Park Life

A decade ago, the 2.4-km stretch of Fifth Avenue that forms the western edge of the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, was the grim preserve of drug dealers, thugs and the demimonde. Not anymore. Thanks to the city's skyrocketing real estate market, some campaigning locals and a few pioneering investors, a once bleak thoroughfare of boarded-up shops and unsavory bodegas has been transformed into one of the hippest shopping and dining destinations in the Big Apple. Today, this section of Fifth Avenue, dubbed "Restaurant Row" by some, is luring visitors and locals alike with top-notch cuisine and cool...