Brooklyn

Hardly Manhattan's wimpy sidekick, Brooklyn is a metropolis in its own right. It's the most populous of all the boroughs, with nearly 2.5 million residents; if it were independent of New York, it would rank among the five largest cities in the country. Diverse neighborhoods share a down-to-earth character: the steps of brownstone apartments host chats and "stoop sales," family-owned businesses preserve ethnic 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 Smoke.