Sunday, July 13, 2008

Neighborhood Spotlight: Ditmas Park and Kingston Brooklyn

Today a new section of the blog is born, neighborhood spotlights. This section will feature certain areas around the city to help you gain better insight into the areas of the recreation and of the actual area itself. After all interesting neighborhoods make the city.

We'll kick it off with out very first showcase, Ditmas Park and Kensington Brooklyn. The historical areas of Ditmas Park and Kingston are not only one of the most suburban areas of Brooklyn, but one of the most historical. We'll take a tour of these area today in 3D.

First we head to Ditmas Park with its tree lined streets and historical victorian homes. Ditmas Park is an area of Flatbush bounded by Flatbush Avenue on the east, Church Avenue to the north, Coney Island Avenue to the west and goes south until about Brooklyn College.

Here's a version of the area in SimCity.

The real Ditmas Park in Google Streetview

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Middle class and upper middle class families live along these tree lined streets in homes that cost anywhere from $400,000-$650,000. Though, I've seen homes on trulia.com going for more than $1 million in this area.

Looking above the area around Beverly Road


Next we'll head off to neighboring Kensington, just west of Borough Park. There's some dispute amongst real estate agents and residents over the official borders of Kensington but the borders are tentatively McDonald Avenue to the west, Canton Avenue on the north, Rugby Road to the west and Ditmas Avenue to the south.

Kensington has a bit more affordable housing than Ditmas Park and offers more types of housing such as walk up and multi-story apartments buildings. The area is diverse and is home to many immigrants.

A suburbanesque street in sim Kensington.


The real thing in Google Streetview.

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More next time.

2 comments:

potsy said...
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Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener) said...

Very interesting project! I've enjoyed different versions of SimCity over the year. I no longer have the time for it.

It doesn't make any difference to your modeling, but Coney Island Avenue, not Rugby Road, forms the border between Kensington and western Flatbush, which some call Ditmas Park. The section of Albemarle Road you show is in the landmarked Prospect Park South Historic District, which is part of Flatbush.