New York City Rental Car and a Ridgewood Overview

Ridgewood is a neighborhood in Brooklyn and Queens that you can visit with your New York City car rental. It borders the neighborhoods of Bushwick, Williamsburg, Maspeth, Middle Village, and Glendale. Historically it has been a German neighborhood, but is now home to many ethnicities. When you visit with your New York City car rental, be sure to stop at Machpelah Cemetery where you will find Harry Houdini's grave!

Get to know your surroundings

When you visit Ridgewood with your New York City car rental you will find most of the neighborhood covers a large hill, which is probably part of the glacial moraine that created Long Island. At Metropolitan Avenue there is a steep rise, but the rest of the hill is pretty gentle and easy to walk. You will know that you are in Ridgewood because of the exposed brick that you will often find on the homes here, which is different from the vinyl siding you tend to see in Brooklyn. Near the Brooklyn border there are a number of multiple-family dwellings, but as you move further into Queens, you will find a number of two-family and single family row houses. This area was developed at the turn of the 20th century and has largely been untouched since then. Many of the streets are narrow two-lane roads with parking that can become congested if you come during rush hour with your New York City car rental.

Cross the border

Just across in Brooklyn is the community of Williamsburg that you can visit with your New York City car rental. Artists were first attracted to Williamsburg in the 1970s because if the low rent and large spaces, as well as the convenient subway stations. As the East Village and SoHo became gentrified in the 1990s, many more people moved to the area to avoid the skyrocketing rent. When you visit with your New York City car rental you will find a live music scene that is one of the best in the city. Many of the bars in the area feature up and coming talent that you may one day hear on the radio. Music Hall of Williamsburg is one place you can visit when you visit this community.

Find the undead

In the 1970s and 1980s drug trafficking was a problem in nearby Middle Village. There has always been the belief that organized crime has maintained control of the area, but the 1990s brought renewal of green space to Middle Village and it is a safe place to visit. However, when you visit with your New York City car rental you can get a glimpse of some of this underground life at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village. Here you will find the burial sites of famed mobsters like John Gotti and Lucky Luciano. As part of the "cemetery belt" of the New York area, there are many other interesting graves to be seen in the area, including fitness guru Charles Atlas and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe are also resting here. In Ridgewood you will find the grave of Harry Houdini, where on Halloween people gather to see if he will try to escape from the grave.

Ridgewood is a community that borders on Brooklyn in Queens with many interesting sites to see with your New York City car rental. If you happen to be here on Halloween, see if you can find one of the most famous residents, Harry Houdini.