Hello, I'm City Journal editor Brian Anderson.

Thanks for joining us for the 10 Blocks podcast featuring urban policy and cultural commentary with City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests.

Not long ago, the term Brooklyn was considered a synonym for urban decay.

During the second half of the 20th century, a nationwide crime wave, the crack epidemic,

and economic changes forced many of Brooklyn's residents out of their homes

and into the suburbs of Long Island, New Jersey, and Westchester, among other locales. Those who stayed

behind watched as their once safe and prosperous middle-class neighborhood turned dangerous

and dilapidated. Today, though, Brooklyn is a borough transformed,

home to a growing class of young professionals, thriving immigrant communities, and thousands

of new businesses. Brooklyn is no longer a synonym for decay. In fact, Brooklyn is booming.

Joining us on 10 blocks to discuss this remarkable transformation and turnaround is Kay Heimowitz,

author of a brand new book called The New Brooklyn, What It Takes to Bring a City Back.

Kay is a contributing editor of City Journal and the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Kay, thanks for joining us.

My pleasure.

Brooklyn is obviously enjoying a moment, and it's been going on for some time now.

But going back through the decades, when would you say was Brooklyn's golden age?

Well, a lot of people look back on the, I would say, the late 1940s, 1950s just after

World War II, what some people think of as the Dodger, might think of as the Dodger era.

Before they decamped for Los Angeles, yes. For Los Angeles, like so many other people have during the decades that followed,

either Los Angeles or other easier locations. So that was a time that, at least in retrospect, and it's always very hard to know just

how much people are looking through rose-colored glasses.

...