Few places in nation can match Brooklyn's imprint on the Americ

NEW YORK -- It isn't easy trying to paint a borough of 2.5 million people with a broad brush, particularly one with 90 distinct neighborhoods, more than 150 ethnic groups and layers upon layers of history.

That doesn't stop Dorothy Pecorara from trying.

"Brooklyn is the center of the universe," says the 70-year-old lifelong resident of the Bensonhurst section. "It's the motherland."

Hyperbole? Yes. But it's not as much of an exaggeration as you might think.

According to some estimates, as many as one in four Americans can trace their roots to Brooklyn, the most populous of New York City's five boroughs. And few places can match its roster of famous natives or the imprint it has left on American culture through the films, TV shows and books inspired by its locales, lore and people.

To many Brooklynites, Brooklyn IS New York. If the stereotypes of the New Yorker -- the accent, the rough edges, the street smarts, the sarcasm, the energy -- weren't born here, they certainly fermented in its largely working-class neighborhoods.

"Brooklyn has its own specific fascination," says veteran tour operator Justin Ferate. "It's a magical place."

Center of the universe or not, Brooklyn has much to offer as a tourist destination -- charming, ethnically diverse neighborhoods, many caught in a time warp from more than a century ago; the largest collection of row houses in the country; trendy restaurants, galleries and shops.

Eighth wonder of world

There's also the Brooklyn Bridge, hailed as the Eighth Wonder of the World when it opened in 1883; Coney Island, perhaps the world's best-known amusement park and still home to the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and the original Nathan's Famous hot dog restaurant; and the world-class Brooklyn Museum of Art and avant-garde Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Tourism in New York City has been in the doldrums the past few months, beginning even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but there are signs it is picking up again, says Justin Ferate, the Brooklyn tour operator. Most notable has been a decline in the number of school groups taking tours.

"Parents appear to be uncertain about sending their students to New York for the school trip," Ferate says. "There have been some recent school bookings that indicate that this may be beginning to change."

Most of the tourism in Brooklyn is focused on the gentrified neighborhoods in the northwest. Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, and parts of Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant look much as they did a century ago.

There are 16 historic preservation districts, some extending for more than 20 blocks. Many of Brooklyn's neighborhoods -- preserved and otherwise -- have a small-town feel, with wide commercial avenues flanked by quiet residential streets.

For me, Brooklyn's biggest allure is its colorful past and the remarkable list of natives who have helped make it the ultimate nostalgia trip. For an overview of its famous sons and daughters, you can stroll through the Celebrity Path at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, where more than 100 of them are immortalized in concrete paver stones.

Better yet, get a good map and drive and walk the neighborhoods where they lived.

A good starting point for a driving-walking tour of pop-culture Brooklyn is Bensonhurst, the borough's Little Italy, and the fictional home of Ralph Kramden, the affable bus driver in the "Honeymooners;" the Sweathogs in TVs "Welcome Back, Kotter," and Tony Manero, a.k.a. John Travolta, in "Saturday Night Fever."

Bensonhurst figures prominently in the history of organized crime, with all of New York's major families -- the Gambinos, Luccheses, Colombos, Genoveses and Bonannos -- having had operations there.