Prospect Heights

“Paul Auster was the Brooklyn novelist back in the ’80s and ’90s, when I was growing up there, at a time when very few famous writers lived in the borough,” the author and poet Meghan O’Rourke, who was raised in nearby Prospect Heights, wrote in an email.

Just before last Christmas, the beloved ice cream parlor in Prospect Heights — and all 12 of its remaining scoop shops across the country — shut down after a decade-long roller-coaster ride of brand-building, bankruptcies and heartbreak.

“Toward the end, I was in the office so much that I felt like I didn’t even know how to make ice cream any more,” Mr. Smith said, as a batch freezer making Banana Pudding churned loudly at the Social, a Prospect Heights ice cream parlor that a surprise investment helped them open in 2021.

For instance, the co-working location of Industrious in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, has become a draw for young parents.

She is an owner of BierWax, a bar known for its vinyl collection that has locations in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and Ridgewood, Queens, the latter of which opened less than a year ago.