our neighborhood is number one! (?)

New York recently rated the city's neighborhoods. They used a transparent system and fully admitted that readers have different needs and desires for their community, so they included an online interactive feature where you can prioritize your needs to find the right place for you. Here's the article.

Nevertheless, their overall conclusion was that the best neighborhood in New York City is Park Slope!

Looks familiar!

Park Slope does well in green space - Prospect Park - housing quality, creative capital, safety, restaurants, schools, and - surprisingly - nightlife. It fares relatively poorly in housing cost (you have to pay for all that goodness) and diversity. 

The diversity ranking is one the best parts of New York City. My current neighborhood is, to me, quite diverse, especially compared with any other place in the nation where I've lived, but for New York, it seems that it could be even better. New York raises one's expectations about the tight co-mingling of people of different nationalities, races, religions, and socio-economic status. Tolerance is the norm here. I'm becoming a diversity snob by living in the city and would have a hard time living in another place where groups' communities rarely overlap. 

Another reason to love the city. I'm coming around.