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Brooklyn has no shortage of picturesque brownstone blocks, but one Crown Heights street now has the official bragging rights to call itself the borough’s greenest.
Lincoln Place between New York and Nostrand Avenues has been named the 2026 Greenest Block in Brooklyn, taking first place in Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual competition. (Apparently, these neighbors have very green thumbs: the block also won the top prize in 2024, 2022 and 2019.)
The winning stretch is tended by P.L.A.N.T, a neighborhood gardening committee formed seven years ago. In addition to maintaining the block’s plantings and tree beds, the group has also started mentoring other Brooklyn residents interested in sprucing up their own streets, including teaching them how to properly care for tree beds.
“We at P.L.A.N.T are incredibly proud to have started this ad hoc group seven years ago,” the committee said in a statement. “Our greening efforts have brought neighbors together around a shared purpose, proving that when a community plants with pride and works side by side, the Big Apple truly grows greener from the ground up.”
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest, which celebrates everything from impressive window boxes and storefronts to lovingly tended street trees and community gardens. A total of 139 blocks entered this year, including a record 47 first-timers, with contestants stretching from Bath Beach all the way up to Greenpoint. Winners were selected by a panel that included Brooklyn Botanic Garden staff, trustees and local horticulture professionals.
Lincoln Place wasn’t the only block getting its flowers (sorry): second place in the residential category was a tie between Jefferson Avenue between Lewis and Stuyvesant Avenues in Bed-Stuy and Ridge Boulevard between 71st Street and Ovington Avenue in Bay Ridge. East 92nd Street between Church Avenue and Avenue A in Canarsie took third.
Elsewhere, Montague Street between Henry and Hicks Streets in Brooklyn Heights was named the Greenest Commercial Block, while A Patch of Inspiration Garden in Brownsville won for Best Community Garden Streetscape. The Greene Garden in Fort Greene also picked up the Sustainable Practices Award for its “innovative and ecologically diverse Native Plant Walk.”
Beyond giving Brooklynites another thing to be fiercely competitive about, the free contest is designed to encourage street gardening, tree stewardship and stronger neighborhood connections. Winners get cash prizes and certificates to display on their blocks and every participating group receives a fall bulb gift.
So if you suddenly find yourself with serious stoop envy, you now know where to take a walk.