South Williamsburg

Neighborhood · Brooklyn

South Williamsburg covers the Brooklyn blocks south of Broadway, reaching down to Flushing Avenue.

  • 0.55 square miles
  • 47,703 residents, 2020 Census
  • 151 street corners
  • 4 subway stations
  • 15 bus routes

In the decades after the Williamsburg Bridge opened, many Jewish families moved here from the crowded Lower East Side of Manhattan. From the late 1940s the area grew into one of the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, a Hasidic neighborhood whose main street is Lee Avenue. On Division Avenue stands the Williamsburgh Library, the first Carnegie library built in Brooklyn, whose cornerstone was laid in 1903 and which is now a city landmark.

Sources: South Williamsburg, Brooklyn (Wikipedia); Williamsburg: A New Piece of the Old Country (Center for Jewish History); Williamsburgh Library (Brooklyn Public Library).

Map

Open the map full size

South Williamsburg borders six areas, and Lee Avenue and Marcy Avenue hold more of its corners than any other street, 17 each of 151.

Street map of South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, outlined among Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant (West), Brooklyn Navy Yard and East Williamsburg, with its four subway stations and Classon Playground.East WilliamsburgBedford-Stuyvesant (East)Bedford-Stuyvesant (West)Clinton HillBrooklyn Navy YardWilliamsburg
  • South Williamsburg
  • A neighboring area
  • Park
  • A station in the list
  • Another station

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

Neighboring areas

Subway stations

  • Marcy Av lines J M Z accessible
  • Hewes St lines J M
  • Lorimer St lines J M
  • Flushing Av lines G

Getting around

Four subway stations and buses on 15 routes stop in or at the edge of South Williamsburg.

  • 4 subway stations
  • 1 of them listed by the MTA as fully accessible
  • 15 local bus routes

Local bus routes

  • B24
  • B43
  • B44
  • B44-SBS
  • B46
  • B48
  • B57
  • B62
  • B67
  • B106
  • T403
  • T410
  • T422
  • T432
  • T433

Safety record

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

  • 2,081 police-reported crashes at its corners
  • 13.8 a corner, on average
  • 10.5 the average Brooklyn corner
  • 5 corners with a clean record

Signal or safety changes on City record, at 55 of its corners

Leading pedestrian intervals
47
Accessible pedestrian signals
15
Turn calming
7
Safety Improvement Projects
5
Barnes Dance all-way crossings
1
Enhanced crossings
1

Camera tickets

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

  • 9,758 red-light camera tickets at one corner
  • 6,612 school-zone speed camera tickets at eight corners
  • 0 bus-lane camera tickets
Most red-light tickets
Flushing Avenue & Classon Avenue, 9,758
Most speed tickets
Nostrand Avenue & Flushing Avenue, 2,491

People and homes

The 2020 Census counted 47,703 residents in South Williamsburg, about 86,700 per square mile.

  • 12,251 homes, 2020 Census
  • 1,986 homes added since April 2010, net, by City Planning's count

Half of its 1,759 residential lots hold buildings from 1915 or earlier, and 72% of them date from before 1940, by the City's tax lot records.

NYCHA development

One NYCHA development, which NYCHA names by a building's address, lies wholly or partly within South Williamsburg.

Parks and landmarks

Parkland
12.1 acres of NYC Parks property
The largest pieces
Classon Playground (3 acres), Roberto Clemente Ballfield (1.9 acres) and Roebling Playground (1.2 acres)
Designated landmarks
The Brooklyn Public Library's Williamsburgh Branch and Public School 71K

Streets and trees

Trees
2,648 in NYC Parks' records, most often London planetree, thornless honeylocust and Callery pear
Street with the most corners
Lee Avenue, with 17 of the area's 151
Height above sea level
From 9 feet at Kent Avenue & Taylor Street to 59 feet at Marcy Avenue & Keap Street
Honorary street names
4 at its corners, enacted by local law

Schools and libraries

The City lists 42 schools and one library in South Williamsburg.

Public schools
6
Charter and private schools
36
Library
Williamsburgh Library

Bike share and public art

By the station list of October 3, 2026, 11 bike-share stations stand in South Williamsburg. The City's public art inventory lists one work in the area: Harold W. Cohn (1991).

  • 11 bike-share stations
  • 1 work of public art

Public safety

How complaints are counted

In 2025 the NYPD recorded 208 major felonies at places in South Williamsburg.

Recorded by the NYPD at places in South Williamsburg

  • 187 major felonies in 2024
  • 559 other felonies, misdemeanors and violations in 2025

In 2025, on the streets along the edge of South Williamsburg, the NYPD recorded another 131 major felonies. Counting the streets along its edge, in 2025 the NYPD recorded 7.1 major felonies for every thousand residents the 2020 Census counted in South Williamsburg.

Map of South Williamsburg: 7 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 South Williamsburg, 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 South Williamsburg, most about 1,250 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 South Williamsburg 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 South Williamsburg and stay off the map. How complaints are counted gives every rule.
Police precinct
90th
Major felonies recorded at places in South Williamsburg, 2021 to 2025

From January to June 2026 the NYPD recorded 87 major felonies at places in South Williamsburg, against 103 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.