This article by Berger titled “The World in a City” talks about the community, Ditmas Park, and how it evolved from being a “checkerboard” community, where everybody kept to themselves and did not trust one another, to being a friendly, ethnically diverse one. It is great to read about how everyone is so friendly with each other, sharing spices and dining room tables with each other. While this may seem like an ideal neighborhood, there are still some who keep to themselves. If I had to guess, these people are probably members of the older generations or people from “Old Ditmas Park” who decided to stay in the area instead of moving out. We do have to owe it to the younger generation of children and teenagers to form interethnic ties as more of them go to school together. I hope, but I probably know, that as time passes New York City and even the United States will become more ethnically-friendly thanks to the higher frequency of interracial mingling in school across the country. A school that may once have only a few foreign-born students will eventually become one with a considerable amount of them as more and more immigrants settle in this country. Maybe then will the term “melting pot” step way from being a myth and enter reality.

Berger’s “The world in a city” presents how diverse New York City actually is. It mainly focuses on Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park, which consists of many different cultures such as the Blacks, the Indians, the Greeks, the Israeli and many more. Rather than stay in their own separate groups, the people in this area blend their cultures together. Not only were other races tolerated, they were accepted. What was most interesting to me about this reading was to see just how the “melting pot”used to describe New York fit in well with the description of Ditmas Park. Although New York City is called a giant “melting pot”, most of the neighborhoods do not reflect that. Typically, two ethnic groups would live in the same neighborhood, but rather than “melt” the two cultures into one new and highly diverse culture, the two cultures would tend to just stay apart. I found Ditmas Park to be highly unique, and who knows, maybe one day all of New York will actually become the “melting pot” it is described as.

Berger talks about a diverse neighborhood, which, according to the Department of City Planning, is a “melting pot” due to the lack of an overwhelming majority of one racial group.  As one resident puts it, “This area belongs to no one, so you have a lot of everyone.” Berger includes several examples of peaceful coexistence, as well as cross-racial friendships and relationships. Although many have come to accept and tolerate those of other races in the neighborhood, I found it interesting that there is a large economic diversity as well, which Berger claims to be a more powerful factor than race regarding who people talk to and relate to. Several years ago crimes targeting people for both racial and economic reasons seemed to disprove that no neighborhood could ever be a true, peaceful melting pot, but in recent years crime rates have gone down, showing that there is a possibility for more neighborhoods in the States to look like Ditmas Park.

This article is important in that it examines a diverse neighborhood, Ditmas Park, and suggests the neighborhood is a good indicator of future neighborhoods. That is, that the seemingly remarkable diversity will some day be taken for granted. Ditmas Park is classified as a melting pot on the census tract ( meaning there are at least three racial groups, each making up more than 20% of the population without exceeding 50%).

I noted that this chapter highlights an important dynamic of sociological study. The interviews conducted reveal very different sentiment about the neighborhood. For example, if the article only included those who spoke highly of the intermingling of races and offered anecdotes about having mixed race friends, readers would assume this to be how most people felt. However, the second part of the chapter reveals that there are many residents who agree the racial mixing is prevalent, but that social class presents a divide.For example, one resident claimed, “I think we’re mostly cohabiting int his neighborhood and not melting. Most people are friendly with people of their own ethnicity and social class.” (26). Other residents point to homeownership versus renting as a good indicator of the different social groups.

It is extremely important to include both sides to this story in order to get a clearer picture of the neighborhood. While census and crime data can certainly show the neighborhood is low crime area despite the amount of diversity, it can not conclude why. Talking to residents reveals that for some, the differences are celebrated and embraced, while others simply are indifferent and tolerate others living in close proximity. Regardless of the level of actual “melting”, the neighborhood is definitely ahead of others in tolerating differences. I believe the article is onto something in noting Ditmas Park as a hopeful indication of what’s in store for New York.

Joseph Berger’s The World in a City highlights New York City’s ever expanding cultural diversity. Neighborhoods in New York City are collections of different languages and traditions; Ditmas Park is no different. Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park is noteworthy not because there are many cultures present in the area. Rather, it is a noteworthy neighborhood because all different cultures merge and interact to form a culture unique to that area. We are insight into the daily lives of the relatives in Ditmas Park. Berger suggests that this seemingly average New York neighborhood, is the pinnacle of a culturally diverse neighborhood. Many people in the neighborhood do not merely tolerate, but actually welcome other cultures with open arms. This reading was interesting because it showed how people of different cultures may interact. Perhaps one day, all of New York will be a “melting pot” of cultures.

Berger’s “The World in a City” describes Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park and the amazing diversity that has taken shape in the area. There is a plethora of ethnicities present in this neighborhood from Blacks, Slavs, Indians, Guyanese, Grenadans, Israelis, Greeks, and more. But unlike many ethnic neighborhoods in New York City, the different cultures aren’t laid out in a checkerboard pattern. In fact, Ditmas Park actually displays a true melting pot, in which all of these different types of people are interwoven in any which way. It is not a utopia and it is by no means perfect, but it is closer to that ‘ideal’ world than most of the ethnic areas found in NYC. It makes me very curious to see how this kind of neighborhood will expand and influence the growth and transformation of other ethnic neighborhoods. Will they change to show the same type of interwoven layout, or will the checkerboard pattern persist with different ethnic groups coming and going? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Chapter One of Joseph Berger’s book, The World in a City, is very aptly named: “So You Thought You Knew Astoria.” Immediately, you think of Greek restaurants, or maybe even the Museum of the Moving Image (if you’ve never been, it’s definitely worth a visit). But like the neighborhoods we’ve read about in Ellis Island to JFK, or in the Zhou, Chin, Kim article, no neighborhood is ever so simply or so demographically static.

Berger explores the last outposts of Greek culture in the area and arrives at a conclusion similar to the ones offered in our other class readings: as Greek immigrants “make it,” they move out of the area and into more suburban neighborhoods. New immigrants subsequently fill that vacuum and the process repeats itself. Berger tactfully frames the process with a mix of melancholy and excitement: it’s sad to think of an Astoria that is no longer Greek, yet exciting to explore the cultures of new immigrant groups. Today, Astoria is more Arab and Brazilian than Greek. Like those of the generation before them, these immigrants are excited to be in the United States; they want to work, to save, to send their children to school, and to make the United States their homes. Interestingly, Berger argues that because these immigrants are (relatively) welcomed into American society, they “have been ‘pretty much immune to the jihadist virus'” that is often found among Arab immigrants in countries that are less welcoming. Even those Greek immigrants who long for the Astoria of twenty years ago accept these demographic changes; after all, their neighborhood is still vibrant and economically sound, it’s just that the sights and sounds and smells are a little different.

Although perhaps a bit outdated (this city has undoubtably changed since 2007), this book exudes the excitement of an urban explorer: no other city in the world could offer so much in such a small space. This book makes you want to travel the neighborhoods of New York.

Berger’s The World in a City equivocates New York City to the world, a home for an endless amount of diversity that is present throughout the world. NYC is home to more ethnicities than most other cities and towns in the United States. Berger delves into various specific neighborhoods in New York City and explains the diversity within each one. Berger points out that even though there are neighborhoods throughout the city that blend a variety of ethnic cultures, there are still some that remain ethnically divided. Berger in his writing introduces the concept of “mosaic theory of ethnic integration,” in which various ethnic groups make up specific neighborhoods, like tiles, together but separated. This concept goes against the popular belief that New York City is a melting pot, in which this variety of different ethnic backgrounds all come together and blend together culturally. Berger states however that this is not completely a myth, some neighborhoods in NYC in present times seems to have blended ethnically. He points out the specific neighborhood Ditmas Park in Brooklyn that seems to support this idea of ethnically blended neighborhoods in New York City. Berger discovered not only that there were many different ethnic backgrounds represented in one area in such close proximity of each other, there were also a great deal of “cross-cultural friendships.” No one demographic holds the majority in this neighborhood, and this is representative of the city as a whole. Berger found out as well that these friendships were not just common among the younger crowd, but also amongst the older generations. I think this is due to the overwhelming welcoming environment that New York City uniquely provides that allows for such diversity and acceptance of differing ethnic backgrounds to flourish so greatly. This is particularly due to the city’s predominant “liberal tradition.” Also Berger points out that this openness can also be attributed to the “post-1965 wave of immigrants” that have altered the dynamics of the city. I automatically referred back to our previous discussion and readings that have mentioned the differences between the new wave of immigrants versus the old and how more and more are settling all over the city as opposed to sticking to specific areas such as the Chinese immigrants did in Chinatown.

Berger’s novel The World in a City discusses a very interesting topic of how the city of New York in itself contains as much diversity of the entire world does. The book is broken up based on different neighborhoods in the City, each telling a different story. The way Berger describes these neighborhoods truly displays the “mosaic theory”, which is the idea that a bunch of different cultures and ethnicities coexist together but do not mix. This is demonstrated in the way he shows how there are neighborhoods specific to one ethnicity that may be close to a neighborhood of a different ethnicity, but they do not mix. Creating a mosiac.

The chapter I found most interesting in Berger’s The World in a City was his chapter of visiting Bedford Park in the Bronx. This is because this is the neighborhood where my high school is located and where I spent a majority of four years of my life. In this chapter he talked about the diversity of the neighborhood, to which I can attribute it very accurate.

           This article fascinated me more than any other article I have read before simply for the fact that it precisely describes where I live. Living on Cortelyou Road for nearly my entire life, I did not realize the amount of diversity in this area until reading the article. It was surprising that Berger explained that the diversity of the neighborhood was due to the mixture of the ethnic groups of surrounding neighborhoods. Thinking about this, it makes sense that people of both groups will spill over into an area which is now known as DitmasPark.

            The “idiosyncratic combination coffeehouse, bookstore, and print shop” known as Vox Pop is an unlikely representation of the diversity in DitmasPark. Even though this place has been closed for the past few years, presumably after Berger finished his article, I can see why Berger mentions it as a meeting place of different kinds of people. Every night had a different theme, varying from local bands to writers to local speakers.

            Berger mentions how there is a juxtaposition of expensive century old Victorian houses with poorer households. There are many economic differences between the inhabitants of DitmasPark, but I think this further supports the amount of diversity that is in the area. Instead of being primarily different groups of people who are all wealthy living together, it is different people with different salaries.

            The area that has been come to be known as DitmasPark has improved drastically in the past 7 or so years. There have been many new shops that have been opened, ranging from organic food stores to clothing shops. The diversity of people walking down the street is as apparent as Berger implies. For example, an Israeli hummus style restaurant operates near a Mexican barber shop which borders an Indian deli shop.

In Joseph Berger’s book, “The World in a City: Travelling the Globe through the Neighborhoods of New New York”, He gives a more personal and ethnographic look into different neighborhoods of New York City. I feel he discusses a lot about change in the immigrant populations such as in Astoria, East Harlem, and Little Neck. There have been so many different ethnicities throughout time and some older immigrant groups feel outnumbered and reminisce about the time when their group dominated. People like to feel at home in a country they immigrated to. I feel that sometimes it can be a positive thing because it signals that their people have become successful and doesn’t need the neighborhood to succeed. But, it also shows less of a congregated presence of a nationality. I found that the most interesting point in the book was how there were mixtures in the neighborhoods such as the interwoven community around Ditmars Park. New York is a diverse place and is composed of people with different stories. Berger, very eloquently, narrates the stories of different immigrant groups by describing their mark on the city from their businesses, food, music, and arts.