How Princess Diana’s solo NYC trip put Brooklyn on the map in 1989
visit to Harlem Hospital depicted in Season 4 of “The Crown,” where she held young AIDS patients.Yet the idea of a princess crossing the bridge to attend an event in Brooklyn was almost as shocking as her Harlem stop. “CBS Evening News” ran an incredulous segment about the outer-borough jaunt, juxtaposing Di’s glamorous image with shots of homeless people, dilapidated buildings and broken sewers.“We were so excited that we were getting national television coverage,” recalled Karen Brooks Hopkins, BAM’s former president and its chief fundraiser at the time, describing how the staff had pitched in to buy a little black-and-white TV so they could watch it at work.