Streets By Air - Ep 14 Dyker Heights - Brooklyn, NY

DYKER HEIGHTS - Streets By Air (Ep. 14) Locally recognized for their elaborate annual Christmas decoration displays 🏘🎄 Dyker Heights is a mostly residential neighborhood located in the southwest corner of Brooklyn. Sitting on a hill, surrounded by neighborhoods like Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, Dyker originated in 1895 as a real estate project for luxury housing. Walter Loveridge Johnson leveled the woods in the area to create a suburban community for the wealthy; many of the original residents being wealthy professionals and officials from local government. Throughout the 1900s Dyker has sustained its wealthy reputation, although the architectural character of the neighborhood has changed. Only about half of the roughly 150 homes built by Johnson now remain. Starting in the 1940s, Dyker Heights began to have a majority Italian-American population. The older homes have been replaced by magnificent "Mediterranean villas, condos, as well as semi and fully attached homes", making it a different fit from the "historic context of Dyker Heights." There are very few apartment buildings here. The streets are lined with trees. Many of the homes have private driveways and backyards; a tough luxury to find in this city. The area above 86th street where these homes are located, is the central region of the neighborhood and the best representation of the character of Dyker Heights. South of 86th is almost entirely covered by Dyker Beach Park and Golf Course, while the northern region, above Bay Ridge Parkway, is "more closely integrated with [its] surrounding areas". Dyker Heights Boulevard, also known as 13th Avenue, is the only commercial district in the neighborhood, home to many Italian-owned businesses, a big reflection of the neighborhood's demographic. Since the 2000s however, a rising influx of Asian residents has been growing in the neighborhood as well. The 2020 census data from NYC shows, "for the first time in history, the Asian population in the neighborhood has surpassed the White population", bringing in a wealth of new culture to the area. Dyker Heights is now mostly recognized for its annual Christmas lights and decorations, once referred to as "Con Ed's warmest heartthrob". One of the original and most visited displays, is the home of Lucy Spata with her Santa and Wooden Soldiers theme, located on 84th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues. These Christmas displays, now make up the central identity of Dyker Heights, "because the whole community, not just one home or one block, participates", in true Brooklyn fashion. Families, friends, and tourists flock every year, walking down street after street, grabbing hot chocolate from rebranded ice cream trucks, and taking in the bright decorative cheer of the Holiday Season.