush and Fort Greene is home to a large number of middle-class black professionals. Brighton Beach is home to many Russians. Since 1990, Brooklyn has seen a rise in new immigration to neighborhoods like Sunset Park, home to flourishing Mexican and Chinese American communities.

Adjacent counties

Government

Since consolidation with New York City in 1898, Brooklyn has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a "strong" mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Brooklyn.
The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.
Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Brooklyn's Borough President is Marty Markowitz, elected as a Democrat in 2001 and re-elected in 2005. Presidential election results>

Year	GOP	Dems
2004	24.3% 167,149	74.9% 514,973
2000	15.7% 96,605	80.6% 497,468
1996	15.1% 81,406	80.1% 432,232
1992	22.9% 133,344	70.7% 411,183
1988	32.6% 230,064	66.3% 368,518
1984	38.3% 285,477	61.3% 328,379
1980	38.4% 200,306	55.4% 288,893
1976	31.1% 190,728	68.3% 419,382
1972	49.0% 373,903	50.8% 387,768
1968	32.0% 247,936	63.1% 489,174
1964	25.0% 229,291	74.8% 684,839
1960	33.5% 327,497	66.2% 646,582
1956	45.2% 460,456	54.7% 557,655

Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Charles J. Hynes, a Democrat, has been the District Attorney of Kings County since 1989. Brooklyn has 16 City Council members, the largest number of any of the five boroughs. It also has 18 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents.
   Brooklyn hasn't voted for a Republican in a national presidential election in the last 50 years. In the 2004 presidential election Democrat John Kerry received 74.9% of the vote in Brooklyn and Republican George W. Bush received 24.3%.
   Brooklyn is split between five congressional districts, three of which are based in the borough. 10th Congressional district, which covers Fort Greene, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York, and Canarsie is represented by Democrat Ed Towns. Yvette Clarke represents the 11th Congressional District encompassing Park Slope, Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush and Prospect Heights. It was created by the 1965 Voting Rights Act with the intention of increasing African-American representation in the United States Congress. In 1968 the district elected Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to hold a seat in the Congress and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. The district's population of 654,361 is 57% black, 24% white, and 12% Latino..
   In the 12th district Nydia Velazquez represents Bushwick, Williamsburg, Red Hook, and Sunset Park, as well as Manhattan's Lower East Side and parts of western Queens.
   The 9th district, represented by Democrat Anthony Weiner, includes Bergen Beach, Brighton Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Kensington, Manhattan Beach, Marine Park, Midwood, Mill Basin and Sheepshead Bay in southeast Brooklyn, as well as portions of Queens.
   The midtown Manhattan-based 8th District, represented by Democrat Jerry Nadler, includes Coney Island, Boro Park and parts of Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge. The Staten Island-based 13th district, represented by Republican Vito Fossella, includes some of the more conservative areas of the borough, including most of Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst and all of Gravesend and Dyker Heights.
   Brooklyn's official motto is Een Draght Mackt Maght. Written in the (old) Dutch language, it's inspired by the motto of the United Dutch Provinces and translated as In Unity There is Strength. The motto is displayed on the borough seal and flag, which also feature a young robed woman bearing fasces, a traditional emblem of republicanism. Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold. Party affiliation of Brooklyn registered voters>

Party	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996
Democratic	69.7	69.2	70.0	70.1	70.6	70.3	70.7	70.8	70.8	71.0
Republican	10.1	10.1	10.1	10.1	10.2	10.5	10.9	11.1	11.3	11.5
No affiliation	16.5	16.9	16.1	16.2	16.3	16.5	15.9	15.5	15.4	15.2
Other	3.7	3.9	3.8	3.6	2.9	2.8	2.5	2.8	2.3	2.3

Economy

Brooklyn's job market is driven by three main factors: the performance of the national/city economy, population flows, and the borough's position as a convenient back office for New York's businesses.
   Forty-four percent of Brooklyn's employed population, or 410,000 people, work in the borough; more than half of the borough's residents work outside its boundaries. As a result, economic conditions in Manhattan are important to the borough's jobseekers. Strong international immigration to Brooklyn generates jobs in services, retailing and construction. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has a manufacturing plant in Brooklyn that employs 990 workers. First established as a shipbuilding facility in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 70,000 people at is peak during World War II and was then the largest employer in the borough. The Missouri, the ship on which the Japanese formally surrendered, was built there, as was the iron-sided Civil War vessel the Monitor, and the Maine, whose sinking off Havana led to the start of the Spanish-American War. The Navy Yard is now a hub for industrial design firms, food processing businesses, and artisans, along with a growing film and television production industry. About 230 private-sector firms providing 4,000 jobs are at the Yard.
   Construction and services are the fastest growing sectors. Most employers in Brooklyn are small businesses. In 2000, 91% of the approximately 38,704 business establishments in Brooklyn had fewer than 20 employees.
   The unemployment rate in Brooklyn in March 2006 was 5.9%.

Demographics

Brooklyn Compared
2000 Census	Brooklyn	NY City	NY State
Total population	2,465,326	8,008,278	18,976,457
Population density	34,920/mi²	26,403/mi²	402/mi²
Median household income (1999)	$32,135	$38,293	$43,393
Per capita income	$16,775	$22,402	$23,389
Bachelor's degree or higher	22%	27%	24%
Foreign born	38%	36%	20%
White	41%	45%	67%
Black	36%	27%	16%
Hispanic (any race)	20%	27%	15%
Asian	8%	10%	6%

   According to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are 2,486,235 people (up from 2.3 million in 1990), 880,727 households, and 583,922 families residing in Brooklyn. The population density was 13,480/km² (34,920/mi²). There were 930,866 housing units at an average density of 5,090/km² (13,180/mi²).
   In 2000, 41.20% of Brooklyn residents were white; 36.44% were black; 7.54% were Asian; 0.41% were Native American; 0.06% Pacific Islander; 10.05% were of other races; and 4.27% were from two or more races. People of Hispanic or Latino origin, who may be of any race, comprised 19.79% of the population. 18.00% of the population reported speaking Spanish at home, 5.95% Russian, 4.19% French or a French-based creole, 3.92% Chinese, 3.10% Yiddish, 2.10% Italian, 1.42% Polish, 1.13% Hebrew, 1.09% Arabic and 0.68% Urdu.
   Of the 880,727 households in Brooklyn, 38.6% were married couples living together, 22.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households 27.8% are made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.41.
   In Brooklyn the population was spread out with 26.9% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. Brooklyn has more women, with 88.4 males for every 100 females.
   The median income for households in Brooklyn was $32,135, and the median income for a family was $36,188. Males had a higher median income of $34,317 than females, whose median income was $30,516. The per capita income was $16,775. About 22% of families and 25.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34% of those under age 18 and 21.5% of those age 65 or over.
   Brooklyn has long been a magnet for immigrants, and has become New York City's most ethnically diverse and most populous borough. It presently has substantial populations from many countries, including China, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia. The borough also attracts people previously residing in the United States. Of these, most come from Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC/Baltimore, Boston, and Seattle. An overwhelming majority of those who leave Brooklyn go to the Broward, Dade, Palm Beach, and Orange Counties of Florida. The Brooklyn population continues to grow because there's more immigration than emigration.

Culture

Brooklyn has played a major role in American letters. Walt Whitman wrote of the Brooklyn waterfront in his classic poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. Betty Smith's 1943 book A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and the 1945 film based on it, are among the best-known early works about life in Brooklyn. William Styron's novel Sophie's Choice is set in Flatbush, just off Prospect Park, during the summer of 1947. Arthur Miller's 1955 play A View From the Bridge is set in Brooklyn. Paule Marshall's 1959 novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones, about Barbadian immigrants during the Depression and World War II is also set in Brooklyn. More recently, Brooklyn-born author Jonathan Lethem has written several books about growing up in the borough, including Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude. The neighborhood of Park Slope is home to many contemporary writers, including Jonathan Safran Foer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Franzen, Rick Moody, Jennifer Egan, Kathryn Harrison, Paul Auster, Franco Ambriz, Nicole Krauss, Colson Whitehead, Darin Strauss, Siri Hustvedt and Suketu Mehta, among others. So many writers live in the area that Brooklyn-based band One Ring Zero released an album with lyrics written mainly by Brooklyn-based writers. The Discovery Kids show Time Warp Trio is also set in Brooklyn.
   The borough has had a part in theater and film as well. Lynn Nottage's play Crumbs from the Table of Joy is set in post-World War II Brooklyn and deals with the hopes and frustrations of an African American family recently arrived from Florida. The John Travolta movie Saturday Night Fever was set in Bay Ridge, an Italian neighborhood in south Brooklyn. Neil Simon's 1983 play "Brighton Beach Memoirs" is set in 1937 Brooklyn. In the late 1980s Brooklyn achieved a new cultural prominence with the films of Spike Lee, whose She's Gotta Have It and Do The Right Thing were shot in Brooklyn neighborhoods. The 2005 film The Squid and the Whale, by Noah Baumbach, the son of novelist Jonathon Baumbach and Village Voice film critic Georgia Brown, examined the family life of the Park Slope intelligentsia. The Brooklyn Museum, opened in 1897, is among the world's premier art institutions with a permanent collection that includes more than 1.5 million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art. The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), a complex including the 2,109-seat Howard Gilman Opera House, the 874-seat Harvey Lichtenstein Theater, and the art house BAM Rose Cinemas are notable venues. BAM is recognized internationally as a progressive cultural center well known for The Next Wave Festival, which began in 1983. Artists who have presented their works there include Philip Glass, Peter Brook, Laurie Anderson, Lee Breuer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Steve Reich, Robert Wilson, Ingmar Bergman, The Whirling Dervishes and the Kirov Opera directed and conducted by Valery Gergiev among others. Founded in 1863, the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) is a museum, library, and educational center dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn's rich 400-year past, while reflecting upon the future of the culturally rich borough. BHS houses a treasure trove of materials relating to the founding of the U.S. and the history of Brooklyn and its people. The BRIC Rotunda Gallery, founded in 1981, is the oldest not-for-profit gallery dedicated to presenting contemporary art work by artists who are from, live, or work in the borough. The Gallery, located in Brooklyn Heights, presents contemporary art of all media, public events and an innovative arts education program. The Gallery's aim is to increase the visibility and accessibility of contemporary art while bridging the gap between the art world and global culture in Brooklyn and the world beyond. BRIC Rotunda Gallery is the visual arts program of BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn, a multi-disciplinary arts and media non-profit, dedicated to presenting visual, performing and media arts programs that are reflective of Brooklyn's diverse communities and to supporting the creative process. Brooklyn is home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities outside of Israel. Some estimates have the Jewish population in Brooklyn at as high as three-quarters of a million, with many living in Borough Park, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and other sections of Brooklyn. Much of the Jewish community, most notably the Hasidic and Hareidi Jews, are fluent in Yiddish and often use it as their first language. Moreover, many Orthodox Jews have very large families, so the Jewish community is experiencing tremendous growth.
   Variously called the "City of Trees," "City of Homes," or the "City of Churches" in the 19th century, Brooklyn is now often styled the "Borough of Homes and Churches".
   As a promotional gesture by the current borough administration, distinctive traffic signs are posted along major traffic arteries at Brooklyn’s border crossings. They incorporate colorful expressions associated with Brooklyn, including: "Fugheddaboudit," "Oy vey!," and "How Sweet It Is." One sign identifies the borough as: "Home to Everyone From Everywhere!"
   Brooklyn and Red Hook feature in Arthur Miller's play "A View From The Bridge" which is a tragedy set in 1940-50s New York about an Italian American Family.

Media

Brooklyn has three local newspapers, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Brooklyn Paper and Courier-Life Publications. Courier-Life Publications is Brooklyn's largest chain of newspapers, with a weekly readership exceeding more than one million. Courier-Life publishes newspapers reaching every sector of the borough, in addition to its myriad supplements. Bay Currents is a bi-weekly newspaper published in south Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Rail is a glossy monthly magazine emphasizing arts and literary criticism and winner of the Utne Independent Press Award in 2002 and 2003 for Best Local/Regional Coverage. Brooklyn is also served by the major New York dailies, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and The New York Post. HelloBrooklyn.com is Brooklyn's largest portal with more than 10,000 links.
Brooklyn has a thriving ethnic press. Major ethnic publications include the Brooklyn-Queens Catholic paper The Tablet, "Hamodia" an orthodox Jewish daily, as well as several Haitian newspapers including The Haitian Times, Haiti Observateur, and Haiti Progress. Many nationally-distributed ethnic newspapers are based out of offices in Brooklyn. Over 60 ethnic groups, writing in 42 languages, publish some 300 non-English language magazines and newspapers in New York City.
The City of New York also has an official television station, run by the NYC Media Group, which features programming based in Brooklyn. There is also Brooklyn Cable Access Television, the borough's public access channel.

Tourism

Southern Brooklyn was once the premier resort destination for New York City. Coney Island developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s, when wealthy New Yorkers would bet on horses at the Gravesend or Sheepshead Bay Race Track and dined at high-class restaurants and seaside hotels. No trip to Sheepshead Bay would be complete without a stop at the docks and then dinner at Lundy's Restaurant. The introduction of the subway made Coney Island a vacation destination for the masses, and it evolved into one of America's first amusement grounds. The Cyclone rollercoaster, built in 1927, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The 1920 Wonder Wheel and other rides are still operational at Astroland. Coney Island went into decline in the 1950s, but is undergoing a renaissance. The annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade is a hipster costume-and-float parade which honored David Byrne, pre-punk music guru, as the head merman in 1998. Coney Island also hosts the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Green-Wood Cemetery, founded by the social reformer Henry Evelyn Pierrepoint in 1838, is both one of the most significant cemeteries in the United States and an expansive green space encompassing 478 acres (1.9 km²) of rolling hills and dales, several ponds, and a baroque chapel. Still in use, the cemetery is the burial ground of some of the most famous New Yorkers, including Albert Anastasia (1903-1957), mobster, "Lord High Executioner" for "Murder Inc."; Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), artist; Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), composer; Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), New Orleans-born pianist and composer; Laura Jean Libbey (1862-1924), best-selling "dime-store" novelist; Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872), inventor of the telegraph; Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), journalist; Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (1834-1884), mother of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt; Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), birth control advocate; F.A.O. Schwarz (1836-1911), toy store founder; William M. "Boss" Tweed (1823-1878), notorious boss of the New York political machine.
The New York Transit Museum is a museum which displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway and bus systems; it's located in the unused Court Street subway station in Brooklyn Heights. The Brooklyn Children's Museum was the world's first museum for children and has many exhibits on culture and zoology. The 52 acre (210,000 m²) Brooklyn Botanic Garden includes a cherry tree esplanade, a one acre (4,000 m²) rose garden, a Japanese hill and pond garden, a fragrance garden for the blind, a water lily pond esplanade, several conservatories, a rock garden, a native flora garden, a bonsai tree collection, and children's gardens and discovery exhibits.

Sports

Brooklyn has a storied sports history. It has been home to many famous sports figures such as Joe Paterno, Joe Pepitone, Joe Torre, Larry Brown, Mike Tyson, Vitas Gerulaitis, Herbie Kronowitz, Paul Lo Duca, John Franco, Stephon Marbury, John Halama, Rico Petrocelli, Michael Jordan Vince Lombardi and Arianit Spahiu. Parks throughout the borough such as Prospect Park, Marine Park, and the community sports complex at Floyd Bennett Field provide residents an opportunity to practice and hone their sports skills and talents.
   Brooklyn's most famous team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, played at Ebbets Field and was named for "trolley dodgers," a reference to the many streetcar lines that once criss-crossed the borough. The Dodgers most historic achievement came in 1947 when Jackie Robinson took the field in a Dodgers uniform, becoming the first Major League African American player of the modern era. In 1955, the Dodgers won the first and only World Series for Brooklyn against their rival, the New York Yankees. The event was marked by mass euphoria and celebrations all over Brooklyn. Just two years later, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, causing a widespread sense of betrayal.
   After a 43-year hiatus, pro baseball returned to the borough in 2001 in the form of the Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor league team that began playing in Coney Island.
   Developer Bruce Ratner announced in 2004 that he'd purchased the New Jersey Nets basketball team. He hopes to move the Nets to a proposed 20,000-seat Brooklyn Nets Arena as part of a controversial housing and office development.
   Minor league soccer arrived in Brooklyn when the Brooklyn Knights relocated from their previous home in Queens to a the new Aviator Park complex, which includes a 2,000-seat soccer-specific stadium. The team plays in the USL Premier Development League, at the fourth level of US soccer.
   One of the most popular skateboard spots, called the Brooklyn Banks, is actually located in Manhattan under the Brooklyn Bridge. Many skaters have included the banks in skateboard videos. There is also a skateboard company based out of Brooklyn called 5boro. It is co-owned by Mark Nardelli and Steve Rodriguez.

Transportation

Brooklyn's transportation infrastructure provides the means to efficiently move goods and people throughout the borough.
   Brooklyn is well served by public transit. Because 18 New York City Subway lines, including the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, traverse the borough, it isn't surprising that 92.8% of Brooklyn residents traveling to Manhattan use the subway. Major stations include, Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street, Broadway Junction, DeKalb Avenue, Jay Street-Borough Hall, and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue.
   The public bus network covers the entire borough. There is daily express bus service into Manhattan. New York's famous yellow cabs also provide transportation in Brooklyn, although they're less numerous in Brooklyn than in Manhattan. There are three commuter rail stations in Brooklyn, including East New York station, Nostrand Avenue station, and Atlantic Terminal, the terminus station of the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. Atlantic Terminal is a major intermodal transit hub with several connecting subway lines.
   The grand majority of limited-access expressways and parkways are located in the western and southern sections of Brooklyn. These include, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Gowanus Expressway, which is part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Prospect Expressway, New York State Route 27, the Belt Parkway, and the Jackie Robinson Parkway. Major thoroughfares include, Atlantic Avenue, 4th Avenue, 86th Street, Kings Highway, Ocean Parkway, Eastern Parkway, Linden Boulevard, McGuiness Boulevard, Flatbush Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Bedford Avenue.
   Brooklyn is extensively connected to Manhattan by three bridges, the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges, and a tunnel, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge links Brooklyn with the more suburban borough of Staten Island. Though its border is mostly made up of land, Brooklyn shares three water crossings with Queens, the Kosciuszko Bridge (part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), the Pulaski Bridge, and the JJ Byrne Memorial Bridge all carry traffic over Newtown Creek.
   Historically Brooklyn's waterfront was a major shipping port, especially at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park. Most container ship cargo operations have shifted to the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, while the city has recently built a new cruise ship terminal in Red Hook that's to become a focal point for New York's growing cruise industry. The Queen Mary 2, the world's largest ocean liner, was designed specifically to fit under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the United States. The Queen Mary 2 makes regular ports of call at the Red Hook terminal on her transatlantic runs from Southampton, England.

Education

Education in Brooklyn is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States. Private schools range from the elite Berkeley Carroll School to religious schools run by Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Jewish organizations. The Satmar Jewish community of Brooklyn operates its own network of schools, which is the fourth largest school system in New York state. Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, and was the first public co-ed liberal arts college in New York City. The College ranked in the top 10 nationally for the second consecutive year in Princeton Review’s 2006 guidebook, America’s Best Value Colleges. Many of its students are first and second generation immigrants. Emblematic of its students’ potential is Eugene Shenderov, the son of Russian immigrants who received a 2005 Rhodes Scholarship before graduating from the College's B.A.-M.D. program in June 2005. The Brooklyn College campus serves as home to the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts complex and its four theaters, including the George Gershwin. Brooklyn Law School was founded in 1901 and is notable for its diverse student body. Women and African Americans were enrolled in 1909. According to the Leiter Report, a compendium of law school rankings published by Brian Leiter, Brooklyn Law School places 31st nationally for quality of students. Kingsborough Community College is a junior college in the City University of New York system, located in Manhattan Beach. SUNY Downstate Medical Center, originally founded as the Long Island College Hospital in 1860, is the oldest hospital-based medical school in the United States. The Medical Center comprises the College of Medicine, College of Health Related Professions, College of Nursing, University Hospital of Brooklyn, and the School of Graduate Studies, where Nobel Prize-winner Dr. Robert F. Furchgott is a member of the faculty. Half of the Medical Center's students are minorities or immigrants. The College of Medicine has the highest percentage of minority students of any medical school in New York State. Long Island University is a private university in Downtown Brooklyn with 6,417 undergraduate students. In Clinton Hill, the Pratt Institute is one of the leading art schools in the United States and offers programs in art, architecture, fashion design, design, creative writing, library science, and other area disciplines.
As an independent system, separate from the New York City and Queens libraries, the Brooklyn Public Library offers thousands of public programs, millions of books, and use of more than 850 free Internet-accessible computers. It also has books and periodicals in all the major languages spoken in Brooklyn, including Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew, and Haitian Kreyol, as well as French, Yiddish, Hindi, Bengali, Polish, Italian, and Arabic. The Central Library is a landmarked building facing Grand Army Plaza and is undergoing extensive renovations and an underground expansion. There are 58 library branches, placing one within a half mile of each Brooklyn resident. There's a significant business library in Brooklyn Heights. The Library is preparing to construct the new Visual and Performing Arts Library, which will focus on the link between new and emerging arts and technology and house traditional and digital collections. It will provide access and training to arts applications and technologies not widely available to the public. The collections will include the subjects of art, theater, dance, music, film, photography and architecture. A special archive will house the records and history of Brooklyn's arts communities.
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