Flatlands

Neighborhood · Brooklyn

Flatlands fills a stretch of southeastern Brooklyn just below the Bay Ridge Branch rail line.

  • 1.95 square miles
  • 67,087 residents, 2020 Census
  • 332 street corners
  • 20 bus routes

It began in 1636 as the Dutch farming settlement of Nieuw Amersfoort, when Wolfert Gerritse Van Couwenhoven and Andries Hudde acquired 15,000 acres around what is now the meeting of Kings Highway and Flatbush Avenue, and it joined the City of Brooklyn in 1896. The Greek Revival Flatlands Reformed Church of 1848, at Kings Highway and East 40th Street, follows two earlier churches, the first dedicated in 1663. On East 34th Street, the Coe House is a Dutch Colonial farmhouse completed in 1793-94.

Sources: Flatlands, Brooklyn (Wikipedia); Flatlands Reformed Church (LP-0177) (NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission); Coe House (LP-0176) (NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission).

Map

Open the map full size

Flatlands borders seven areas, and Avenue J and Avenue M hold more of its corners than any other street, 33 each of 332.

Street map of Flatlands, Brooklyn, outlined among Marine Park-Mill Basin-Bergen Beach, East Flatbush-Farragut, Midwood and Canarsie, with Amersfort Park.East Flatbush-FarragutEast Flatbush-RugbyCanarsieMarine Park-Mill Basin-Bergen BeachMadisonMidwoodFlatbush
  • Flatlands
  • A neighboring area
  • Park
  • Another station

Neighborhood areas and streets: NYC Department of City Planning. Parks: NYC Parks. Stations: MTA.

Neighboring areas

Getting around

Buses on 20 routes stop in or at the edge of Flatlands.

  • 17 local bus routes
  • 3 express bus routes

Local bus routes

  • B2
  • B6
  • B7
  • B8
  • B9
  • B11
  • B41
  • B44
  • B44-SBS
  • B46
  • B46-SBS
  • B47
  • B82
  • B82-SBS
  • B100
  • B103
  • Q35

Express bus routes

  • BM1
  • BM2
  • BM4

Safety record

Between 2021 and 2025, its corners averaged fewer police-reported crashes than the average Brooklyn corner.

  • 2,789 police-reported crashes at its corners
  • 8.4 a corner, on average
  • 10.5 the average Brooklyn corner
  • 18 corners with a clean record

Signal or safety changes on City record, at 83 of its corners

Accessible pedestrian signals
52
Leading pedestrian intervals
41
Turn calming
9
Barnes Dance all-way crossings
3
Safety Improvement Projects
2

Camera tickets

In 2025 its corners had more school-zone speed camera tickets than bus-lane or red-light tickets.

  • 548 red-light camera tickets at two corners
  • 76,431 school-zone speed camera tickets at 35 corners
  • 3,249 bus-lane camera tickets at three corners
Most red-light tickets
Avenue J & New York Avenue, 289
Most speed tickets
Kings Highway & Avenue J, 9,487
Most bus-lane tickets
Avenue L & Utica Avenue, 1,490

People and homes

The 2020 Census counted 67,087 residents in Flatlands, about 34,400 per square mile.

  • 23,740 homes, 2020 Census
  • 153 homes added since April 2010, net, by City Planning's count

Half of its 10,843 residential lots hold buildings from 1930 or earlier, and 62% of them date from before 1940, by the City's tax lot records.

NYCHA development

NYCHA's Glenwood development lies wholly or partly within Flatlands.

Parks and landmarks

Parkland
14 acres of NYC Parks property
The largest pieces
Amersfort Park (3.5 acres), Jacob Joffe Fields (2.9 acres) and Fox Playground (2.3 acres)
Designated landmarks
The Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church Sunday School, the Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church and the Joost and Elizabeth Van Nuyse House

Streets and trees

Trees
5,728 in NYC Parks' records, most often London planetree, pin oak and Japanese zelkova
Street with the most corners
Avenue J, with 33 of the area's 332
Height above sea level
From 8 feet at East 57th Street & Avenue O to 34 feet at Albany Avenue & Avenue H
Honorary street names
13 at its corners, enacted by local law

Schools and libraries

The City lists seven schools and two libraries in Flatlands.

Public schools
3
Charter and private schools
4
Libraries
Flatlands Library and Paerdegat Library

Public safety

How complaints are counted

In 2025 the NYPD recorded 486 major felonies at places in Flatlands.

Recorded by the NYPD at places in Flatlands

  • 524 major felonies in 2024
  • 2,224 other felonies, misdemeanors and violations in 2025

In 2025, on the streets along the edge of Flatlands, the NYPD recorded another 189 major felonies. Counting the streets along its edge, in 2025 the NYPD recorded 10.1 major felonies for every thousand residents the 2020 Census counted in Flatlands.

Map of Flatlands: 17 shaded patches of its streets, each numbered with the major felonies the NYPD recorded at public places there in 2025; unshaded areas are not counted on this map.
Major felonies recorded at public places in Flatlands, 2025
  • 5 to 9
  • 10 to 19
  • 20 to 49
  • 50 to 99
  • 100 or more
  • Not shaded: fewer than 5, held back under the rules in How complaints are counted, parks and public-housing grounds, and land in no patch
Each shaded patch is a set of whole street blocks and corners of Flatlands, most about 1,500 feet across, and its number counts the major felonies the NYPD recorded at public places on those streets and corners in 2025. The streets along or across the edge of Flatlands are not shaded. Homes, shelters, schools, child care, health care, houses of worship, hotels, mailboxes inside buildings, private parking lots and garages, buses and taxis, parks and cemeteries, highways, bridges, tunnels, the tramway and places the NYPD did not name count in the figure above for Flatlands and stay off the map. How complaints are counted gives every rule.
Police precincts
63rd (most of the area), 67th, 70th
Major felonies recorded at places in Flatlands, 2021 to 2025

From January to June 2026 the NYPD recorded 241 major felonies at places in Flatlands, against 233 in the same months of 2025.

Sources: the NYPD's Complaint Data Historic, updated April 28, 2026, and Complaint Data Current (Year To Date), updated July 27, 2026, on NYC Open Data. Figures to June 30, 2026.

Street corners

How the figures above are measured: Methodology.