Over the past two decades, Brooklyn has undergone more drastic changes than any other borough in New York. Rents have risen, commerce has grown and neighborhoods across the borough have become some of the most desirable in the entire city.

But New Yorkers aren't flocking to Brooklyn like en masse—in fact, they're doing just the opposite. A report from the Empire Center for Public Policy found that nearly 170,000 people moved out of Kings County between 2010 and 2016 as residents migrated to suburbs or cheaper parts of the city. Even with the recent exodus from the borough, Brooklyn's population is still growing—it jumped by more than 124,000 in the past seven years, the largest increase of any county in the state during that time period. One major contributor to this growth is that Brooklyn is becoming more family-friendly, and millennials are starting to have kids—a lot of them. On top of that, foreign immigrants are moving into Brooklyn (and the rest of NYC) at a substantial rate.

The report suggests that the Brooklynites of yore are leaving, and a whole new generation is here to replace them. Many of the effects of this turnover are already evident (read: an explosion of brunch spots), and whether or not the "new Brooklyn" is a good thing is a fiercely-contested topic of debate.

[h/t Crain's New York]

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