Newkirk Avenue, Coney Island Avenue, Cortelyou Road, Foster Avenue, and Church Avenue are the neighborhood's commercial strips while many of their north-south streets are lined with historic Victorian style homes. Since much of Ditmas Park is residential, many locals go to nearby Park Slope to run errands and shop, although the neighborhood has seen increased commercialization due to its recent gentrification. The Ditmas Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, wealthy families purchased the large Victorian homes, but in the past few years, the neighborhood has experienced rapid gentrification, with an influx of young people and artists attracted to the large spaces for relatively cheap rents. An example of this is Cortelyou Road, a commercial street in the neighborhood. Cortelyou enjoys a number of delis, bars, coffee shops, restaurants, the Flatbush Food Co-op, and more upscale restaurants. Cortelyou is also home to many venues, which attracts many local musicians, as well as more well-known artists. In October 2009, Time Out New York named Ditmas Park one of the best neighborhoods in New York City for food. Similar articles praising Ditmas Park for its food have appeared in The New York Times and AM New York. The area is also frequently used for movie and TV filming due to its Victorian houses, which project a suburban feel.
Associations
The Ditmas Park Association, founded in 1908, hosts social events, publishes a newsletter and a home improvement directory, and works on numerous civic issues, often jointly with its sister neighborhoods and the Flatbush Development Corporation. The Flatbush Development Corporation hosts an annual Victorian Flatbush House Tour. Other neighborhood associations also serve parts of the neighborhood, such as the Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association, and Beverley Square West Neighborhood Association. DPW runs a Yahoo group for the neighborhood. Flatbush Artists is also based in the area and has an annual artwalk featuring artists who live in the area. Beginning in March 2012, the website Ditmas Park Corner documented important events and openings in the area, and served as a forum for discussions and inquiries about the neighborhood; as of 2017 the site was incorporated into the Brooklyn-wide news site Bklyner. For a brief period of time in the early 2010s, Ditmas Park Corner had competition from Ditmas Park Patch, one of a series of neighborhood news organizations run by AOL.
Library
The Brooklyn Public Library's Cortelyou branch is located at 1305 Cortelyou Road, near Argyle Road. The branch was first proposed in 1969, but did not open until 1983.
Transportation
stops in or very near to Ditmas Park are Beverley Road, Cortelyou Road, Newkirk Plaza, and Avenue H. MTA-operated express buses that run through Ditmas Park are the, and local buses are the.
