Brooklyn

Hardly Manhattan's wimpy sidekick, Brooklyn is the largest and most populous of all the boroughs, with more than 2.5 million residents. If it were an independent city, it would be the fourth-largest in the country. Diverse neighborhoods share a down-to-earth character: neighborly chats take place on the steps of brownstones, family-owned businesses preserve their heritages, and patrons at restaurants and bars are happy to eat and drink rather than "see and be seen." It's largely Brooklyn that has lent New York its streetwise and sincere personality, famously captured in films such as Do the Right Thing, Moonstruck, and Brighton Beach Memoirs.