Step out of the Beverley Road stop off the Q line and you will probably wonder whether you're in Brooklyn or the Virginia suburbs. With nary a graffitied hydrant or brownstone stoop in sight, Ditmas Park is comprised of towering elms and ramshackle Victorian houses with the kind of porch swings that will make you want to lie on them for hours with a sweating pitcher of mint julep and an old, buttery-paged paperback. Although quaintly residential, the neighborhood possesses none of the Wonder Bread homogeneity that New Yorkers so fear. On a warm spring day, a Hasidic kid waited for his mother while holding a tangerine-frosted cake, cabbies from Bangalore shuffled cards, and post-grad hipsters lugged home a rickety bookshelf. To seek the familiar territory of 99-cent stores and KFC derivative chains ("Kantacky" services this nabe) all you need to do is walk a block or two down to Cortelyou Road.

Boundaries: Currently drawn at Church Avenue to the north, Avenue H to the south, Bedford Avenue to the east, and Coney Island Avenue to the west.