50 Things Smartmom Loves About Park Slope

Smartmom knows that Park Slope has become the neighborhood New Yorkers love to hate for its stroller gridlock, its "entitled" kids, and crunchy/veggie progressive ways. Real estate has gotten so overpriced you have to be in corporate law or finance to afford to live here anymore.

Still, Smartmom thinks it's a very livable place with a palpable sense of community—and an abundance of things to do as a family.

No doubt, part of the appeal is the architectural scale and the sense of history around here. Narrow side streets are flecked with land marked brownstones and small apartment buildings. And there's a glorious park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, perfect for Smartmom’s daily 3.3 mile run or bike ride; a world class museum and botanic garden, a 13,000-member owned and operated [park slope food coop], and arts centers like the Food Coop, Brooklyn Academy of Music just a hop, skip, and a jump away.

For shopping, Seventh Avenue and Fifth Avenue are fun places to walk and talk with homegrown shops like Little Thingsfor toys; The Clay Pot for artisan jewelry and fine design; Zuzu's Petals for voluptuous flowers, annuals and perennials for city gardens. City Casuals has comfy clothes and shoes for women and Kiwi, Diana Kane and Bird are fashionable spots for clothing, lingerie and shoes.

Not to be missed is an unnamed shop owned by a woman named Lisa Polansky (on Seventh Avenue near Carroll) that has just about any kind of clothing or shoe item you can imagine for women and children. Inside it’s packed from floor to ceiling with merchandise—and nearly impossible to find anything. Just ask Lisa; she knows exactly where everything is.

As for restaurants, Park Slope has something for just about every taste from Zagat-rated Al Di La, Blue Ribbon Brooklyn, Blue Ribbon Sushi and Stone Park Cafe to old standbys like Mr. Falafel Belleville, and Two Boots, the original child-centered restaurant with an inhumanly patient wait staff, crayons and coloring books on demand, and a pizza making activity for all the kids.

There are also more than four vegan restaurants, including 'sNice and V-Spot and a couple of branches of a California-style burrito restaurant that have been here for years.

Cafes abound in this neighborhood where people love to hang out. The Tea Lounge, Sweet Melissa's, Ozzie's and the original Park Slope cafe, Connecticut Muffin, are great places to sip and schmooze.

The Community Bookstore is just one epicenter of this very bookish neighborhood. When the store nearly went out of business in 2007, the community pitched in to save it. Owner Catherine Bohne has made it into a welcoming, community-oriented place with a fanciful children's section that includes a small red piano and comfortable pillows and chairs.

She was also behind the fanciful midnight Harry Potter celebrations held there for children, when the Harry Potter books were released.

Smartmom once said that Park Slope is a college town without a college because it's a smart neighborhood with loads of people who like to read and write. You can't walk down Seventh Avenue without running into people you know—and stopping to have long conversations. Just like when you were in college.

It's also the kind of place where you know your neighbors by name and probably much more—especially on Third Street, where neighbors are quick to become friends. In the summer, neighbors hang out in their front yards and stoops, drink white wine, have BBQs, watch their kids have water fights, and talk endlessly about just about anything.

Smartmom loves JJ Byrne Park and the Old Stone House, where there are cultural events year-round like Brooklyn Reading Works, a monthly reading series, Brooklyn Film Works (movies al fresco on Wednesdays in July), a a Shakespeare camp for kids and a small theater company in residence that performs outdoors in the summer.

Smartmom loves Spoke the Hub, BAX, and The Dance Studio because of their creative dance and gymnastics programming for kids and adults.

Smartmom loves Union Hall, Southpaw, and Club Loco at Old First Church, where tween and teen rock bands like Care Bears on Fire, Tiny Masters of Today, The Mighty Handful, Fiasco, Dulaney Banks and others got their start.

Smartmom loves the way local religious institutions like Congregation Beth Elohim and Old First Church (to name just two) multi-task as pre-schools, after-school programs, summer and vacation camps, a piano studio and a location for children's concerts.

Smartmom loves Barbes, a cozy and cool place to hear Slavic Soul and an eclectic blend of world music and jazz; the Jewish Music Cafe for Klezmer and Hasidic Rap; the accordion player who sits in front of Chase and the Chinese Erhu player who plays in front of Citibank.

The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music is a great place for children and adults to learn a wide variety of instruments, as is Slope Music a music school in a French Second Empire building on 9th Street.

Finally, what would Park Slope be without Park Slope Parents, a great resource for raising children in Park Slope, as well as an informative list-serve?

And one last thing, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, a blog for people who are addicted to where they live, keeps everyone informed about life in Park Slope and brownstone Brooklyn.

Louise Crawford writes the weekly Smartmom column for the Brooklyn Paper. She runs Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Brooklyn Reading Works and the Brooklyn Blogfest. She is at work on a novel called The Last Sublet. She lives in Park Slope with her husband, photographer Hugh Crawford, and her two kids, Henry and Alice.