Consequences of an Independent Brooklyn

[Polish Eagle]

Alone among the boroughs-to-be, Brooklyn only voted by a slim majority--227 votes of almost 130,000--to join Greater New York in 1897. A bitter battle was fought by Brooklynites to assert the independent cultural and economic (much more manufacturing-based and middle-class) identity of Brooklyn. More insidiously, they also had a greater fear of ethnic minorities coming over the East River from New York.

Since most of the effects of this POD are felt in the twentieth century, I place it here.

What if Brooklyn had voted against merging with New York? Could it have developed significantly differently from the consolidated city?

 

[Dan1988]

Probably, in terms of semi-separate development. Even with another example of this, Boston, there's the infamous example of Brookline, which is almost surrounded by Boston yet is distinct from it. The same could also be said of many of Boston's core suburbs as well as the rest of Suffolk County - which consists of three towns (Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop) as well as Boston itself. The same could also be true of Brooklyn - despite being more or less surrounded by *NYC, Brooklyn could try to make something of itself on its own.

 

[Kate The Great]

From the title, I thought, "What? Brooklyn as an independent nation, not part of the USA?" Now, that would be interesting, amusing and no doubt ASB.