Rockaway Park is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area is on the Rockaway Peninsula, nestled between Jamaica Bay to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. The neighborhood of Rockaway Beach lies on its eastern border while the community of Belle Harbor is situated on its western side. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14.[1]
Rockaway Park has been called the "Irish Riviera".[2] The United States Census, 2000 showed that 36.0% of the population were of Irish ancestry in the ZCTA for ZIP Code 11694.[3] The Saint Patrick's Day parade in Rockaway is the second-largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City, second only to New York City's Saint Patrick's Day Parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.[4]
Manhattan is accessible to commuters via the A train at the Rockaway Park–Beach 116th Street station, the terminus of the Rockaway Park Shuttle.
The area is served by bus routes operated by the MTA Bus Company. The Q22 bus runs the length of the Rockaway Peninsula. The Q21 and the Q53 run from Beach 116th Street, over the Cross Bay Bridge via Cross Bay Boulevard. The Q21 terminates at the Queens Center mall in Elmhurst, and the Q53 in Woodside. The Q35 runs from Beach 116th Street to the Brooklyn College–Flatbush Avenue station in Brooklyn via the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Flatbush Avenue. It goes through Belle Harbor, Neponsit, and Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway Peninsula.