The 4 Basic Factors to Brooklyn's Rise

Brooklyn has been part of New York since the end of the 19th century, but it's always felt like a city of its own. In recent years it's undergone a massive transformation that's positioned it as one of America's top cities — despite not actually being an independent metro.

"If you look at the last decade in Brooklyn, here you have a top ten city in the United States that really, the story just gets better and better," said Robert K. Steel, New York's deputy mayor for economic development, during a panel on urban success stories The Atlantic's CityLab summit. "Now Brooklyn is the place where lots of the new economy companies want to be."