Crown Heights takes 2 big wins for Greenest Block in Brooklyn 2025

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has just crowned this year's lushest streets in Kings County.

The stretch of Eastern Parkway between Franklin and Bedford avenues has been declared Brooklyn's greenest residential block, logging yet another gold medal win for Crown Heights in the long-running local-plant-density contest’s roster.

Judges of the Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest said they were impressed that community gardeners were able to make this year’s winner so green considering how busy it is and the density of its real estate. It is the first winning street to mostly comprise apartment buildings.

More than 100 blocks entered the 2025 contest, which the Brooklyn Botanic Garden describes as promoting “city greening, streetscape gardening, street tree stewardship, and community building.” The garden hosts the competition in conjunction with the Brooklyn borough president’s office.

In addition to the residential category, there’s also a best overall commercial block category, which this year was won by yet another Crown Heights block: Ralph Avenue between Prospect Place and Park Place. Sugar’d, a Caribbean restaurant on Newkirk Avenue in Flatbush, won the greenest storefront category.

Judges also consider what blocks are adjacent to the spots they’re judging — if Prospect Park is across the street, it’s going to be much easier to appear green than if the area is relatively industrial.

“It’s always important for us to remember nothing happens in a vacuum,” explained Brooklyn Botanic Garden Community Program Manager Jibreel Cooper, who oversees the contest as well as their own 25 houseplants.

This year’s commercial block winner was on Ralph Avenue, which is lined with sidewalk plants. An active autobody shop is located across the street.

“That juxtaposition, from one side of the block to the next is really nice, and takes you by surprise,” Cooper said. “What the gardeners on Ralph Avenue were able to do in the area that they were doing it was really wonderful.”

First-place winners of the residential and commercial categories receive a $300 prize, and of course, green glory, with smaller cash awards for other honors.

The event started in 1995, when residents of Vanderveer Place between Flatbush Avenue and East 23rd Street requested someone from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to come determine which neighbor had the greenest spot.

“They had their own competition amongst neighbors and they would invite a judge from BBG to come judge their contest,” Cooper said. “After a few years of doing this, the idea was brought up to make this a boroughwide thing.”

Today, entrants are reviewed by contracted horticulture professionals as well as staff and trustees from the garden — who enter a lottery for the opportunity to judge.

When judges visit the blocks vying for the greenest titles, they maintain a journalistic level of integrity.

“We give the judges buttons to wear that say ‘I am a Greenest Block in Brooklyn judge’ so that people know who they are,” Cooper said. “We don’t want our judges being confused for real estate speculators or anything like that.”

Judges are also accompanied by someone prepared to run interference for locals who might influence their opinion by offering snacks or schmoozing, so the judge can remain wholly focused on the quality of the greenery.

“It’s really incredible, really important community work that we’re doing, so we need to be fair in everything. But also, we don’t want to be cold in what we do,” Cooper said.

The competition also gives awards for Brooklyn’s best street tree beds (Ridge Boulevard between 71st Street and Ovington Avenue), best community garden streetscape (Lincoln Road Garden), best window box (a location in Canarsie) and rookie of the year (MacDougal Street between Thomas S. Boyland Street and Rockaway Avenue).