A writer in today's New York Observer romances the Q:
I love the Q train. O.K., I love the B, too, but it's the Q that's stolen my heart.She parrots the fiction that "Ditmas Park" equates "Flatbush." And she heralds what may be the death knell for the livability of my neighborhood: the arrival of celebrities. Comparing the Q to the L does not bode well.
When I moved back to Brooklyn in January, the biggest factor in finding an apartment was its proximity to this train line, and especially to the 7th Avenue station (a nice change of pace after riding the G train for three years). It's just far enough into Brooklyn that I am in a quiet, residential neighborhood, but also only the third stop into the borough, easily depositing me anywhere I need to go in Manhattan.
- Brooklyn, The Borough: Can the Q Be the Next L?, Nicole Brydson, The Observer
Like the L train of the early ‘00s, the neighborhoods along the Q/B line have seen new crops of people popping out of its stations along a path rumbling through central and southern Brooklyn, from Downtown, Park Slope, Midwood and Ditmas Park, through Sheepshead Bay and, via an expert right turn, Brighton Beach and Coney Island. The Q line even has some of the same digitally enhanced trains that graced the L line a few years back.
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Not only is the Q/B line convenient, with a recent sighting by Page Six Magazine of Brooklyn celebrity darling Michelle Williams dining with new beau Spike Jonze at popular Ditmas Park eatery The Farm on Adderley (off the Cortelyou Q stop), the perception of southern Brooklyn seems to be getting a makeover.
7th Ave. is the 3rd stop in Brooklyn on the Q. Dekalb, Atlantic, then 7th Ave.
ReplyDeleteCorrected! Thanks for the brain-poke. I had to think about it. I usually transfer off the Q at DeKalb, which is how I got confused.
ReplyDelete(a/k/a Brooklynista)
ReplyDeleteAs someone who grew up in the general area (West Midwood and Kensington), and having known numerous people who lived in and around the Ditmas Park historic district, I can honestly say I don't remember any one actually calling the neighborhood "Ditmas Park," including those who had full claim to it; it was "Flatbush" all the way; in high school a group of kids from the area even called themselves "The Bushmen." However, these things aren't written in stone and they do evolve. I personally am pretty resistant to calling any of Victorian Flatbush "Ditmas Park," especially those areas outside of the historic district; I'm a big fan of "Flatbush" myself. Nonetheless, I'm willing to accept that neighborhoods (like words) are, to an extent, gradually redefined subjectively by the sum total of many people's repeated description. The funny thing is, when Harlem was anything but trendy, "Morningside Heights" was pushed by Columbia U. as a term to distinguish their area from the rest of Harlem (because, truly, it is Harlem.) Yet, now that gentrification has arrived uptown, the word Harlem is thrown around by real estate brokers all the time. Or think about "Hell's Kitchen." Back in the early 90's, during the first waves of gentrification, the newcomers pushed hard to call the area "Clinton" or at least "Midtown West." However, now that it's gotten quite wealthy, the residents embrace the term "Hell's Kitchen" in an attempt to show they have "street cred" or some such nonsense. Oh well...what can you do? I live in Flatbush, even if a small number of people in my building live in "Ditmas Park."