The Brooklyn nobody knows

the long version

"Bill Helmreich walked every block of New York City--6,000 miles in all--to write the award-winning The New York Nobody Knows. Now he has re-walked Brooklyn--some 816 miles--to write this one-of-a-kind walking guide to the city's hottest borough. Drawing on hundreds of conversations he had with residents during his block-by-block journeys, The Brooklyn Nobody Knows captures the heart and soul of a diverse, booming, and constantly changing borough that defines cool around the world. The guide covers every one of Brooklyn's forty-four neighborhoods, from Greenpoint to Coney Island, providing a colorful portrait of each section's most interesting, unusual, and unknown people, places, and things. Along the way you will learn about a Greenpoint park devoted to plants and trees that produce materials used in industry; a hornsmith who practices his craft in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens; a collection of 1,140 stuffed animals hanging from a tree in Bergen Beach; a five-story Brownsville mural that depicts Zionist leader Theodor Herzl--and that was the brainchild of black teenagers; Brooklyn's most private--yet public--beach in Manhattan Beach; and much, much more. An unforgettably vivid chronicle of today's Brooklyn, the book can also be enjoyed without ever leaving home--but it's almost guaranteed to inspire you to get out and explore one of the most fascinating urban areas anywhere." -- Publisher's description