Broad Channel, Queens

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Broad Channel is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It occupies the southern portion of Broad Channel Island, which is the only inhabited island (pop. about 3,000) in Jamaica Bay. The northern (and larger) portion of the island is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and is managed as part of the only wildlife refuge in the National Park System. The waters and marsh islands of the refuge surround the rest of the community.

Lying between Howard Beach and the Rockaway Peninsula, it is connected to those communities by bridges at either end of the island — The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge and the Joseph P. Addabbo Memorial Bridge — which carry vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Cross Bay Boulevard is the only through road. The area consists of artificial canals separating dead end residential blocks.

The IND Rockaway Line of the New York City Subway (A S) serves the Broad Channel station.

At one time, the streets of Broad Channel were numbered along the same continuum found in the rest of Queens besides the Rockaways (with the numbers of "Streets" increasing from west to east, the numbers of "Avenues" increasing from north to south, etc.). Today, however, Broad Channel streets have their own numbering format, independent of that used elsewhere in the borough. This change still causes occasional confusion.

1 Education
2 Racial incidents
- 2.1 1998 Labor Day Parade
- 2.2 2006 Halloween
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Education

Like all areas of New York City, Broad Channel is a part of the New York City Department of Education.

Elementary school students are zoned to P.S 047 Chris Galas, while middle school students are zoned to M.S. 180 Gerald R. Dever Middle School.

[edit] Racial incidents

[edit] 1998 Labor Day Parade

In 1998, Broad Channel's Labor Day parade received extensive negative media attention after video of a float that parodied the racially-motivated dragging death of an African American man was made public. The float carried white men wearing blackface and Afro wigs, and was entitled "Black to the Future - Broad Channel in 2098." Three white participants on the float, two city firefighters and a city police officer, were later fired from their jobs as a result of the parade incident^[1]. They sued the city for wrongful termination, but lost at the federal appellate level (See Locurto v. Giuliani, 447 F.3d 159 (2d Cir. 2006).)^[2].

[edit] 2006 Halloween

On Halloween night, 2006, three plainclothes police officers, one of them an African American, were egged by an unruly crowd after they responded to reports of vandalism in the neighborhood. When the officers tried to question onlookers about who threw the eggs, a teenager began assaulting the black officer and the crowd began shouting racial slurs. About 20 other police officers were called in as back-up to calm the riot. Four people were arrested and can face 1-year jail sentences if convicted^[3]. The mother of one of the suspects, who is also another of the suspect's sister, insisted that race had nothing to do with the melee. Nevertheless, the matter remains under investigation.^[4].