Is it possible to have a utopian melting pot neighborhood? This is the question I really thought about as I read Berger’s writing about Ditmas Park. I was born and raised in New York City and I had never heard of Ditmas Park before reading this chapter which says something about this melting pot area. If it such a representation of assimilated culture and diversity, why isn’t it known more by New Yorkers?Berger argues that Ditmas Park defies the mosaic theory in Brooklyn which is very prevalent. Even the neighborhood that I am researching, Sheepshead Bay, there is a clear distinction between the Chinese and the Russians with very little interaction. Ditmas Park is a representation of cultures crossing those boundaries and making an effort to get to know the people from other ethnicities in their community. Ditmas Park abides by the social contact theory described by Putnam where people learn to tolerate and accept other people’s cultures by being in contact with them. However, Berger also mentions that even in this ideal place there is tension between the ethnic groups which has resulted in violence. This seems to prove that there really is no such thing as an ideally assimilated  neighborhood. I wonder how long this melting pot neighborhood will actually last. However, I do appreciate that there are places where people from different cultures can come to appreciate each other and not just tolerate each other as it seems is so common in New York, one of the most diverse places in the world.