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THESE days, Hoyt Street in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, is a stylish strip, with boutiques like Layla, which sells jewelry and textiles, and GRDN, the upscale trove for urban gardeners. Michelle Williams famously lived here with Heath Ledger. Margaret and Frank Cusack never imagined this kind of transformation back in 1973 when they paid $49,500 for their four-story 22-foot-wide Hoyt Street brownstone. The neighborhood was scary then, with blocks the couple wouldn't walk down. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]