bloomberger

This street is something of a misnomer: it does not lead up to the Brooklyn Bridge (that is Brooklyn Bridge Blvd). In fact, you have to make a left, go several blocks, and then take a left before you get to the bridge.

What Bridge street does have is many small storefronts: clothing stores, shoe stores, a couple of delis and lots of traffic, all characteristic of the Fulton mall of which it is a side street. Bridge street also passes by one of Brooklyn’s campuses, Brooklyn Polytech. Be careful of cars here! I often run down this street and must be wary of the drivers. A noisy, busy street.

Hudson Avenue is a tine street that is basically a sum of the things that surround it: An applebee's and a subway stop to the west, a large construction site to the east, and Long Island university to the north. There are no apartments there currently, only the long walls of large buildings. There is minimal traffic down this street as well, though you do have to be careful of the occasional car, especially when you cross this street at night.

North Portland is the continuation of South Portland -- they are split by Fort Greene Park. N Portland, which runs all the way from Myrtle down to the Navy Yard, is full of apartment buildings, but they are older and a stark contrast with the brownstones that line its sister street farther south. N Portland passes by the Cumberland Diagnostic Treatment Center. There are also several stores fronts, Chinese places and bodegas along it, or on nearby Myrtle. I would not feel comfortable walking along this street at night, as it's not highly traveled.

S Elliot turns off into this street, which runs around one side of the Atlantic center. Apart from the Atlantic Center and a few large apartment buildings, there is nothing much going on at this street. Very industrial and un-welcoming. Because it is so close to the incredibly traffic-heavy Atlantic Ave, there is also a ton of street noise here.

Hanson place is a neat street. The Clock Tower, which used to be a bank and is now full of condos, is definitely the first thing you notice, as it towers over much of Brooklyn and its lobby (now, sadly off limits) is stunning.

Farther down Hason, you'll pass by the bustling Atlantic Center mall, where you can find a Target, Modell's, Daffy's and other stores.

At South Portland and Hanson, you'll find a large church, and across the street, one of my favorite places, 80 Arts. 80 Arts is also known as the James E. Davis Arts Building. In it, you'll find the offices of such great institutions as MoCADA is the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts, StoryCorps (part of NPR), Evidence (Ronald K. Brown's dance troupe) and WITNESS, a group dedicated to raising awareness about human rights.

Rockwell Place is home at the moment to a very large construction site at Dekalb. They do work during the day, complete with a towering crane. The rest of the street is large, industrial type buildings. Not much of the neighborhoody feel of the other surrounding streets in Ft Greene.

There are some notable companies along Rockwell though, such as the Brooklyn Glassworks and Rockwell’s Bar & Lounge, which is a long and narrow bar that is very chic-looking, though I often see them playing sports on their large TVs.

Ashland Place and Dekalb is a major intersection and Ashland itself is a very traffic-heavy street -- people fly down this street very fast.

If you look out to the west, you can see an unencumbered view of the Empire State building. There is a bodega at Dekalb and Ashland, and a number of brick apartment buildings. It is not one of the prettier streets in Fort Greene. It is very close to the express trains at Dekalb Avenue however.

Farther down Ashland to Lafayette you'll find the high-rise Forte condos, which are near the Crunch gym and a few blocks away from some great restaurants. Past Forte, there's a parking lot and then the famous "Clock Tower" building, which used to be a bank, but is now also a large condo building.

While this street may be full of luxury buildings, it lacks character, charm, and isn't very pretty or green.

S Elliott place is nearby many trains (R,M,B,Q and C,G), close to Fort Greene Park, and home to the location of Forty Acres and a Mule, Spike Lee's filmworks. The brownstones are picturesque, and the street is clean.

S Elliot runs past many restaurants like the Smoke Joint, 67 Burger, a greek diner and several food markets. There is a wonderful natural bath and body store called Carol's Daughter at S Elliott and Dekalb, made famous by Oprah. The north side of Brooklyn Tech is also on South Elliott, so there is some spill-over from the students, but less so than Ft Greene Pl.

This short little street runs from Dekalb down to Atlantic. Most notably, it starts with Brooklyn Tech High School at Dekalb ave. This makes for very noisy, crowded early mornings and afternoons during the school year, as throngs of high school students flow in for their classes.

Apart from the school, there are many cute little brick and brownstone buildings along Ft Green Place, and it ends down by the Atlantic Center, for great access to shopping at Modell's, Target, Victoria's Secret, Daffy's and others. There's also a cute boutique called Cloth at Ft Greene Pl between Lafayette and Hanson.

A few years back, TimeOut NY magazine rated South Portland (between Dekalb and Lafayette) the best block in all of New York City -- and for good reason! South Portland passes by tons of cute restaurants, from Habana Cafe to Pequena, from Moe's bar to the new Provisions market. It ends at Fort Greene Park and stretches past the bustling Atlantic Center, complete with Target and Office Max. This is the street people congregated at after Obama won the election, dancing and cheering until the early hours of the morning.

You find lots of families with babies living in the beautiful brownstone buildings along S Portland. There are plenty of fitness enthusiasts too -- you'll see bikers heading east to Prospect park on this road, and joggers heading west to Fort Green park. You can also see, at night, the beacon of the Ft Greene Prison Ships monument gleaming. A beautiful, friendly, diverse and funky street. I love living here!