Renting in Crown Heights

What it's like

Crown Heights has something most of brownstone Brooklyn does not: large pre-war apartment buildings with elevators and lobbies, the kind of stock you normally have to go to Manhattan for. Along Eastern Parkway they sit across from the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanic Garden, which is about as good a front yard as renting gets.

North of Atlantic it becomes lower and more residential. Franklin Avenue is the spine of the newer bars and restaurants, and prices step down noticeably as you move east from it.

Who it suits

People who want an elevator building and a garden nearby without a Manhattan rent, and anyone commuting on the 2, 3, 4 or 5.

The catch

The express and local stations here are far apart in practice. Living two stops off the express adds ten minutes each way, every day, and the rent difference is often smaller than that is worth.

Getting around

The 2, 3, 4, 5 along Eastern Parkway, the A and C at Nostrand and Kingston, and the S shuttle to Prospect Park. Franklin Avenue is the interchange and the reason that end costs more.

What to check at the viewing

• Ask when the building last did facade work. The big pre-war buildings on the parkway are expensive to maintain and it shows in the ones that are not.
• Ask what the heat situation is and check the radiators in every room.
• In a converted floor-through, ask whether the kitchen was moved and whether it was permitted.