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Atlantic/Flatbush station (officially referred to as the Atlantic Terminal) is one of MTA’s biggest subway transfer points, distributing traffic from Manhattan to all throughout Brooklyn. The station itself resides in the crossroads of a number of major Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Fort Greene, etc. (These neighborhoods coincide with zip codes 112-01/31/05/17/38/15).

In the past decades, areas around Atlantic Terminal have seen an increase in the financial sectors. This has contributed to the building of high-end residential areas that are arguably not very favorable for the lower income, average immigrant. In fact, as of 2010 recordings, the foreign-born residents who have residences in the aforementioned zip codes are at a predominant range between 16% and 31.4% of the whole residential population, with increases in range between 0.1% and 10% from 2000 to 2006/2008.  This includes averages of roughly 20.2% of the residential area being foreign born, but with a high 12% of these immigrants being naturalized citizens. These numbers hit some of the lowest in the entire borough, where the range of foreign-born residents falls most predominantly between 35% and 55%. This area stands out even more when considering that the general Brooklyn demographics tend to have much smaller percentages of naturalized, foreign-born citizens. ^{1 2}

Due to higher costs of living in this area, especially in the hipster-rich and affluent regions of Downtown Brooklyn, immigrants nowadays tend to be primarily from Europe, with sizable percentages from Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russian, and some small populations of Scandinavians. Canada tends to fall between 1% and 5% of the foreign born population. Latino populations tend to dabble in the 20-30% of the foreign born population, but grow outstandingly heading towards neighborhoods east for Prospect Park.  African-born populations here hit very low numbers, dabbling between 1 and 5% and many times hitting below 1%. ³⁴

All these areas are very favorable for people who are able to afford it. Not only is this region just a quick ride away from Manhattan, but it also hosts some very attractive elements, such as great entertainment and generally fantastic neighborhoods. The high demand, however, has led to expensive houses; this doesn’t affect longtime residents, however, who due to rent stabilization sometimes end up paying only half or one third of the rent price for newcomers. High rent prices have taken a toll on new immigrants, favoring the influx of generally richer newcomers.

Downtown Brooklyn Financial Sector and Other Offices (Credit: BrownStoner.com)

Park Slope (Credit: NYTimes.com)

Fort Greene (Credit: TheLMagazine.com)

Downtown Brooklyn, State Street: Areas around here sport some very active nightlife (Credit: TheBrownStoner.com)