Red Hook

Flickr/christheobscure

Red Hook’s waterfront has completely transformed in the past few years, now home to IKEA—which people love for its café and free babysitting as much as the affordable furniture—and Fairway, a beloved supermarket with a tremendous selection of goods. A variety of small businesses, artists’ studios and lofts now fill its old industrial buildings. It has a lovely waterfront park and museum, as well as the 58-acre Red Hook Park, with its Olympic-sized swimming pool, ball fields, and the “soccer tacos:” Latin American food vendors in carts along the park, rumored to be the most delicious street food in all of New York.

It contains the Columbia Street Waterfront District, with boutiques and restaurants, as well as the throbbing hub of Van Brunt Street. Even during the recession, new businesses were springing up in Red Hook. The housing stock includes 19^th century frame houses, apartment buildings and new condominiums, and is serviced primarily by bus, which takes riders right to the myriad subway lines in downtown Brooklyn or to the F train.