Race, Class and Gentrification in Ditmas Park
Jan Rosenberg, a 20-year veteran of Ditmas Park (having left “trendy Park Slope” before it achieved true trendiness) and founder of “Friends of Cortelyou”, offers an insider’s view of gentrification in a publication called New Geography. The neighborhood, she says, has the “largest concentration of Victorian houses in America,” and contains “the only block in…
Jan Rosenberg, a 20-year veteran of Ditmas Park (having left “trendy Park Slope” before it achieved true trendiness) and founder of “Friends of Cortelyou”, offers an insider’s view of gentrification in a publication called New Geography. The neighborhood, she says, has the “largest concentration of Victorian houses in America,” and contains “the only block in New York with subway stations at each end.” (Fact check, anyone?) The neighborhood suffered white (and black) flight in the 1960s, ultimately resulting in economic and racial diversity in the surrounding apartment buildings, but she says the two sections rarely interacted, and downtown DP remained a ghost town. Then, local folks got together to sell co-ops (the writer became a broker herself) and coax businesses to set up shop there. “As I write this, the owner of a successful Manhattan restaurant is looking closely at Cortelyou, hoping to open in a ‘real neighborhood’ where customers support local businesses. No one knows yet where the economy is headed, or what this means for our neighborhood. But we now have a vibrant neighborhood. This is no longer just a location where the houses are a comparative bargain. It’s an area with an identity.” We’ve seen many a successful new business sprout up on Cortelyou, though others (most recently this hardware store) have fallen prey to the souring economy, and housing prices sure have leapt in the area. What’s your take on Ditmas Park’s changes?
Gentrification from the Inside Out in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park [New Geography]
Photo by Flatbush Gardener.
You have a good weekend also Biff. Northsloperenter, Ditmas Park is definitely worth a look when you are ready. As previously stated you can do laundry, pick-up dry cleaning, shop at one of two Organic Markets, two regular supermarkets or the farmers market. There are even CSA’s with participants in the area. You can pick up a bottle of wine, have a drink with friends in a neighborhood bar, we have both the gentrified and the old school types or have dinner at any one of the new restaurants. There are two places right on Cortelyou where you can have a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup and then sit on a comfortable couch and read a book. We are also walking distance from a number of really good takeout ethnic eateries. Turkish, Pakistani, Jamaican, Tibetan, Southern (Soul), Mexican and soon to come Middle Eastern. Many of these establishments have expanded or added dining so that you can eat in. We don’t have a good Chinese takeout though.
Also being in the middle of Brooklyn, it is very convenient to venture further south into Midwood or even Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay for great shopping and good food.
I should get a check from the Ditmas Park Chamber of Commerce for this post. If only one existed.
Well, before I my next move (10-14 months from now), I’ll be sure to spend a bit more time getting to know Ditmas Park. Perhaps it is more convenient than I’m giving it credit for.
If I feel like I could be happy there without a car, that would definitely move it up on my list of desirable neighborhoods.
Unless, of course, I decide I do want to own a car — in which Ditmas Park is definitely a place I will look at carefully.
Northsloperenter: if you live in Ditmas Park you’d have all of those things within a 10-minute walk except for Target and “that shopping center” (maybe Newkirk Plaza counts?), although we don’t have the restaurant selection you have. But if you stick around for awhile you’ll find lots of little gems in DP.
“If you live on, say, Union between 7th and 8th. You’re pretty far from anything.”
You are kidding, right?
– http://smalltownbrooklyn.com/parkslopeN/northsouth/7thave/7thave2.htm#union2
“Why is it easier to be in northslope than in Ditmas Park without a car? It’s denser in northslope… but “stuff” is just as far away.”
I don’t know Ditmas Park that well, but in the north slope I’ve got 3 grocery stores, a liquor store, dry cleaner, laundromat, my dentist, 10-15 little stores, and about 10 restaurants within a 10 minute walk, plus Target and the rest of that shopping center about 10-15 minutes away (I live just off 5th on one of the named streets).
Not only that, but most of these are close together so that I can drop off some laundry, pick up a bottle of wine, and get something for dinner all in one 15-20 minute trip.
My brief impression of Ditmas Park was that doing a series of errands like that wouldn’t be as convenient.
Chaka, I knew what you meant. Seems I’ve poked fun at you today a couple of times – no harm at all intended and I’m glad you’re such a good sport. Have a great weekend. 🙂
OMG! That would of course be “many of the hoMes in the older Queens neighborhoods.”
“Although, many of the hoes in the older Queens neighborhoods have been remodeled”
You mean the tramps have all had plastic surgery?
I would even think that certain areas of Queens are contenders as well. Although, many of the hoes in the older Queens neighborhoods have been remodeled to the point that their Victorian beginnings are no longer recognized.