How Healthy Is Your Neighborhood?
Bed-Stuy
Score: 30/50
Available Green Space: 6
There’s no McCarren or Prospect Park, but there are several good smaller neighborhood options like Herbert Von King, which do nicely when you don’t feel like hopping on the train.
Fresh Air: 7
The neighborhood benefits from its wide streets, which allow for some actual greenery outside of the parks, as well as relative distance from major highways and thoroughfares.
Bicycling Infrastructure: 5
Again, not too many bike lanes, but with several good bike shops including Bike Slug and Fulton Bicycles, a few Citi Bike stations, and generally wide streets that aren’t too heavily trafficked, it’s not a bad place to get around by bike.
Gyms: 5
The YMCA is generally the biggest game in town here, and it’s likely you’ll have to travel a bit to get to most gyms and classes. We’d be willing to bet, though, that dance and yoga classes at Sacred Studio and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration will prove themsleves to be part of a growing trend within the next year or two.
Healthy Food Availability: 9
Standard grocery chains tend to be hit or miss (not to mention few and far between), but in the summer, more farmers markets seem to crop up every year (Hattie Carthan Community Farmer’s Market and the Malcolm X Community Market are the most reliable). Options like the Metropolitan Market and the newly opened Bed Stuy Fresh and Local seem to be part of a wave of new options, and Bed Stuy Bounty continues to be a cheap, reliable neighborhood CSA-style option.