Bed-Stuy: Brooklyn’s Brownstone Heart

Bedford-Stuyvesant, better known as Bed-Stuy, was along with Harlem the heart of New York's African American community. I say «was» because today it's a neighborhood reshaped by new arrivals (it has been gentrified!)

Bed-Stuy is also famous as the hometown of several celebrities, among them comedian Chris Rock, who set his sitcom Everybody Hates Chris in the neighborhood, boxer Mike Tyson and basketball player Michael Jordan.

What to see in Bedford-Stuyvesant

Over the past few decades Bed-Stuy, once one of the poorest Brooklyn neighborhoods, has gone through an urban transformation (gentrification): people with money discover an undervalued neighborhood (already softened up by artists and bohemians) and decide to move in for its potential, its architecture and so on.

That's how longtime residents get pushed out by newcomers and the goods and services that arrive with them, and … voilà! The old run-down neighborhood becomes the latest (yuppie) thing.

This gentrification process is in full swing in Bed-Stuy, which is why you'll find plenty of restored, revalued homes and, at the same time, a boom in bars, cafés, restaurants and chic boutiques. As proof, for the first time 3 restaurants from this neighborhood made the Zagat dining rankings.

Gentrification is a contentious subject. It's bad news for longtime residents (and probably for sociologists and anthropologists), but in a way it's good for visitors, since we can now get to know an appealing part of the city that poverty and crime used to keep off-limits.

This New York gentrification story is told in Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical In The Heights, which although set in Washington Heights in Manhattan, describes the very same process happening in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

MoCADA Museum

If you're interested in digging deeper into the role of the African American community in New York, you can visit the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA).

Where to stay in Bed-Stuy

As I mentioned at the start, Bedford-Stuyvesant has become a great option for lodging, with reasonably priced places to stay in beautiful buildings, so it's worth considering as an alternative.

Check the hotels available on Booking. You'll see they have excellent traveler reviews 🙂

The history of Bed-Stuy

The name comes from joining two old neighborhoods: the former Village of Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights, named after the last governor of New Amsterdam (don't forget New York was once a Dutch colony).

After the emancipation of the slaves, many people moved north and settled in the area. That's how Bed-Stuy became one of the oldest free Black communities in the United States.

In the 1950s it drew middle-class African American families, who moved into its many brownstones, those classic three-story row houses you still see today.

Address:

Bedford-Stuyvesant sits between Flushing Ave to the north and Park Place and Ralph Ave to the south, and between Classon Ave to the west and Broadway and Van Sinderen Ave to the east

Getting there

C line. Kingston-Throop Avenues station

Map