Flatbush

Amassing a large hunk of Brooklyn, the Flatbush area encompasses many subsections, including Brooklyn College, Ditmas Park and East Flatbush. The sprawling nabe lays claim to some of the borough’s most unique architecture in Ditmas Park’s demure, Victorian-style townhomes — many complete with generous backyards on wide, tree-lined streets (indeed, the area was played off as being Iowa in the HBO series Girls). Many blocks in the area dead end into the overgrown, abandoned Brooklyn Freight Line at Newkirk Plaza, or the area’s many open-cut stations, making the neighborhood more difficult to navigate but giving it an off-the-grid and more small-town feel.