OBAMA: 'Brooklyn Is Blowing Up Right Now'

BROOKLYN - President Barack Obama is impressed with the new Brooklyn, and he thinks the borough is "in general, blowing up right now."

"When I was living here, Brooklyn was cool, but not this cool," Obama said during remarks at Pathways in Technology Early College High School in Crown Heights here today.

In the mid-1980s, Obama lived in a Brooklyn brownstone across from Prospect Park. Marine One landed in Prospect Park today.

Obama spoke here for a little more than 20 minutes, relaying a message to Congress ahead of a week that will start the latest round of negotiations over the federal budget.

"The question can't be how much more we can cut. It's got to be how many more schools like P-TECH we can create," he said.