Where Does Park Slope Fall in the "50 Best Brooklyn Blocks" List?

Photo by Park Slope Lens

Boasting about one's own neighborhood has just reached a new level. Now instead of bragging that you "live in Williamsburg, just like Zach Galifianakis," you can zero in even closer to your actual apartment, claiming that you live on the "Best Block for All the Asian Food," or the "Best Block for Urban Palimpsests."

The L Magazine recently published an article called "The 50 best blocks in Brooklyn," in which they awarded different Brooklyn neighborhoods with block-specific accolades. For example, did you know that the "Most Literary Block" is in Boerum Hill on Dean Street, between Hoyt and Bond? This block once housed Motherless Brooklyn author Jonathan Lethem, Russian American author Isaac Asimov, and writer and journalist L.J. Davis.

So where did Park Slope fall in this list? 

* "Best Unexpected Retail Block": Bergen between 5th Avenue and Flatbush. L Mag says, "...perfect for a nerdy, sexy vegan cyclist (aka a typical Brooklynite): Bergen Street Comics, 
Babeland, Sun in Bloom, and Ride Brooklyn, as well as other boutiques and cafes." Though certainly those nerdy vegans don't much care for the scent of sweet sweet animal flesh upon passing Bark Dogs.

* "Best Block to Smoke a Joint": Gregory Place between Baltic and Butler. L Mag says, "Butler doesn’t cut through to Fifth Avenue, making this side street behind the Key Food more like a back alley, the kind where you might see joint-toking teens pass a yuppie with a one-hitter walking his dog." Why travel all that way though? This is why kitchen windows open.

* "Bluest Block": Union Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. L Mag says, "Behold the well-heeled collectivism of the Park Slope Food Co-op (first they came for Israel and we did nothing, except buy our hummus at Trader Joe’s).  

* "Best Block For Pretending it's the 19th Century": Webster Place. L Mag says, "At the southern end of this side street near the Prospect Expressway sits a beautiful row of meticulously restored colonial rowhouses, one of which has one of those hilarious “on such and such a historical date, nothing happened here” signs. Haha!" I can be taken back to the 1800's from within my own apartment just by ringing a really old bell.

The piece should have been called "The 50 Best Blocks in Brooklyn (And Some of the Shittier Ones!)" because in addition to positive attributes like "Best Block To Live On," they include downers like "Worst-Smelling Block" (Dumbo) and "Scariest Block" (Bushwick). And hey -- sorry to all you folks living on Park Avenue between Cumberland and Carlton in Fort Greene because you, apparently, live on "The Worst Block." 

Lastly, if you give a shit, here's the breakdown of how each neighborhood made the cut: Williamsburg got most of the "bests" with 9 wins, Bushwick, Bay Ridge and Park Slope have 5, Dumbo has 4, Fort Greene has 3, Greenpoint and Red Hook have 2. The only neighborhoods mentioned once were Brooklyn Heights, Sunset Park, Crown Heights, Vinegar Hill, Brighton Beach, Clinton Hill, Mill Basin, East NY, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Prospect Heights, Ditmas Park and Bed Stuy. You can read the full list HERE.

If you had to nominate a Park Slope block for its worst/best feature, where would you choose and why?