Midwood

By Radmilla Suleymanova | Special to amNewYork

October 19, 2006

Even if you're a native New Yorker, chances are you've never stepped foot in Midwood. The little-known Brooklyn neighborhood offers the city's ethnic melting pot with an unexpected suburban feel.

"It's like living in a small town in the middle of a big city," says Linda Goodman, executive director of the Midwood Development Corp. and a longtime resident.

The Dutch named Midwood in the late 17th century, back when it was, as the name suggests, in the middle of the woods. Today, it is an ethnically diverse enclave undergoing a development boom, drawing chain shops as well as oversized development in residential areas that has raised eyebrows. Amid the noise of jackhammers, visitors are bound to hear people speaking Russian, Hebrew, or Italian.

In the 1970s, many of Midwood's longtime residents began to move to the suburbs during a period of citywide decline. By the early '90s, however, a large influx of immigrants from the Soviet Union, India, Haiti and Pakistan helped to reinvigorate the area.

Many Midwood residents are Orthodox Jews, so a lot of shops close early on Friday in observance of the Sabbath. By Saturday, some streets are virtually a ghost town. But the bustle is hard to miss during the week.

That ethnic diversity put Midwood at the center of a crisis right after the Sept. 11 attacks. Pakistanis on the strip of Coney Island Avenue known as Little Pakistan fled after federal agents asked them to register with the government. The strip, and much of the neighborhood, is now flourishing with new stores and restaurants.

That growth, some say, does come at a price.

"Suddenly you have co-op buildings going up between two houses; the neighbors are getting upset about that," says Charles Kahn, longtime Midwood resident and chief of staff to City Councilman Michael Nelson.

Woody and Cosby

Midwood is the hometown of director Woody Allen, who was born Allen Konigsberg. The late playwright Arthur Miller also grew up and attended school in the area. Midwood was also an outpost of Hollywood. NBC purchased a studio there in the early 1950s, which was later used in the 1980s for "The Cosby Show," as well as a couple of "Saturday Night Live" episodes in the 1970s.

Find it
Midwood lies in the south central part of Brooklyn. The northern border is Avenue I; Kings Highway to the south; Nostrand to the east; and Coney Island Avenue to the west.

Real estate
The neighborhood's two-story houses with front porches and large lawns are drawing higher prices than ever. "It's different from downtown Brooklyn," said Mark Shasho of American Eagle Real Estate. "The houses are larger, more spread out and the neighborhood is quiet. People like that."

What's renting
-Studios go for $800 on average
-One-bedrooms go for about $1,200
-Two-bedrooms average $1,500

What's selling
Studio co-ops can go for about $100,000; a one-bedroom co-op can fetch $200,000; and two-bedroom co-op can go for $250,000. If you're looking for a home, $550,000 is the average price for a one-family semi-attached house, but prices can go for more than twice that amount for larger houses.