East New York, Brooklyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
East New York is a neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is bounded on the north by Cemetery of the Evergreens, on the west by Bedford-Stuyvesant, on the east by City Line, and on the south by New Lots. It is in the middle of Brooklyn Community Board 5. The neighborhood is home to many immigrant families. During the twentieth century, East New York came to be a commuter town predominantly inhabited by Hispanic, African American, and Italian American Brooklynites.
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[edit] Brief overview
[edit] Early 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 19th Century the road to Brooklyn was renamed Fulton Street, and the one to Williamsburgh was renamed Broadway. The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway and the Long Island Rail Road were built through the pass. The point where they met was called Broadway Junction. As often happened at 19th Century railroad junctions, a settlement arose. Rapid transit lines were built and brought urban sprawl to this recently rustic northern part of the Town of New Lots. East New York became the 26th Ward of the rapidly growing City of Brooklyn.
In 1939, the WPA Guide to New York City [1] wrote:
“ The development of East New York began in 1835 through the enterprise of John R. Pitkin, a wealthy Connecticut merchant who visualized it as a great city rivaling New York. The Panic of 1837 smashed his hopes. After 1853, a modest development began. By the 1930s, the residents were chiefly Italians, Jewish, Germans, and Russians who moved in from Brownsville, Bushwick, and other near-by crowded localities. Many of the Slavic families continue to burn candles before icons, and observe religious fetes according to the old calendar... ”
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.
[edit] 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. However, 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.[1] 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[2] 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.[3]
[edit] Rebirth
Since 1993, the crime rate in the East New York (75th Precinct) has plummeted. [2] In 2006, for example, there were 28 homicides compared to 126 in 1993. Public safety has been followed by increases in real estate values and residential construction catering to a diverse array of working- and middle-class New Yorkers. New developments are rising in the area, including the Gateway Center[4], 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.
However, the neighborhood's local high school, Thomas Jefferson High School is being shut down due to extremely low academic performance with a graduation rate of 29%, and only 2% entering the school at grade level in math (and 10% in reading). The school was known for its ROTC program.[5]
Notwithstanding recent improvements, the vestiges of decades of crime, drugs, and neglect mean that unemployment is high, public schools are substandard, and crime rates remains high compared to more affluent neighborhoods.
[edit] References
- ^ Look Back in Anger: An urban scholar lets fly., New York Press, Volume 16, Issue 34
- ^ The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York
- ^ The Tipping Point, article copied from The New Yorker, June 3, 1996
- ^ Commercial Real Estate; A Mall Planned for East New York Is 88% Leased, The New York Times, May 16, 2001
- ^ H.S. 435 Thomas Jefferson High School profile, accessed December 4, 2006
[edit] External links
- Community Gazettes - District 42 from the Gotham Gazette
- NYC Subway Yards: East New York Yard
- East New York Gardeners' Association
- The ENY Projects Web Hangout
- The East New York Project
