As Brooklyn neighborhoods became more secure, property values rose. In the past decade, the average residential sales price more than doubled to $688,334 from $336,238, according to Miller Samuel Inc., a real-estate appraiser. In Manhattan, average prices rose 92 percent, to $1.5 million from $800,967.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, 52, a Democrat who assumed office Jan. 1, is bringing a Brooklyn flavor to a City Hall run by Manhattan residents since the 1970s. The previous Brooklynite to serve, Abraham Beame, was in charge when the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” de Blasio said in an e-mail when asked to reflect on the turnaround he’s seen in the 22 years since he and his wife, Chirlane McCray, bought a house and raised two children in an interracial marriage in Park Slope, a tree-lined neighborhood of townhouses.

“The borough is as diverse and full of energy as our family is,” the mayor said. “Whether you enjoy walks in Prospect Park, a Nets game, a show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, art exhibits or great dining, it’s happening in Brooklyn.”

Political Power

Brooklyn’s political power derives from its size. At 2.6 million residents, it’s the largest borough, holding almost a third of the 8.3 million who inhabit the most populous U.S. metropolis. Brooklyn’s 3.5 percent population growth between 2010 and 2013 made it the city’s fastest-growing area, and its 16-member delegation is the largest in the 51-seat city council.

Signs of Brooklyn’s allure include the international visitors buying postcards inside the P.S. Bookshop in Dumbo -- an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. The former industrial warehouse district has become a rezoned enclave of million-dollar loft apartments and boutiques. Gourmet food shops sell the locally produced Blue Marble ice cream for $7.49 a pint.

Brooklyn Flea

More tourists can be found among the thousands flocking to Fort Greene’s Brooklyn Flea, a 50,000-square-foot outdoor emporium of antique, craft and food vendors.

“Manhattan became so dominated by money and glitz that it sort of lost its soul, becoming less a place that creative people could afford or want to be,” said Brooklyn Flea founder Jonathan Butler, 44. He moved into and rehabilitated a Clinton Hill brownstone in 2005, not far from a street corner where the late hip-hop icon Biggie Smalls used to ply his trade as a teenage drug dealer in the 1980s.