Help needed from Brooklynites and Brooklyn lovers

Hello folks,

I've got this short story assignment, which I'm planning to set on Brooklyn. The thing is, I've never been to New York. I've done some research on the borough and its neighborhoods, but I'm experiencing some difficulty in finding up-to-date information about current lifestyle and demographics.

The plot outline is moving along just fine, but I'm a little uneasy about the setting. I want it to sound realistic, especially in terms of money, poverty and social issues. Can anybody help me?

Below is a brief paragraph describing the characters, their lives and earnings. Please tell me whether it sounds believable or not.

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Greg works as a stagehand at an old, run-down theater in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He makes US$ 600.00 a month. Greg can't afford to rent a place on his own, so he shares a two-bedroom flat, also in Flatbush, with his friend Phillip, who works at a gossip tabloid and makes US$ 1,000.00 a month. Their flat costs US$ 700.00 a month, which they share fifty-fifty. Greg met his girlfriend, Camille, at the Andrew Jackson High School, where both of them study. It is a pretty rough public school, little better than the one seen in the Michelle Pfeiffer movie "Dangerous Minds". Camille's family is very poor. They moved into Flatbush from Brownsville a few months ago, but had to move back when one of her brothers lost his job, which severely affected their household income. In Brownsville, Camille, her parents and her six brothers and sisters live in a cramped-up three-bedroom apartment which costs them US$ 2,500.00, consuming most of their income. Camille works as a waitress, six hours a day, from monday to saturday, which gives her a monthly wage of US$ 900.00. Despite moving back to Brownsville, Camille decided to stay at Andrew Jackson, crossing four neighborhoods every day in order to keep close to Greg and her friends.
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Do the wages sound right for the characters' jobs? Isn't Flatbush too fancy for that rough public school?

Any help will be appreciated. I wasn´t sure where to go for help, so I thought the message board for this movie would be a good place to start :-).

Thanks in advance,
-Chelsea.

PS: it would be a tremendous help if anyone could give me a URL with a good, simple map of Brooklyn, showing the borders between the neighborhoods. Any books, travel guides, movies and other references about present-day Brooklyn would also be dearly welcome.