Williamsburg’s reputation is glass towers, but the older grid — north of Metropolitan, south of McCarren — is mostly four-story brick with full London plane canopy on every cross street. By 1 PM in July, walking from Bedford to McCarren under that canopy reads as 8 degrees cooler than the BQE corridor four blocks south.
These picks all hug the cool side of each block. We avoid Wythe Avenue (too wide, no canopy) and stick to Roebling, Driggs, and Berry — the residential streets where the planes meet overhead.