Ten points about Brooklyn

Brooklyn has long been overshadowed by its more commanding neighbor, but it is undergoing a renaissance among trendsetters.

Here are ten random bits about the borough also known as Kings County.

1. If New York City were dissolved and the borough became an independent city, it would be the nation’s third largest, after Chicago and Los Angeles. It was merged into New York City in 1898.
2. Forty-five percent of the population speaks a mother language other than English.
3. The Brooklyn Museum houses the city’s second-largest public art collection. It is especially renowned for its Asian collection. At least on the days when those galleries are open. There are serious budgetary problems.
4. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, founded in 1899, is the oldest such institution in the nation.
5. Coney Island on the Atlantic has undergone a rebirth an amusement park. It’s also famed for Nathan’s hot dogs.
6. Prospect Park, 585 acres, was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux. It includes a zoo and a 60-acre lake.
7. The Pratt Institute, one of the leading fine arts schools, is situated in Clinton Hill.
8. Subway stations: 157.
9. Public schools: 540.
10. Crime: The acting district attorney declared 2017 the safest year in the borough’s history in terms of homicides, shootings, and shooting victims; 101 homicides occurred in the year. (If Dallas, Texas, were the same size, the figure would have been 332.)