Definitely not the same Brooklyn I grew up in and I grew up not that far from the intersection mentioned in the article.
In 1984-1985 I lived on Webster Ave just up the street from Coney Island Ave. It was a great neighborhood, kind of in between large Jewish and Italian neighborhoods. Between the two groups, they managed to keep most of the miscreants away. I kept my soft-top Jeep CJ7 parked out front (alternating days/sides of the street, of course), and never had a problem with theft or vandalism. Sounds like it has much changed, for the worse.