East New York, Brooklyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[1] 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.
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[edit] 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.[2]
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Public Housing Projects
- There are eleven NYCHA developments located in East New York.[3]
- 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.
[edit] Subsections
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 [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. 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.[4] 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[5] 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.[6]
[edit] Renewal
New developments are rising in the area, including the Gateway Center[7], 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.
[edit] 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[citation needed] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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. [8]
[edit] Facts
- During the twentieth century, East New York came to be a commuter town predominantly inhabited by Hispanic, African American, and Italian American Brooklynites.
[edit] Noteable Natives
- Lil Mama
- Uncle Murda
- Jeru The Damaja
- Masta Killa
- Fat boy chuck
- Jimmy Smitts
[edit] References
- ^ Brooklyn Community Boards, New York City. Accessed April 2, 2008.
- ^ Brooklyn Community District 5
- ^ NYCHA locations in East New York
- ^ 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
- East New York Farms
