Far Rockaway, Queens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Far Rockaway street scene

Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. It describes the easternmost section of the Rockaways, usually the area east of Beach 77th Street, comprising the neighborhoods of Bayswater, Edgemere, Arverne, as well as Far Rockaway proper and Downtown Far Rockaway.

Far Rockaway's character is that of an inner-city, oceanfront district, in some ways having more in common with Asbury Park, New Jersey than with New York City. Far Rockaway is one of the most distant New York neighborhoods from Manhattan, the cultural and financial center of New York City. Formerly populated by Eastern European Jewish and Irish immigrants, it now has a large African American population, though the westernmost portion still remains mostly Irish. Downtown Far Rockaway has a moderately large Central American population. There is also a large Orthodox Jewish population in the easternmost part of Far Rockaway, which borders Inwood and Lawrence, and other areas in the densely-Jewish Five Towns area across the Nassau County border. The area is home to a large and growing number of Haredi Jews with a large network of yeshivas and Jewish communal needs.

Recently, the area is being renewed with new beach houses and waterfront development. There has been a steady attempt at cleaning up the area, but despite its rough appearance, the crime rate is relatively low.

A subway viaduct on a background of Far Rockaway residential buildings

Far Rockaway is one of two New York City neighborhoods whose subway terminus is within realistic walking distance of the city limits (the Wakefield section of the Bronx is the other). This fact led to an interesting scenario in 1985, when New York City banned the sale of spray-paint cans to persons under the age of 18, in an effort to stem the tide of graffiti in the city; teenagers would travel across the city line into either Nassau County (after getting off the subway at the last stop in Far Rockaway) or Westchester County (from the last stop in Wakefield) to purchase spray paint there (Nassau County has since followed suit and prohibited spray-paint sales to minors, but Westchester County has not).

Rockaway Beach is sometimes known as the "Irish Riviera."

1 Transportation
2 Education
3 References
4 Famous residents

[edit] Transportation

The typical structure of NYC subway El in Far Rockaway

Access to Manhattan is available via the A subway service, which has a terminal at Mott Avenue. This subway stretch is completely elevated throughout the Rockaway Peninsula. However, the Rockaway section of the New York City subway system has proved to be unreliable and prone to power outages and inconvenience to its passengers since it is so far from the center of New York City. A July 2006 incident left passengers stuck for hours in the middle of a heat wave, aggravated by the inaccessibility of the tracks at the location of the breakdown^[1]. it should also be noted that the Long Island Power Authority maintains the electrical system for the Rockaways, not Consolidated Edison.

The Far Rockaway station is the terminus for the Long Island Rail Road's Far Rockaway Branch, providing full service in both directions to Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan and Flatbush Avenue / Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Passengers can "change at Jamaica" between the various destinations and other LIRR lines. During rush hour, express service bypasses Jamaica station.

Residents of Far Rockaway thus have two options for access to Manhattan, an uncommon situation that provides a backup for commuters in the event of service disruptions on any one system.

The LIRR Far Rockaway Branch had originally been part of a loop that travelled along the existing route, continuing through the Rockaway Peninsula and heading on a trestle across Jamaica Bay through Queens where it reconnected with other branches. Frequent fires and maintenance problems led the LIRR to abandon the Queens portion of the route, which was acquired by the city to become the IND Rockaway Line, with service provided by the A train^[2].

[edit] Education

The neighborhood, like all of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education. Far Rockaway residents are zoned to several different elementary schools:

Far Rockaway residents are zoned to I.S. 53 Brian Piccolo.

All New York City residents who wish to attend a public high school must apply to high schools. Far Rockaway High School is in Far Rockaway and Beach Channel High School is near Far Rockaway.

[edit] References

[edit] Famous residents

Richard Bey: talk show host
Baruch Samuel Blumberg - This 1942 graduate of Far Rockaway High School won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1976.
Joyce Brothers a leading family psychologist and advice columnist (1928-)
Richard Feynman: physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (1918–1988)
Carl Icahn: businessman
Nancy Lieberman (1958-) Women's basketball pioneer
Phil Ochs: (1940-1976) folk-protest singer (resided in the town for a period during childhood)
Robyn Ochs: (1958-) Bisexual and marriage equality activist
Burton Richter 1948 graduate of Far Rockaway High School won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976.
Michael Scanlan: Catholic priest, author, and Chancellor of the Franciscan University of Steubenville (1931-)
Raymond Smullyan: mathematician (1919- )
Danny Sullivan: race car driver