Everything about East New York Brooklyn totally explained
East New York is a low-income residential neighborhood located in eastern
Brooklyn, a
borough of
New York City. The neighborhood is part of
Brooklyn Community Board 5. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are:
Atlantic Avenue to the north, the
Queens-Brooklyn Border to the east, Linden Boulevard to the south, and Van Sinderen Avenue to the west. Sutter Avenue is the primary thoroughfare through East New York. ZIP codes include 11207, 11208, and 11239. The area is patrolled by the 75th Precinct located at 1000 Sutter Avenue.
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) property in the area is patrolled by P.S.A. 2.
Demographics
East New York has a population around 90,000. Over half the population lives below the poverty line and receives public assistance (AFDC, Home Relief, Supplemental Security Income, and Medicaid). East New York is predominantly
African American and
West Indian including people from
Jamaica,
Guyana,
Trinidad and Tobago,
Puerto Rico,
Barbados,
Haiti, and the
Dominican Republic. The vast majority of households are renter occupied.
Land Use
East New York is dominated by semi-detached multi-unit rowhouses similar to that found
Brownsville and
Soundview. Many of which however have been torn down and replaced by vacant lots or newly constructed subsidized attached multi-unit rowhouses. The area is also home to the East Brooklyn Industrial Park. There are also
public housing developments of various type and a smaller number of tenements in the area. The total land area is one square mile.
East Brooklyn Industrial Park
In 1980, the forty-four block East Brooklyn Industrial Park was established by the New York City Public Development Corporation in the northwest quadrant of East New York, Brooklyn. Bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Sheffield Avenue, Sutter Avenue and Powell Street.
Public Housing Projects
- There are eleven NYCHA developments located in East New York.
- Belmont-Sutter Area; three 3-story buildings.
- Boulevard Houses; eighteen buildings, 6 and 14-stories tall.
- Cypress Hills Houses; fifteen, 7-story buildings.
- East New York City Line; thirty-three, 3-story buildings.
- Fiorentino Plaza; eight, 4-story buildings.
- Linden Houses; nineteen buildings, 8 and 14-stories.
- Long Island Baptist Houses; four, 6-story rehabilitated tenement buildings.
- Louis Heaton Pink Houses; twenty-two, 8-story buildings.
- Unity Plaza (Sites 4, 5A, 6, 7, 11, 12, 27); five, 6-story buildings.
- Unity Plaza (Sites 17,24,25A); three buildings, 6-stories tall.
- Vandalia Avenue; two, 10-story buildings.
Subsections
Highland Park
Highland Park is often included in East New York. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: the Queens-Brooklyn border to the north and east, Atlantic Avenue to the south, and Van Sinderen Avenue to the west. Highland Park includes Highland Park and the
Cypress Hills Cemetery.
Cypress Hills
Cypress Hills is a subsection of Highland Park. It is located south of the Cypress Hills Cemetery.
New Lots
New Lots is often included in East New York. In past centuries, vice versa. The boundaries of New Lots, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Linden Blvd to the north, the Queens-Brooklyn border to the east, Flatlands Avenue to the south, and Louisiana Avenue to the west. New Lots includes multiple low income public housing developments and is largely industrial.
Spring Creek
Spring Creek, the southeastern part of the former Town of New Lots, is often included in East New York. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Flatlands Avenue to the north, the Queens-Brooklyn border to the east, Flatlands Avenue to the south, and Louisiana Avenue to the west. Spring Creek includes the
Starrett City apartment complex, the Gateway Plaza Mall, and is largely undeveloped.
Starrett City
Starrett City is a large subsidized apartment complex. Each building has between 11 and 20 floors. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Flatlands Avenue to the north, Spring Creek to the east, Seaview Avenue to the south, and the Fresh Creek Basin to the west.
History
A chain of hills, geologically a terminal
moraine, separates northwestern
Long Island from
Jamaica and the
Hempstead Plains, the main part of
Long Island's fertile outwash plain. Through one low spot in the chain passed a few 18th Century roads, including the
ferry road or
Jamaica Turnpike from
Brooklyn to
Jamaica, hence it was called "Jamaica Pass". During the
American Revolutionary War an invading
British and
Hessian force marched through this pass in August 1776 to surprise and flank General
George Washington and the
Continental Army, winning the
Battle of Long Island.
In the middle 19th century the road between Brooklyn and Jamaica became the Brooklyn and Jamaica
Plank Road. The
New York and Manhattan Beach Railway and the
Long Island Rail Road were also built through the pass. The
point where they met was called
Broadway Junction. As often happened at 19th century railroad
junctions, a
railway town arose.
Rapid transit lines were built and brought
urban sprawl to this recently rustic northern part of the Town of
New Lots. The road to Brooklyn was renamed Fulton Street, the one to Jamaica,
Jamaica Avenue and the one to
Williamsburg, Broadway. East New York was annexed as the 26th Ward of the rapidly growing
City of Brooklyn, and in the 20th century its name came to be applied to much of the former township.
In 1939, the
Works Progress Administration Guide to New York City (External Link
) wrote:
After
World War II, thousands of
manufacturing jobs left New York City thereby increasing the importance of the remaining jobs to those with limited education and job skills. During this same period, large numbers of Puerto Ricans and African-Americans emigrated to New York City looking for employment. East New York, no longer replete with the jobs the new residents had come for, was thereby faced with a host of new
socioeconomic problems, including widespread
unemployment and
crime.
Ghetto
Walter Thabit, a
city planner for East New York, chronicled in his book,
How East New York Became a Ghetto, the change in population from mostly poor
working class Italians and Jewish residents to poor residents of
Puerto Rican and
African descent. There still remains a smaller Italian American community. Thabit argues that
landlords and
real estate agents played a significant role in the downturn of the area. Puerto Ricans were moving in masses to New York City in the late 1950s, at a time when unemployment rates in Puerto Rico soared to 25 percent, and left Puerto Rico on the brink of poverty. Similarly, many African-Americans were migrating northward in the post-war era.
Once Black and Puerto Rican people moved into the neighborhood, landlords and real estate agents used scare tactics to encourage Jews to leave, citing that the "time to sell is now." At the same time, landlords were taking advantage of new residents by charging them high
down payments and gouging them on
rent payments. They would then
evict tenants at the first possible opportunity, keeping the down payment to themselves.
Thabit also describes how the construction of
public housing projects in East New York further contributed to its decline, noting that many of the developments were built by corrupt managers and contractors. He argues that the
city government largely ignored the community, when it could have helped turn it around.
At least one reviewer has criticized Thabit for providing little support for some of his arguments. The new arrivals to East New York did, in fact, impose a sudden and dramatic increase in crime on its Jewish and Italian residents between 1955 and 1965 in East New York, as well as other New York City neighborhoods, as documented in the 1966 Annual Report of the
Police Department of the City of New York. Not surprisingly, those accustomed to relatively low rates of crime chose to
leave in large numbers.
Renewal
New developments are rising in the area, including the Gateway Center, located on what was once part of a
landfill near
Jamaica Bay. The Gateway
shopping mall in
Starrett City near East New York is
suburban-style, including retailers like
Bed Bath & Beyond,
Staples,
Marshalls,
Circuit City,
Olive Garden,
Red Lobster, Boulder Creek Steakhouse,
Target,
The Home Depot, and
BJ's Wholesale Club. The development was welcomed by many in the neighborhood for the jobs it would provide and is frequented by people from all over Southern Queens and Southern Brooklyn, bringing business into the neighborhood. Unfortunately, that promise has been elusive, as the low-wage, high turnover positions which comprise the majority of jobs there do little to generate higher wealth in the community.
Urban Renewal
After a wave of arson ravaged the low income communities of New York City throughout the 1970s, many of the residential structures in East New York were left seriously damaged or destroyed. The city began to rehabilitate many formally abandoned apartment buildings and designate them low income housing beginning in the late 1970s. Also many subsidized multi unit townhouses and newly constructed apartment buildings have been or are being built on vacant lots across across the neighborhood.
Education
All areas of New York City are within the
New York City Department of Education school district. Unfortunately East New York suffers from very high HS dropout rates. Violent crime is also a big problem in the local schools.
School closed and reorganized
The neighborhood's local
public high school,
Thomas Jefferson High School, shut down in June 2007 due to extremely low academic performance: a graduation rate of 29%, with only 2% entering the school at grade level in
math and 10% entering at grade level in in
reading). The school was known for its
ROTC program. Four new high schools were organized in the old building.
Facts
During the twentieth century, East New York came to be a commuter town predominantly inhabited by Hispanic, African American, and Italian American Brooklynites.
Noteable Natives
Lil Mama
Uncle Murda
Jeru The Damaja
Masta KillaFurther Information
Get more info on 'East New York Brooklyn'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://east_new_york__brooklyn.totallyexplained.com">East New York, Brooklyn Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
