Living in Bay Ridge, According to the NY Times

Bay Ridge. Photo by Emily K.

The New York Times features a different tri-state neighborhood each weekend in its Real Estate section, and last Sunday I was pleased to see that Bay Ridge was in the driver's seat.

The weekly article is much more of a neighborhood guide than a feature story, as indicated by each article's heading: "Living In / [Neighborhood]." Every article follows the same format, with short sections on what residents there do, what they pay for housing, how the schools compare to averages, the typical commute time and a mini history.

And so on Sunday I found out what the New York Times had to say about Living In / Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and I found out a few things about my neighborhood in the process.

Read the link above for the full article, but here are the highlights:

• Bay Ridge has a population of about 80,000. 

• Bay Ridge is three square miles.

• The neighborhood is largely Italian and Irish, and 9 percent have an Arabic background.

• New York City honored Bay Ridge's Scandinavian roots in 1969 by renaming part of the Belt Parkway "Leif Ericson Drive."

• The average selling price of a Bay Ridge single-family home last year was $812,000.

• Fort Hamilton, at the southern tip of Bay Ridge, is the city's only active military base.

• The fort was built in 1831 because of the fear of a European invasion.

• And what might do the most to convince people to visit us ... "Bay Ridge has 113 places to grab a drink."